Archive for September, 2007
Gene Assigns ID Tags to Help Organize the Developing Brain
Friday, September 21st, 2007Placebo effect may influence depression treatment
Thursday, September 20th, 2007It is interesting that some sufferers of depression do respond favorably to placebos. This suggests that with many sufferers the problem is associated with emotions and low self esteem rather than a chemical imbalance. See the article below:-
By Megan Rauscher
NEW YORK (Reuters Health) – It cannot be assumed that an antidepressant has lost its effectiveness if a patient relapses while continuing on the medication, because the medication may never have been effective in the first place, according to study findings reported in the Journal of Clinical Psychiatry.
In the study, the majority of relapses occurred in patients who had never been true responders, Dr. Mark Zimmerman, director of outpatient psychiatry at Rhode Island Hospital, told Reuters Health.
Some patients with major depressive disorder, similar to other medical disorders, respond to placebo, Zimmerman explained. In clinical practice, everyone is given an active drug, so it’s not clear if a patient who responds has improve because of the drug or because of “nonspecific” effects, such as the placebo effect.
The placebo effect is a sort of “power of suggestion” response in which a patient begins to feel better because he thinks he has received treatment (and doesn’t know he has been given a placebo). These responses are usually short-term.
Similarly, relapses that occur during a continuation phase of treatment could be because of a true loss of response or they could be because an initial placebo response has worn off.
To investigate, Zimmerman collaborated with Dr. Tavi Thongy on a review of four studies involving 750 patients. These were continuation studies of new generation antidepressants.
Using two different methods of estimating relapse, the researchers found that the majority of relapses occurred because the patients were never true responders to the drugs.
This suggests, Zimmerman told Reuters Health, “that a message can be conveyed to patients who have repeatedly improved on medication and then lost its benefit that perhaps they are more capable than they think in bringing their own resources to bear to improve their depression.”
SOURCE: Journal of Clinical Psychiatry, August 2007.
I firmly believe that the information and guidance that I gleaned from the package entitled Rapid Manifestation helped me far more than the medication that was prescribed for me. It also helped me in other areas of my life.
How To Be A Successful Homeless Person
Thursday, September 20th, 2007Many bipolar sufferers out there in the world find themselves homeless at some point in their lives. The challenges of the illness combined with the pressures of life can be too much at times. Bills pile up, depression sets in, family difficulties result and you end up on the street.
Though it’s common among those who suffer from mental illness, homelessness is still heavily stigmatized in our society and often results in a vicious cycle of poverty that makes it difficult to get back on your feet. While I have news for you!
Though there may be a societal divide that makes homelessness tough to rebound from, the digital divide doesn’t discriminate.
A Wired.com article, “Laptops Give Hope to the Homeless“, written by Jacob Ogles detailed some of the success stories that easy access to technologies have allowed the homeless to achieve. Check it out for some inspiration! In the meantime, here are 10 steps to achieving success as a homeless person (by the way, this post is not meant to humorous in any way for those of you who are wondering. Utilizing technology is one route to successfully get back on your feet):
- Set up an email account at your local library or another location where you should be able to access the internet for free. This will allow you to maintain contact with your friends and family, and also gives you a place to be contacted by potential employers if you don’t have a cell phone.
- Start a blog. Just write about whatever you choose too. Kevin Barbieux, featured in the above mentioned article has maintained The Homeless Guy for 5 years now. At one time it was mentioned as one of the top 10 new and notable sites by Yahoo. This is a great way to express yourself, work through your emotions, and if done right, give yourself online exposure that could lead the way to future successes.
- At first, unless you’re incredibly innovative, your blog will be your key to getting exposure for your talents rather than your lack of accomodations. Set up a social networking account on a site such as Facebook and then link your blog to it. Everyone from Bill Gates on down has a Facebook account these days and you can connect with people you’d never think you could.
