UNDERSTANDING MENTAL ILLNESS

This may be of assistance as you journey through my blog…

DEPRESSION

Problems and misfortunes are a part of life. Everyone experiences unhappiness, and many people may become depressed temporarily when things don’t go as they would like. Experiences of failure commonly result in temporary feelings of worthlessness and self-blame, while personal losses cause feelings of sadness, disappointment and emptiness. Such feelings are normal, and they usually pass after a short time. This is not the case with depressive illness.What are the signs of depressive illness? 

Fears and Facts About Antidepressants

Along with counseling, antidepressants are a common part of treatment for depression. And they are usually effective. Six out of 10 people treated with antidepressants feel better with the first one they try. If the first antidepressant medication doesn’t help, the second or third often will. Most people eventually find one that works for them. Yet many people who could benefit from an antidepressant never try one, often because of fears and misconceptions about them, experts say.

Here are eight common fears about antidepressants, as well as facts that can help you decide if an antidepressant might be right for you.

Fear: Antidepressants make you forget your problems rather than deal with them.

Fact: Antidepressants can’t make you forget your problems, but they may make it easier for you to deal with them. Being depressed can distort your perception of your problems and sap you of the energy to address difficult issues. Many therapists report that when their patients take antidepressants, it helps them make more progress in counseling.

Fear: Antidepressants change your personality or turn you into a zombie.

Fact: When administered correctly, antidepressants will not change your personality. They will help you feel like yourself again and return to your previous level of functioning. (If a person who isn’t depressed takes antidepressants, they do not improve that person’s mood or functioning.) Rarely, people experience apathy or loss of emotions while on certain antidepressants. When this happens, switching to a different antidepressant may help.

Fear: Taking an antidepressant will make me gain weight.

Fact: Like all drugs, antidepressants have side effects, and weight gain can be a common one of many of them. Some antidepressants may be more likely than others to cause weight gain; others may actually cause you to lose some weight. If this is a concern, talk with your doctor.

STIGMA: Definition

Source:  YourDictionary.com

stigma (stig′mə)

noun pl. stigmas -·mas, stigmata stig·ma′ta (stig′mə tə; stig mät′ə, -mat′ə)

1. something that detracts from the character or reputation of a person, group, etc.; mark of disgrace or reproach
2. a mark, sign, etc. indicating that something is not considered normal or standard

Living with a mental illness is trying enough, yet we must also contend with mental illness stigma

Bipolar Disorder: Depression Symptoms

The dramatic mood swings of bipolar disorder do not follow a set pattern. Depression does not always follow mania. A person may experience the same mood state several times — for weeks, months, even years at a time before experiencing a change in mood. Also, the severity of mood phases can differ from person to person.

The depressive periods can be equally intense. Sadness and anxiety affect every aspect of life — thoughts, feelings, sleeping, eating, physical health, relationships, ability to function at work. If depression is not treated, it only grows worse. There may seem to be no way out of this overwhelming mood.

These depressive feelings have been described this way:

Depression: I doubt completely my ability to do anything well. It seems as though my mind has slowed down and burned out to the point of being virtually useless… . [I am] haunt[ed] … with the total, the desperate hopelessness of it all. Others say, “It’s only temporary, it will pass, you will get over it,” but, of course, they haven’t any idea of how I feel, although they are certain they do. If I can’t feel, move, think, or care, then what on earth is the point?

A depressive episode involves five or more of these symptoms most of the day — nearly every day — for two weeks or longer:

Symptoms of depression:

• Sad, anxious, irritability
• Loss of energy
• Feelings of guilt, hopelessness, or worthlessness
• Loss of interest or enjoyment from things that were once pleasurable
• Difficulty concentrating
• Uncontrollable crying
• Difficulty making decisions
• Irritability
• Increased need for sleep
• Insomnia
• Change in appetite causing weight loss or gain
• Thoughts of death or suicide
• Attempting suicide

When a person with psychosis is in a depressive stage, there may be delusions of guilt or worthlessness — perhaps there is an inaccurate belief of being ruined and penniless, or having committed a terrible crime.

If untreated, depressive episodes tend to come closer together and are harder to treat. They may switch into mania. But treatment can prevent this from happening. With medication and therapy, its possible to live normally — to have a happy, productive life.

Reviewed by the doctors at The Cleveland Clinic Department of Psychiatry and Psychology.