- Spend some time figuring out what contributed to your current situation.Â
- Determine what steps you have to take to overcome those contributing factors. I currently use public transportation for my mobility needs. Being in public, often downtown, has given me the opportunity to talk with the odd homeless person and I’ve found that often they don’t know how they got to where they are. I wonder how they’re supposed to fix their bind if they don’t know how they got there in the first place.Â
- If the last 2 steps aren’t working for you, then determine the steps you need to take to get off the street, and then find the problems for those solutions. Basically you’re working backwards in order to find out what issues you need to deal with to avoid the street life in the future.
- If you suffer from a mental illness, take your medication and stay in contact with your medical support team. Do not drink or use drugs! I don’t care how cold it is outside, you’ll be much colder when you’re dead! Also avoid the crowd. I don’t mean this in any sort of condescending way, but the street isn’t the best place to develop positive, supportive relationships.
- Set some goals and develop a plan to work towards them once you’re back on your feet.
- Take others with you. If you’re trying your best to cross that societal divide back into regular life (regular is subjective; I’m using that word from the point of view of the majority of members of our society), take some well-chosen people with you on the path to recovery. Service and helping others will be fundamental in feeling like you have your dignity back.
There is a such thing as a successful homeless person. With the digital divide taking down barriers everywhere, it’s much easier for someone without a home to have one in no time. I would also advise you to Google “bootstrapping”, especially if you feel you have a great business idea but not the money to make it a reality.
10 More Ways To Boost Your Mood
Thursday, September 20th, 2007John Wesley at Pick the Brain has 10 all-natural ways for you to deal with your depression. While not so much relevant for those with serious cases, for lower-level depression these are great tips bumping your mood up a notch.
Learn A Foreign Language For Free
Thursday, September 20th, 2007
Mashable! reported the beta launching of Mango, a free foreign language learning site that offers lessons in a variety of languages. The site makes use of slides, which seem to be ever-increasing in popularity, with about 100 80-slide lessons per language. Each lesson begins with instruction followed by a self-test. That’s the kicker with this program. It’s really only suitable for those who are disciplined enough to teach themselves. But if you’re going on an exotic vacation soon and you want to learn the basics of a certain language, I’m sure you’ll be motivated!
Know the Enemy
Thursday, September 20th, 2007This is the second post by Anna on being a carer. Click here for the first post, The Depression Dialog.
Know the enemy. Sounds awful, doesn’t it? But I’m talking about the illness, not the person who is sick. When that dawned on me, that the illness is the enemy, I started to have more control over my anger and resentment. Why? Because I had something I could fight, and yet still love my husband James. I’m not saying that he isn’t responsible for his behavior; but I could now explain it, or most of it, by his illness.
Our third child was born in 2003 just as things were at their worst. James had left another job, he had a go at crashing his car, and our other kids were showing signs of distress. I had to think about leaving him for a while to protect myself and the kids emotionally. I felt alone, scared for our future and worried sick.
It was at about that time that he was diagnosed with bipolar, which prompted me to thoroughly research depression and bipolar. There is an awful lot of junk out there, so I sifted through until I found some great sources. Then I learned as much as I could. The best thing about this learning process was a much better understanding of the illness, so I was less frightened and more assertive in handling his behavior.
The resources that I relied on most are:
Loving Someone with Bipolar Disorder by Julie Fast
This book helped me more than any other. It is written for carers and has great, practical solutions, especially in the area of talking to each other. James was on board with the idea of trying the suggestions in the book so that helped. Most of the content is readily applicable to depression.
It’s a love it or hate it book. I love it. I’ll write a review as the last post in this series.
Dealing with Depression by Gordon Parker
I continue to rely on this book for my medical understanding of mood disorders. James reviewed the book in an earlier post.
Black Dog Institute
I use this website for finding all kinds of reliable information on mood disorders. The Black Dog Institute is headed by Gordon Parker (above).