Online source:  www.WebMD.com

Reviewed by Brunilda Nazario, MD on August 27, 2008

http://www.webmd.com/bipolar-disorder/guide/depression-symptoms

©2005-2008 WebMD, LLC. All rights reserved

The Psychotherapy Mess

I thought I would re-post this since that I am seeing a different therapist after all of these years.  Therapy NOW is not dealing with the horrid sexual abuse issues, however, we have discussed what occurred in the ’90’s.  My therapist now always leaves me with   something to think about or work on.  This is much different than the psychodynamic therapy where I left the office after the session and that was that.  I still stand by my opinion and experience that I should never have sought therapy for sexual abuse issues.

~~~~

I concur that a number of people have been ‘saved’ by psychotherapy, and that is wonderful, however, when is the finale time for therapy.  For me was 5 years a little absurd?  Five years of non-stop, re-living the long-ago hurts and dreadful memories.  My therapist should have taken the ‘bull by the horns’, so to speak and said enough is enough long before this time.

I met Betty in 1994.   

Months of unspeakable dreams and flashbacks were consuming my life.  Crying spells were occurring at home, work, at the mall, while driving – I honestly thought I was losing it. 

An ad in our weekly newspaper seeking volunteers to participate in a study, asking if “Are you experiencing flashbacks, troubling dreams or nightmares?”  HOWEVER, ANSWERING THIS AD WAS TO BE THE BIGGEST MISTAKE OF MY ENTIRE LIFE.  Hindsight, as they say, is in fact ‘20/20’.

I knew nothing of psychotherapy, or any therapy for that matter.  I explained a few concerns I had with these flashbacks and Betty thought individual therapy would be best suited.  She said it was called Psychodynamic psychotherapy.

As weeks progressed and months rolled on, I was stepping one foot deeper into choppy waters.  I was dealing with a childhood sexual abuse issue, and in retrospect wished I had let ‘sleeping dogs lie’.  These sessions were leaving me exhausted, causing horrid crying outbursts and next a giant spiral into a deep, deep depression.

The depression became so severe that it was debilitating and incapacitating, enough that hospitalization was ordered.  This was to start the ball rolling onto a new life; a black, muddy life spent the better part in hospitals, and ironic as it was, I still remained with Betty and therapy.  Betty either realized it but was too proud to admit that she was over her head with my case of abuse.

I consider after the first few months of therapy, when hospitalization deemed necessary, the pdoc and her ought to have consulted and determined that perhaps therapy wasn’t the best route to take.  Therapy was not therapeutic – it began a path – destroying everything in my life.  I was obsessed with suicidal thinking daily.  Every session brought upon vicious crying outbursts, and I would fill up with tears everywhere I went, or so it seemed – in the car/grocery store/job/home/wherever.  Sessions were 2X per week and presume I was searching for something but didn’t know what.  Yes, let sleeping dogs lie.  Couldn’t they see this?

Betty, visiting me in the hospital, was head-scratching and dumb on her part.  Visualize visiting your patient in a hospital room whilst she is sobbing her brains out, irrepressible, begging to die?  Then discharged, continues therapy, months pass and she is re-admitted, once again suffering from severe depression.  I felt a hamster on one of those wheels.  Zilch was ever suggested until approaching the five year mark that it best therapy should end.  I was so unwell and confused; I didn’t know which end was up.

I appreciate that no one, particularly a therapist, knows the outcome of a situation.  No one has a crystal ball, but a trained therapist should see in which course and at what speed a car is driving.  Is it literally heading towards a brick wall?  Will it be crashing?  Do I have this patient’s best interests at heart?  Am I causing destruction?

I think the downfall with Betty’s therapy was, she didn’t show me better ways to cope and solve problems, or set realistic goals. When my life was falling apart so terribly, and hospitalizations were so frequent, she should have put a ‘cease and desist’ order on my file.  We were hitting a brick wall, and I was becoming more ill as the months and years passed.  Therapy at this point was redundant. Regaining a sense of happiness and control in my life was too far in the future.

For me, and I recollect on this today, I feel psychotherapy was a grave mistake.  I’ve deliberated over and over, and frankly, what was the point of dredging up deep-rooted, hurtful wounds.  The past really is the past – you can’t change it.  Why must we get ‘in touch’ with ourselves’?  I feel sometimes we invite trouble.  Memories still bring about fright and make me weep, but they fade away swiftly now.

There are excellent therapists in practice; some who have saved peoples ‘lives’, but there are some like Betty who should have backed off, and realized that this therapy was serving no benefit, and claiming a life – my life.

Thanks to Betty and Dr. L. I almost lost my house/lost my career/hospitalized 33 times/77 ECT’s/attempted suicide 4 times/lived in the bottom of a black pit for too, too long.  This could have been avoided if psychotherapy had been handled in the proper manner or not at all.  Long term therapy, in my opinion, is not the way to go.  Once again, my opinion only.  I believe that people sometimes become ‘attached’ to their therapists, like I did, depending on them to lead them.

But for now, I am not holding on to this anger.  Where would it get me?  I have a career now and a good life.  Although I am struggling with it at the moment with work issues, I am still working and not sitting there at home in a black haze.  They put me in a situation that I had to dig myself out of, but I vowed that neither they, nor my abuser (who caused this whole thing) were ever going to win. 

I am not a big success story, and I don’t want congrats, but I do want people to know that therapy is not always the way out of their ‘demons’ and continuing is detrimental in some cases.  Look at yourself, and ask yourself – is this the route to go and should I stick with this?  If it is yes – well then…you make the choice.

    

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DISSOCIATIVE DISORDERS

Dissociative disorders are so-called because they are marked by a dissociation from or interruption of a person’s fundamental aspects of waking consciousness (such as one’s personal identity, one’s personal history, etc.). Dissociative disorders come in many forms, the most famous of which is dissociative identity disorder (formerly known as multiple personality disorder). All of the dissociative disorders are thought to stem from trauma experienced by the individual with this disorder. The dissociative aspect is thought to be a coping mechanism — the person literally dissociates himself from a situation or experience too traumatic to integrate with his conscious self. Symptoms of these disorders, or even one or more of the disorders themselves, are also seen in a number of other mental illnesses, including post-traumatic stress disorder, panic disorder, and obsessive compulsive disorder.

Dissociative amnesia: This disorder is characterized by a blocking out of critical personal information, usually of a traumatic or stressful nature. Dissociative amnesia, unlike other types of amnesia, does not result from other medical trauma (e.g. a blow to the head).

Dissociative amnesia has several subtypes:

Localized amnesia is present in an individual who has no memory of specific events that took place, usually traumatic. The loss of memory is localized with a specific window of time. For example, a survivor of a car wreck who has no memory of the experience until two days later is experiencing localized amnesia.

Selective amnesia happens when a person can recall only small parts of events that took place in a defined period of time. For example, an abuse victim may recall only some parts of the series of events around the abuse.

Generalized amnesia is diagnosed when a person’s amnesia encompasses his or her entire life.

Systematized amnesia is characterized by a loss of memory for a specific category of information. A person with this disorder might, for example, be missing all memories about one specific family member.

Narcissistic Personality Disorder

Narcissistic personality disorder is a serious emotional disturbance characterized by a grandiose, or extremely exaggerated, sense of self-importance. Individuals with this disorder lack empathy for other people but need constant admiration from them.

Narcissistic personality disorder is one of several types of personality disorders, all of which reflect an inability in the affected person to accept the demands and limitations of the world. These disorders may regularly interfere with a person’s behavior and interactions with family, friends or co-workers. Among the other personality disorders are paranoid personality disorder, antisocial personality disorder, borderline personality disorder and obsessive-compulsive personality disorder.

Although people with narcissistic personality disorder have an exaggerated image of their own importance, they have vulnerable self-esteems and often don’t like themselves. Therefore, they seek attention that confirms their grandiosity. When feedback doesn’t validate their exaggerated image, they tend to lash out or withdraw.

Narcissistic personality disorder, which is less common than other personality disorders, is estimated to affect less than 1 percent of the general population. Some studies indicate that it’s more common among men. The primary treatment is psychotherapy.

http://www.mayoclinic.com/health/narcissistic-personality-disorder/DS00652

Failed anti-depressant drug could be ‘women’s Viagra’

WASHINGTON (AFP) – November 17, 2009 – A drug that failed to fight the blues could be the female answer to the little blue pill Viagra, the lead North American investigator analysing tests of the drug said Tuesday.

Women who took the drug flibanserin when it was being tested as an anti-depressant said it didn’t help them beat the glums, but did give them “an increase in libido that they liked,” John Thorp, one of the investigators analyzing data from three clinical trials of the drug, told AFP.

Lack of desire is the most common sexual problem in women aged 30 to 60, just as erectile dysfunction, for which Viagra is one of a choice of treatments, is the most common sexual disorder among men in the same age bracket, Thorp said.

“Men remain interested but can’t act or perform properly and women lose interest,” said Thorp.

“So where Viagra and other erectile dysfunction medications work in the blood supply, flibanserin works in the brain,” he said.

In the light of the women’s reactions to flibanserin, the German drug company that had first tested the drug as a treatment for depression, Boehringer Ingelheim, several years ago began exploring the possibilities of it being the active ingredient in the female answer to Viagra.

Clinical trials were held in Canada, Europe and the United States to test the drug’s efficacy in raising the level of sexual desire in women.

Nearly 2,000 pre-menopausal women were given flibanserin or a placebo for 24 weeks and asked to report back to researchers or make diary entries on six variables, including the number of satisfactory sexual encounters they had and their level of sexual desire.

The studies found that 100 milligrams a day of flibanserin resulted in “significant improvements” in the two variables.

Flibanserin is currently an investigational drug and is only available to women taking part in clinical trials.

http://health.yahoo.com/news/afp/healthwomensexdrugs_20091117173751.html

Depression as Deadly as Smoking?

Depression as Deadly as Smoking, Study Finds

ScienceDaily (Nov. 17, 2009) — A study by researchers at the University of Bergen, Norway, and the Institute of Psychiatry (IoP) at King’s College London has found that depression is as much of a risk factor for mortality as smoking.

Utilising a unique link between a survey of over 60,000 people and a comprehensive mortality database, the researchers found that over the four years following the survey, the mortality risk was increased to a similar extent in people who were depressed as in people who were smokers.

Dr Robert Stewart, who led the research team at the IoP, explains the possible reasons that may underlie these surprising findings: ‘Unlike smoking, we don’t know how causal the association with depression is but it does suggest that more attention should be paid to this link because the association persisted after adjusting for many other factors.’

The study also shows that patients with depression face an overall increased risk of mortality, while a combination of depression and anxiety in patients lowers mortality compared with depression alone. Dr Stewart explains: ‘One of the main messages from this research is that ‘a little anxiety may be good for you’.

‘It appears that we’re talking about two risk groups here. People with very high levels of anxiety symptoms may be naturally more vulnerable due to stress, for example through the effects stress has on cardiovascular outcomes. On the other hand, people who score very low on anxiety measures, i.e. those who deny any symptoms at all, may be people who also tend not to seek help for physical conditions, or they may be people who tend to take risks. This would explain the higher mortality.’

In terms of the relationship between mortality and anxiety with depression as a risk factor, the research suggests that help-seeking behaviour may explain the pattern of outcomes. People with depression may not seek help or may fail to receive help when they do seek it, whereas the opposite may be true for people with anxiety.

Dr Stewart comments: ‘It would certainly not surprise me at all to find that doctors are less likely to investigate physical symptoms in people with depression because they think that depression is the explanation, but may be more likely to investigate if someone is anxious because they think it will reassure them. These are conjectures but they would fit with the data.’

The researchers point out that the results should be considered in conjunction with other evidence suggesting a variety of adverse physical health outcomes and poor health associated with mental disorders such as depression and psychotic disorders.

In light of the findings, Dr Stewart makes suggestions on the focus of future developments in the treatment of depression and anxiety: ‘The physical health of people with current or previous mental disorder needs a lot more attention than it gets at the moment.

‘This applies to primary care, secondary mental health care and general hospital care in the sense that there should be more active screening for physical disorders and risk factors, such as blood pressure, cholesterol, adverse diet, smoking, lack of exercise, in people with mental disorders. This should be done in addition to more active treatment of disorders when present, and more effective general health promotion.’

Adapted from materials provided by King’s College London, via EurekAlert!, a service of AAAS.

http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2009/11/091117094933.htm

Miscarriage Brings Silent Anguish

 

 

MayoClinic.com

By Mary Murry, R.N., C.N.M.

Almost 25 percent of all pregnancies are lost to miscarriage, for many reasons. I’m not going to go through them here. What I want to talk about is what happens to those 25 out of 100 women who lose their baby.

When we discover that we are pregnant, we don’t think of zygotes, embryos or fetuses. We think of babies. We think of sons and daughters. We start planning the minute we know we’re pregnant. So when a woman miscarries she loses a baby. It doesn’t matter if she is 7 weeks or 15 weeks.

The feeling of loss is real and it is painful. Some women feel guilty. If they hadn’t done this or that the baby wouldn’t have died. Maybe they weren’t real excited when they first found out, but became accustomed and more positive. She can feel that it is punishment for her initial negative feeling. We need to let go of that guilt.

Whether or not the pregnancy is going to make it is determined in many ways the minute the sperm and egg unite. There is little a woman can do to cause a miscarriage. It happens because it was meant to. That doesn’t make the pain any less.

People will often say things that are hurtful without meaning to. “Thank goodness you weren’t further along.” “You’re young, you can have another.” Things to that effect. Then there are the people who won’t talk to you about it because they don’t know what to say. You know women who are due when you would be due. You see baby clothes you would have bought. Your due date comes and you cry through the whole day, in private, in silence.