The next break through was keeping a diary of James’ moods and things that happened each day. I did this every night for almost 2 years. It sounds a bit keen I know, but it was also therapeutic. After only 3 months or so, I was able to see patterns of behavior emerging. His illness was looking somewhat predictable! The progress over those 2 years was very slow, but just having some noticeable improvements gave me hope. I could stop living from day to day, wondering what would hit next. Also, and even better, I was able to see what was triggering his mood swings. Things like certain foods, certain people, and certain social situations.
Armed with this knowledge we started changing our lives to avoid triggers. This is an ongoing process, but James continues to get better. We completely removed some problem triggers so they no longer have an impact, and he also copes better with the triggers that remain. I hope that we don’t sound perfect. The process is ongoing, and there are still many times when bipolar ruins things. But now that I know my enemy I can “attack” it, and get on with being James’ wife.
Bipolar, carer, Carers, Depression, Mental Health
Too Many Pills……………by Susan
Thursday, September 20th, 2007On a recent visit to the Headache - Pain Management Center in our area, I was told that I was taking more than the recommended ten pain pills per week. So, I've managed to cut that down to seven and am having a lot of pain from my Osteoarthritis and Fibromyalgia. This is not working for me at all, so I will be going back to taking fourteen pain pills per week.
While not wanting me to take 14 pain pills per week, which is understandable, (I guess) they put me on three new prescription for other problems. I'm not a happy camper. I feel as though my breakfast consists of pills with a little yogurt to go along with them. ugh!
I had always heard about those elderly people who couldn't afford many of the comforts of life due to their high prescription costs and now it looks like I'm going to be one of them. This makes me sick. We have good insurance coverage but the cost really adds up when paying so many co-pays for all of your prescriptions and doctor visits.
Well, I just needed to rant a little bit. In October I'll be starting some alternatives to medications such as massage and acupuncture at the Wellness Center. Maybe then I'll be able to cut down further on my pain medication. I've heard that these methods can be very helpful for some people. I sure hope they will help me!
Understanding the Neuron’s Green Architecture
Thursday, September 20th, 2007Routines………..by Susan
Wednesday, September 19th, 2007My children always knew they could plan on having dinner at a certain time each evening and we all had our own "spot" at the table. A fight would ensue if anyone dared to sit in another's "spot". This was as important to my four children as it was to me and my six siblings when I was growing up.
In the summer it was always fun when we took our kids on a short vacation and broke our routines. We would eat in restaurants and sometimes at odd hours of the day. Now that our children are grown, my husband and I often eat at odd hours of the day and sometimes we skip meals (which isn't a good thing for us to do). We enjoy eating in restaurants frequently.
When you are retired, as my husband and I are, you can easily slip into a boring routine but we have worked hard to keep that from happening to us. Sometimes it's not easy. We go on dates at least once a week. We also try to stay actively interested in our children's lives, visiting them whenever possible. I have a number of hobbies and have also started selling Avon products to keep me active.
I know that boredom can increase depression and play havoc on your relationships so breaking the routines now and then will do wonders to stay healthy and happy. We still have our routine "spots" and no one had better sit in mine!
Stress or Physical Illness? ………..by Susan
Wednesday, September 19th, 2007Wrong........this time I wasn't suffering from anxiety, stress or panic attacks. I very recently found out that my problem is a physical illness called high blood pressure and migraine headaches. I was very surprised to have these problems after having never experienced either one before in my life. I always had low pressure and I thought my headaches were sinus headaches.
In the past two weeks I've started taking a couple of medications to control these problems and low and behold, I no longer feel stressed out. I thought that stress could cause high blood pressure but in this case it seems that high blood pressure was causing me to feel very stressed even to the point of getting red in the face and then feeling exhausted in just a short time.
If you have mental health problems don't rule out the possibility that you might also have some physical health problems as well. Sometimes we and our doctors overlook that when treating us on a regular basis for depression or anxiety. I'm happy to say that my doctor paid attention when I told her my headaches were different lately.
Pay close attention to your body as well as the state of your mind.