It is only after you have a miscarriage that you find out how many other women have suffered a miscarriage. We just don’t talk about it with anyone. This is when the silence can end. These women know your sorrow, your loss. Talk to women who know your sorrow and loss, and share your feelings. You can do it here, or on other sites just for women who have lost babies. You will find a community of women who understand.

http://www.mayoclinic.com/health/miscarriage/PR00164

Chocolate Soothes the Stressed-Out Soul

THURSDAY, Nov. 12 (HealthDay News) — Feeling stressed? A dose of dark chocolate could cheer you right up by lowering your stress hormone levels, a new study suggests.

Swiss researchers, who report their findings in the online issue of the Journal of Proteome Research, tracked volunteers who said they were highly stressed.

 ”The study provides strong evidence that a daily consumption of 40 grams [1.4 ounces] during a period of two weeks is sufficient to modify the metabolism of healthy human volunteers,” wrote the researchers, from the Nestle Research Center in Lausanne, Switzerland. The chocolate also appeared to help correct other imbalances in the body that are related to stress.

 But won’t chocolate make people gain weight? That’s certainly possible, but the scientists pointed out that dark chocolate contains antioxidants, which are beneficial to health, and other substances that appear to reduce the risk of heart disease and other conditions.

 But until now, the researchers wrote, not much has been known about how chocolate affects stress.

http://health.yahoo.com/news/healthday/chocolatesoothesthestressedoutsoul.html

My 2 Cents:  Now they come up with this chocolate theory for stress, and I can’t even take advantage of it!  As a longtime migraine sufferer, one chocolate bar could equal a 3 day migraine.  I’ll live with the stress; it’s easier to live with.

Stroke Puts Stress on Spousal Relationship

Patient/caregiver roles often take the place of a partnership, researchers say

TUESDAY, Nov. 10 (HealthDay News) — Although many wedding vows include the phrase “in sickness and in health,” a stroke can put that promise to the test by causing major relationship problems for married couples, according to British researchers.

The University of Ulster study included 16 married stroke survivors (nine males, seven females), aged 33 to 78. The time since their stroke ranged from two months to four years, with an average of 18 months.

The researchers found that the stroke significantly affected sexual activity, led to blurred relationship roles, and feelings such as anger and frustration were confounded by persistent fatigue and lack of independence.

Among the findings:

• All but one of the stroke survivors experienced a reduction or total loss of sexual desire. Some believed this was due to the effects of medication or fear of another stroke.
• Most of the females lost interest in their appearance, regardless of age.
• All the survivors said they’d changed since their stroke. Many said they experienced irritability, anger, agitation and intolerance due to their frustration at not being able to perform daily activities. In some cases, over-protective spouses increased feelings of anger and frustration.
• Many survivors were reluctant to resume social activities with their spouses because of fatigue, anxiety and swallowing problems.
• Fatigue was often associated with reduced independence and guilt because survivors didn’t know how they’d feel from day to day and couldn’t plan ahead.

“All the participants perceived a stroke as a life-changing event. They faced a continuous daily struggle to achieve some sense of normality and that required huge amounts of physical and mental effort,” study co-author Assumpta Ryan, of the University of Ulster’s Nursing Research Institute, said in a university news release.

The study was published online in the Journal of Clinical Nursing.

http://www.nlm.nih.gov/medlineplus/news/fullstory_91677.html

Smoking tied to suicide risk in bipolar disorder

NEW YORK (Reuters Health) – November 11, 2009 – People with bipolar disorder who smoke appear to have a heightened risk of suicidal behavior — possibly because they are generally prone to impulsive acts, a new study suggests.

Bipolar disorder, also known as manic depression, is marked by dramatic swings in mood — ranging from episodes of debilitating depression to periods of euphoric recklessness. Previous studies have found that bipolar patients who smoke have a higher suicide risk than their non-smoking counterparts, but the reasons have not been clear.

The new findings suggest that high levels of impulsivity — one of the symptoms of bipolar disorder — may draw some patients to both smoking and suicidal behavior.

Dr. Michael J. Ostacher and colleagues at Massachusetts General Hospital in Boston found that among 116 bipolar patients they followed, current smokers generally scored higher on a standard measure of suicidal thoughts and behaviors.

Moreover, smokers were more likely to make a suicide attempt over the next nine months, the researchers report in the journal Bipolar Disorders.

Five of the 31 smokers in the study (16 percent) attempted suicide during the study period. By comparison, only 3 of 85 non-smokers (3.5 percent) attempted suicide during the study.

The researchers also used a standard questionnaire to gauge patients’ impulsiveness — such as how often they speak or act without thinking and how well they plan for the future.

When those scores were factored in, the link between smoking and suicidal behavior diminished. The implication, according to Ostacher’s team, is that high levels of impulsivity partly explain why smokers were at greater risk.

From a practical standpoint, the researchers write, the findings add more evidence that smoking can be considered a “clinical marker” of higher suicide risk in bipolar patients.

Smoking, in and of itself, may not be a strong predictor of patients’ suicide odds, but doctors can still consider it as part of a comprehensive patient assessment, the researchers suggest.

It is unknown, they note, whether helping bipolar patients quit smoking would have any effect on their risk of suicidal behavior.

http://www.nlm.nih.gov/medlineplus/news/fullstory_91755.html

Is This As Good As Life Gets?

I used to ask myself, practically every day during my illness; is this it?  What if I never get better?  Does it get any better?

Sounds pessimistic, but my history of recurring hospital admissions and medications that were ineffective, coupled with suicide attempts and unrelenting depression, didn’t illustrate a positive picture.  At separate hospital admissions, I was frequently greeted by the same bed, same patients and same nurses who knew precisely my medications.  Nothing changing; asking “is this as good as it gets?”

It’s frightening, and no one should ever have to endure this type of life.  Depression, for me, proved a nasty existence.  After spending months in hospital, then at last discharged, I would forever feel that I was one footstep away from hospital waters every waking day.  Always just a step away from hell; existing only on the surface.

And now I feel somewhat selfish.  I do have a new life now; but a life filled with stress and I feel overwhelmed at times.  Yes indeed, I have broken free from the jaws of depression to a degree, but now have taken on the next chapter after the illness.  Although I am not consumed with depression and suicidal pain currently, I now must mesh with people and mental illness stigma.  For me, hospitalization was a sort of incarcerated life; that of daily rituals of set meal times and social activities, lights out at 11:30 pm, and scheduled visits from family (friends were long gone).   Then finally discharge, after serving my “time”, which meant adjusting to home life all over again.

Depression tears your life into pieces of paper.  At different stages I had to piece them back together again.  It’s a very difficult life we live with mental illness, and all of us should be congratulated with what we have accomplished.  But to answer the question:  Does it get better?  Yes, it does, but (my opinion only) it’s not without sweat on the brow and a constant daily struggle.

Written by: Me

Radical Medicine, Radical Treatment

Treatment for mental illness took a turn in the mid 1940’s with ECT (electroconvulsive therapy) and insulin shock therapy and the use of frontal lobotomy. In modern times, insulin shock therapy and lobotomies are viewed as being almost as barbaric as the Bedlam “treatments”. The effect of a lobotomy on an overly excitable patient often allowed them to be discharged to their homes, which was seen by administrators (and often guardians) as a preferable solution than institutionalization.

Lobotomies were performed in great numbers from the 1930s to the 1950s.

A new Mental Disorders and Treatment Ordinance were introduced in 1935. The term ‘lunatic’ was changed to ‘person of unsound mind’. Doctors were given the power to admit patients and voluntary treatment was allowed.

Restraining devices used in hospitals in the 1800’s and early 1900’s included the padded helmet which was attached to the patient’s head to keep him from banging it against sharp or hard objects, the hand mitten which looked like a boxing glove and prevented patients from gouging and scratching, the straight jacket which restrained the patient’s arms, and cold wet packs which were used by wrapping the patient in ice cold, wet sheets. In addition, patients having seizures were given hydrotherapy, in which they were restrained in bath tubs, covered up to their necks with canvas and bathed with warm water. Electroshock, insulin shock and lobotomies were used only in rare uncontrollable cases.

Emotions Increase Or Decrease Pain, Say Researchers

ScienceDaily (Nov. 11, 2009) — Getting a flu shot this fall? Canadians scientists have found that focusing on a pretty image could alleviate the sting of that vaccine. According to a new Université de Montréal study, published in the latest edition of the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS), negative and positive emotions have a direct impact on pain.

“Emotions — or mood — can alter how we react to pain since they’re interlinked,” says lead author Mathieu Roy, who completed the study as a Université de Montréal PhD student and is now a post-doctoral fellow at Columbia University. “Our tests revealed when pain is perceived by our brain and how that pain can be amplified when combined with negative emotions.”

As part of the study, 13 subjects were recruited to undergo small yet painful electric shocks, which caused knee-jerk reactions controlled by the spine that could be measured. During the fMRI process, subjects were shown a succession of images that were either pleasant (i.e. summer water-skiing), unpleasant (i.e. a vicious bear) or neutral (i.e. a book). Brain reaction was simultaneously measured in participants through functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI).

The fMRI readings allowed the scientists to divide emotion-related brain activity from pain-related reactions. “We found that seeing unpleasant pictures elicited stronger pain in subjects getting shocks than looking at pleasant pictures,” says Dr. Roy.

The discovery provides scientific evidence that pain is governed by mood and builds on Dr. Roy’s previous studies that showed how pleasant music could decrease aches. “Our findings show that non-pharmaceutical interventions — mood enhancers such as photography or music — could be used in the healthcare to help alleviate pain. These interventions would be inexpensive and adaptable to several fields,” he stresses.

The study was authored by Mathieu Roy, Piché, Mathieu, Chen, Jen-I, Isabelle Peretz and Pierre Rainville of the Université de Montréal.

Support was provided by the Fonds de recherche en santé du Québec, the Natural Science and Engineering Research Council of Canada and the Canadian Institutes of Health Research.

http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2009/11/091110105357.htm

Women, Depression & Stroke

Women More Likely Than Men To Suffer Depression After Stroke

ScienceDaily (Nov. 11, 2009) — Depression occurs in as many as one-third of patients after a stroke, and women are at somewhat higher risk, according to a large new review of studies. Post-stroke depression is associated with greater disability, reduced quality of life and an increased risk of death.

The systematic review appears in the November-December issue of the journal Psychosomatics.

Brittany Poynter, M.D., and colleagues from the University of Toronto looked at 56 studies on stroke and depression comprising more than 75,000 people, about 12,000 of them women. The time between the stroke and onset of depression ranged from less than two weeks to 15 years.

In women, rates of post-stroke depression ranged from about 6 percent to 78 percent, while in men depression rates ranged from 4.7 percent to about 65 percent.

These findings are important, Poynter said, because women who have had a stroke generally do more poorly than men. They tend to have higher rates of disability and longer hospitalization times. The authors say this might be due in part to higher rates of depression. In addition, “women may have less access to care,” Poynter said.

“People think of stroke as a ‘male’ disease — and it is slightly more common in men — but because it increases with age, more women end up having strokes because they live longer,” said Linda S. Williams, M.D., chief of neurology at the Roudebush VA Medical Center in Indianapolis. She is not associated with the review.

“Post-stroke depression is often unrecognized, both by the patient and the provider,” Williams said. “Patients may have symptoms, but they think that’s a natural reaction to having a stroke. Providers may think it is natural that the patient feels down after having this major life event. So there is a watch-and-see approach instead of a more of an aggressive screening-and-treatment approach.”

It is uncertain what the best treatments for post-stroke depression might be. “There may be multiple treatments beyond antidepressants and counseling, such as exercise, physical rehabilitation and support groups,” Poynter said. “A multimodal approach may be the most effective.”

Both Poynter and Williams emphasized that all stroke patients should be routinely screened for depression.

Adapted from materials provided by Center for Advancing Health.

http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2009/11/091110210509.htm

Depressed and Pregnant? Flu Shot May Be Needed

MONDAY, Nov. 9 (HealthDay News) — Pregnant women who are depressed may suffer severe symptoms if they catch seasonal flu, a new study suggests.

Ohio State University researchers assessed depressive symptoms and took blood samples from 22 pregnant women before they received a seasonal flu shot. Those with significant symptoms of depression had a stronger inflammatory response to the flu shot than the other women.

 This finding suggests that a depressed pregnant woman’s immune system doesn’t function normally, which means they may experience more serious symptoms if they’re infected with seasonal flu.

 ”Inflammatory responses to vaccination do no harm, are mild, and typically go away within a few days. But an extended inflammatory response to vaccination, such as the one seen in women with the most depressive symptoms, isn’t expected, and it serves as a way to estimate how somebody might respond to an actual infection or illness,” lead author Lisa Christian, an assistant professor of psychiatry, said in a university news release.

 The researchers said their study shows the need for pregnant women to get seasonal flu shots. The study was published online in advance of publication in the November print issue of the journal Brain, Behavior, and Immunity.

 Public health groups advise pregnant women to get seasonal flu shots, but only 12 percent to 13 percent of them have done so in recent years, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

 ”It will be interesting to see how that might change this year,” in light of CDC recommendations that pregnant women receive both seasonal and H1N1 flu vaccinations, Christian said.

http://health.yahoo.com/news/healthday/depressedandpregnantflushotmaybeneeded.html

INFANT DEATH: Grief and the Path To Loving Rememberance

 

Infant death causes heart-wrenching grief. A Mayo Clinic psychologist offers parents insight and hope.

There is a wonderful article in the MayoClinic.com site written by Shawna Ehlers, Ph.d, a psychologist dealing with infant death grief.

Just click on the following:   Mayo Clinic

CAN YOU TELL?

I’m just re-posting this in case readers have come across this before.  It’s probably one of my favorite articles as it just describes my bp disorder and always brings me back down to earth again when I think I’m an oddity when I expect too much from myself.

~~~~~~~~

Mental illness is surrounded by a glut of half-truths and untruths. If you tell someone that you’ve been diagnosed with, for example, bipolar disorder, they are likely to roll their eyes and say, “I don’t believe it – you don’t look mentally ill…?”

Which brings me to my question: Do I perchance look like I have Bipolar Disorder? I don’t think I do. Am I perhaps making something out of nothing? Self-confidence and self-esteem slid into the basement and remained there for too many years. Trudging through the mud down there, and finally locating some stairs to climb up, rung by rung, I achieved the surface.

To look at me, I hope you’d never guess I’m bipolar and PTSD. There’s no sign around my neck, but if you worked with me, for example, you’d soon notice that I’m “different,” or a little “odd”.  For one thing, “I’m somewhat negative at times, having difficult moments following directions and have to write everything down. Sometimes I can’t keep focus, and where other people find new work assignments challenging; I sit in self-doubt and bewilderment. My self-confidence feels in jeopardy each moment. I am the one who takes their performance review to heart. Out of nine rights, one negative is discussed, for which I feel total devastation, berating myself repeatedly. A true perfectionist, at least I try to be, however letting myself down is somewhat of a crucifixion. But, I am your dependable employee, the gleeful one, the one who shows little anger, and the one touted as one of the paramount in customer service. I must apply a mask for the most part.

Although felt as if a hex was put upon me years ago, I feel slightly different now. I’m still bitter about the illness at times, but realizing that THIS is ME.

Written by:
Me

Bipolar Disorder in Children: How Early Can It Be Diagnosed?

www.mayoclinic.com  Question:

Can a child be diagnosed with bipolar disorder? Most of what I’ve read says bipolar disorder develops in adults.

Mayo Clinic psychiatrist Daniel Hall-Flavin, M.D., answers:

Although bipolar disorder usually affects adults, there is substantial evidence that it also can occur in children. Making a diagnosis of bipolar disorder in children may be more difficult because its symptoms may be different in children and adolescents than in adults. In addition, some symptoms of bipolar disorder may be initially mistaken as normal mood swings or other psychiatric disorders, such as attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) or conduct disorder.

However, unlike the normal turbulence of late childhood and adolescence, bipolar disorder is associated with severe difficulties in daily functioning at home and school and with peers.

A family history of bipolar disorder is associated with a greater risk of bipolar disorder in children. According to the National Institute of Mental Health, symptoms of bipolar disorder in children and adolescents include:

·         Destructive outbursts

·         Physical complaints, such as headaches

·         Changes in school performance and relationships with peers

·         School absences

·         Substance abuse

 If your child exhibits such symptoms, it is important that he or she be evaluated by a mental health professional that specializes in child psychiatry to establish an appropriate diagnosis and prescribe effective treatment. Earlier intervention may prevent serious consequences and improve the course of bipolar disorder in children.

http://www.mayoclinic.com/health/bipolar-disorder-in-children/AN01470

Hunting For The Prozac Gene

ScienceDaily (Nov. 7, 2009) — Prozac works wonders for some depressed people, but not for others. In some cases, patients derive little benefit and at worst, it can lead to bizarre hallucinations and fits of rage. Researchers and doctors remain puzzled as to what causes the wide range of reaction to Prozac and similar antidepressants.

The answer, Tel Aviv University researchers believe, can be found in a patient’s genes. And if their research is successful, these scientists may be able to provide psychiatrists with a simple genetic test to revolutionize the treatment of depression.

Hunting for “the Prozac gene” — its response biomarker, in science-speak — is the foundation of a new Tel Aviv University project established by a unique biobank in TAU’s Sackler School of Medicine. Initiated by the biobank’s director Dr. David Gurwitz, and his student Ayelet Morag, the researchers are attempting to discover reliable pharmacogenic markers for antidepressants such as Prozac.

“Many drugs for treating depression are on the market,” says Dr. Gurwitz. “The most popular ones — including Prozac — are the selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors (SSRIs). But they only work for about 60% of people with depression. A drug from other families of antidepressants could be effective for the other 40%,” he says. “We are working to move the treatment of depression from a trial-and-error approach to a best-fit, personalized regimen.”

A genetic basis for psychiatric treatment

Dr. Gurwitz says the key is in our genes, and the first step to unlocking the puzzle lies in discovering relevant biomarkers, the biological elements in blood or DNA that provide clues for disease or conditions such as blood glucose in diabetes, blood pressure in heart disease, and hormones released in pregnancy. Clinicians already base treatments for cancer patients on genetic tests. This has proven especially useful for breast-cancer, where drugs such as Tamoxifen or Herceptin are prescribed only after genetic tests show that they would benefit the patient.

“Why not embrace the same approach for treating depression?” he asks. “We’ve designed an experiment to search for elements that can determine who will — and who won’t — benefit from drugs such as Prozac,” says Dr. Gurwitz.

An effective response to “extreme responders”

Can a Bad Boss Make You Sick?

FRIDAY, Nov. 6 (HealthDay News) — If an inept or abrasive boss is ruining your workday, you may be taking that stress to heart, literally.

New research links having a poor supervisor to a higher risk of heart attack, and that’s not all: people who don’t like their managers also take more sick leave.

 The findings, which come from surveys of thousands of employees in Europe, don’t prove that bad bosses cause illness and heart problems, the report’s author said. And the findings regarding heart attacks only look at men.

 Still, the research does suggest that what happens at work doesn’t stay at work, said Anna Nyberg, a postgraduate student at the Karolinska Institute in Sweden and author of a thesis based on the results of the surveys.

 ”Our findings provide clear support for an association between managers’ leadership and employee stress and health,” she said.

 Nyberg examined the results of several studies that she took part in. Among other things, she examined polls taken of almost 20,000 employees in Sweden, Finland, Germany, Poland and Italy.

 Nyberg found that male workers in Stockholm, Sweden, had a 25 percent higher risk of heart attack over the 10 years following the survey if they’d said their bosses were less than satisfactory. The heart attack rates went up the longer that the employees had to suffer with bosses they disliked.

 Also, workers who complained about their bosses took more sick time. “The amount of sick days taken by employees in our study was associated with how the managers acted, regardless of the employees’ general health status,” Nyberg noted. This “indicates that employees may take sick leave as a means to cope with stress due to destructive leadership at work and perhaps to prevent their health from becoming affected.”

 The researchers behind the various studies included in Nyberg’s report adjusted their statistics to take into account other possible factors, but the link between bosses and health remained intact.

 What about women? There weren’t enough heart-attack cases over the 10-year follow-up period for the researchers to consider how bosses affected female workers’ heart health, Nyberg said. But the trends around sick leave applied to both genders, she said.

 One expert thought the findings had merit.

 Dr. Redford Williams, director of the Behavioral Medicine Research Center at Duke University in Durham, N.C., said stress at work — such as that caused by a boss with poor leadership skills — “arouses the body’s fight/flight response, causing changes in stress hormones that increase blood pressure, inflammatory cytokines, blood glucose levels, even makes platelets stickier and more likely to clot.”

 Over time, this can increase blockages in the arteries and lead to heart attacks and strokes, he said.

 In general, Williams said, “it’s still safe to conclude that poor leadership has the potential to adversely affect the health of the led. It’s likely that there are differences in how sensitive different persons are to these effects, but still clear that poor leadership is bad for health.”

http://health.yahoo.com/news/healthday/canabadbossmakeyousick.html

Flu Shots for Wall Street before us – Not fair, How come?

Flu shots for Wall Street stirs ire in New York

NEW YORK (Reuters) – Nov 5, 2009 – New York City health officials scrambled to explain themselves on Thursday following outraged media reports about bankers who got scarce H1N1 flu vaccines through their employers.

Members of Congress fired off letters demanding immediate explanations and the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reminded state and city health officers of the need to make sure the most vulnerable people get shots first.

“I am concerned that the distribution of the vaccine is resulting in favored treatment for the privileged,” New Jersey Democratic Representative Frank Pallone said.

The shortage of H1N1 vaccines has frayed nerves, and public health departments across the country say they will not be able to meet the bulk of the demand until December or January.

The CDC estimates swine flu has infected more than 5 million people and it is documented as having killed 1,000.

The federal government, which is buying the vaccines and distributing them for free to 62 state and city health departments, says 35.6 million doses have been made and packaged since production began.

Connecticut Sen. Chris Dodd released a letter to Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius saying he was “stunned”.

“I implore you to use whatever authorities you have to ensure that H1N1 vaccines already distributed but not yet used are promptly redirected to hospitals, schools, community health clinics, school-based health clinics, and pediatricians so that they can be made immediately available to at-risk members of the public as identified by the Department,” Dodd wrote.

CDC Director Dr. Thomas Frieden sent out a reminder to state and city health departments, which distribute vaccine.

“I ask each of you to review your plans immediately and work to ensure that the maximum number of doses is delivered to those at greatest risk as rapidly as possible,” he wrote.

“I especially appreciate the many innovative ways you’ve found to reach them, including school-located vaccine clinics, special clinics for pregnant women, outreach to children with special needs, and making vaccine available to community- and faith-based organizations serving these high-risk populations.”

Close to 160 million people are in the priority groups to get vaccine first — healthcare workers, pregnant women, children and adults under 65 with medical conditions, caregivers for infants too young to be vaccinated and people 24 and younger.

“When H1N1 vaccine first became available in the fall, we directed all available doses to pediatricians, OB-GYNs, community health centers, public and private hospitals,” New York City health department spokeswoman Jessica Scaperotti said in a telephone interview.

“As more vaccine became available we started to place small orders to providers that serve adults, including employee health centers.”

She said the city had given 800,000 doses to about 1,100 providers, with Lenox Hill Hospital, for example, getting 1,200 doses and banker Goldman Sachs getting 200 of the 5,300 doses it asked for, Scaperotti said.

She said 16 of the city’s 25 biggest employers had vaccine, including Columbia University, Citi Group and others, as well as the Federal Reserve Bank, which is not among the top 25 employers.

(Reporting by Bill Berkrot, Dan Wilchins and Maggie Fox, editing by Alan Elsner and Eric Walsh)

http://health.yahoo.com/news/reuters/us_flu_newyork.html;_ylt=Ah7Gh7Y5NtsZTWakoBpQL9umxbAB

Depression May Blur Memory of Aches and Pains

Expert suggests having people write down symptoms as they occur

TUESDAY, Nov. 3 (HealthDay News) — Depressed people tend to report more physical symptoms than they actually experience, a new study finds.

The study involved 109 women who completed questionnaires designed to assess their levels of neuroticism and depression. For the next three weeks, they kept daily records of whether they felt any of 15 common physical symptoms, including aches and pains, gastrointestinal problems and upper-respiratory issues.

At the end of the three-week period, the women were asked to recall how often they’d experienced each symptom. Those who had a higher depression score at the start of the study were more likely to overstate the frequency of their symptoms.

“People who felt depressed made the most errors when asked to remember their physical symptoms,” psychologist Jerry Suls, a professor and collegiate fellow at the University of Iowa said in a university news release. “They tended to exaggerate their experience.”

It’s long been believed that a high level of neuroticism — a general disposition that includes irritability, sadness, anxiety and fear — is associated with exaggerated reporting of physical symptoms. But the study suggests that a more likely reason is depression.

“For 30 years, the hypothesis has been that neuroticism is behind inflated reports of symptoms,” Suls said. “We’re saying no — depression appears to be the big player. We discovered that people high in neuroticism but low in depression are not likely to mis-remember symptoms.”

The findings, published online Oct. 15 in Psychosomatic Medicine, are important, Suls said, because symptoms reported by patients play a major role in doctors’ diagnosis and treatment decisions.

“Depressed individuals and their physicians shouldn’t discount common symptoms because they can indicate serious problems,” he said. “However, since we now know that depressed individuals tend to over-remember the frequency of symptoms, it wouldn’t hurt to encourage patients to write down their symptoms as they’re happening. That way the patient and doctor have an accurate record of what has been going on, rather than relying on memory.”

http://www.nlm.nih.gov/medlineplus/news/fullstory_91394.html

SITTING IN JUDGMENT

 

 

 

Who am I to judge someone?   Who are they to judge me?

Dictionary:  Judgment: the ability to judge, makes a decision, or form an opinion objectively, authoritatively, and wisely, esp. in matters affecting action; good sense; discretion: a man of sound judgment.

Stigma: a mark of disgrace or infamy; a stain or reproach, as on one’s reputation; a mental or physical mark that is characteristic of a defect or disease: the stigmata of leprosy.

In my opinion, judgment intertwines with stigma.

Why do we judge?

I have voiced previously about my personal experience with both judgment and stigma, in the instance of a family member.  Not long after my hospitalization with major depression, my brother-in-law severed ties with my spouse and me, fearing for his children (or so he claimed).  Each Christmastime thereafter my name was omitted from the Christmas card; only my spouse’s name appearing.  I did nothing immoral or sinful, yet I was judged due to my illness of depression.  That was a case of both judging and stigma of mental illness.

Riding the bus home last Friday, was a true example of judging/stigma. 

A very large woman boarded the already crowded bus, and of course, no one offered her a seat.  I was seated almost to the rear of the bus, aside this young woman.  Immediately, this woman turns to me and says “wow, she is huge, disgusting, you would think she would take better care of herself”.  I retorted back “who are we to judge?”  She gave me a very dirty look.  I also overheard insulting comments behind me about this woman, “imagine her poor husband”, and “she must eat at McDonalds four times per day”; unfair remarks.  Stigma and unfair judgment.

Who made these people judges?  It is unknown what is happening in other people’s lives.  Perhaps they lost a family member, maybe surviving a divorce, surviving mental illness or another illness.  Even if it wasn’t any of those, what affect is it having on anyone else’s life anyways?  Why would it be up to someone else to pass a comment?  What about them; are they so perfect?  I think not. 

The way I try and live my life is, and live by these words; if it doesn’t directly affect me, then why should I judge another person?

Many years ago, a friend of mine was going through marital problems, was married a few times, and her family all but deserted her.   I believe they felt disgrace due to this.  It was her words that forever stuck in my head, “who are they to judge me – this is not affecting them”.  There were no children in the picture.  I think it’s nosy, opinionated people most times, who have to have their say.  They judge, and criticize and hurt.  And they repeat this practice over and over, causing riffs in families or friends.  Do they have self-esteem problems?

I’m not an angel, for I have done it myself; but I try to be aware of it as much as possible.  I think it’s almost required to have an opinion, who would want to go through life and not be opinionated.  But when it travels outside that realm and leaves a trail of judgment and hurt; then it’s gone too far.

Try to be aware of it too.