Mental Health News

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The Japanese have recently made mental health news with their recently released study that links PMS with depression.   Millions of women experience anxiety and depression around the world and have made the link themselves between their periods and their mental health issues.

It has been found by a study in the magazine, BioPsychoSocial Medicine that PMS is tied to a decrease in the autonomic nervous system activity that occurs in the late luteal phase right before a woman’s period.  This decrease in activity may be a cause of or just another symptom of the PMS that plagues so many women.

Of course this decrease in nervous system activity is also extremely likely to result in some symptoms like anxiety and depression.

This study does also bring some good mental health news.  It provides physicians with a relatively non-invasive method to distinguish women with PMS from those with a non-hormonal disorder.

Many women find PMS to be nothing more than a mild monthly annoyance, however there are millions of women who find that their symptoms are major disruptions in their lives.  There is still no definite conclusion as to the underlying cause of PMS and its severity in some women.

Though mental health news has learned that taking oral contraceptives or SSRIs can reduce the severity of PMS symptoms to some degree.   If you are having major PMS symptoms such as the following each month you should seek medical attention for advice on treatment.

Common PMS Symptoms
Source: Women to Women http://www.womentowomen.com/menstruation/pmssymptoms.aspx

irritability
depression
anxiety
angry outbursts
confusion or fuzzy thinking
tearfulness
fatigue
insomnia
changes in libido
overeating
cravings, especially for salty or sweet foods
alcohol intolerance
acne
hives
abdominal and pelvic cramps
bloating
weight gain
headaches
menstrual migraines
breast swelling and pain
edema
asthma
sinus problems
sore throat
worsening of chronic conditions like arthritis and ulcers
difficulty with coordination
being more prone to accidents
dizziness
decreased balance
heart pounding
nausea
fainting
urinary problems

As we come up on the holiday season many experts are warning people about the possibility of depression and anxiety resulting from a variety of areas.  The holidays hit at the same time every year, but not everyone feels the same about the holidays.

There is quite a lot of build-up to the holiday season, especially New Year’s Eve, when most Americans feel that this is the night they have to party.  Not everyone has someone to party with on New Year’s Eve, or they may not even feel like partying.  This can lead to sadness or a feeling that something is wrong with you.

Director of Pastoral Care and Social Services at Lima, Ohio Memorial Health Systems, Dottie Kaiser recommends that people without plans for the big yearly party just enjoy the time by yourself.  There is a lot of external pressure to have someone to be with for the holidays or someplace to go.  However, you can easily have a nice comfortable evening with yourself.  Snuggle up with a good book and some hot cocoa.  Watch the alcoholic consumption because mixing beer with a bad mood can lead to major depression over the holidays.

Another part of the holiday season usually involves setting unrealistic or vague New Year Resolutions which can also lead to anxiety and depression because of the let down in not fulfilling your resolutions.  Experts recommend setting achievable, specific and realistic goals for the New Year so you don’t get depressed trying to achieve the impossible.

Those who survived Katrina or left only to come back to the ruins of New Orleans are still suffering and it shows in their mental health.  Many of the survivors of Katrina are showing signs of depression. 

A study released in November found that almost half of the pre-hurricane residents of New Orleans and one-fourth of those living in other affected areas had evidence of an anxiety or mood disorder about five to seven months after the Hurricane hit. 

The hurricane created a disaster area in the United States that is as large as Great Britain and killed more than 1,000 people.  Two years later, the city is still a shadow of it’s former self and many residents are still living in tents.  The strain of continuing to live in difficult conditions is likely one of the causes of depression in the survivors.

A telephone survey was conducted between Jan. 10 and March 31, 2006 with a little over 1,000 people who provided the information for the study.  It was found that a vast majority of those in the New Orleans metro area about 91.9% reported experiencing at least one of the 10 categories of hurricane related stressors.   The stressors such as death of a loved one down to robbery resulted in signs of depression and other anxiety/mood disorders occurring.

One of the major preventable causes of the mental health decline in New Orleans and surrounding area residents is concluded by the study to be the slow government response to Hurricane Katrina in evacuating, providing aid and more.

A recent study is indicating that if you were a small baby you could have a higher risk of mental health issues such as anxiety and depression.  Researchers as the University of Alberta and Colleagues in Britain studies the records of 4,600 Britons born in the year 1946 and who took part in a 40-year study.

The researchers looked at the birth weights of all these people and at whether or not the participants experienced mental health issues.  They didn’t try to look for causes of the problems, only noted the connections. 

Ian Colman, one of the researchers stated that people who only had mild to moderate symptoms of depression and anxiety tended to be smaller babies than those who were in better mental health.  He also said that this appears to be a ‘dose-response relationship’ in that the smaller you were as a baby, the more likely you are to have mood disorders. 

Researchers also noted that those who had more mental health issues throughout their lives also tended to reach developmental milestones later on, such as sitting upright and walking. 

Of course being born small doesn’t guarantee you’ll have problems.  It’s only an indicator if you were born small because of stress in the womb.  Researchers believe this is so because when a mother is very stressed blood flow to the womb is constricted and the fetus gets fewer nutrients and this can lead to lower birth weight.  Researchers also theorized that some of the stress hormones produced by the mother are being passed through the placenta to the fetus when she is stressed causing the baby to be stressed. 

Studies have also shown that a lower birth weight indicates a higher risk of diabetes and heart disease in later life.  So it’s not just mental health issues you should be concerned about.

This study shows that pregnant women should be well taken care off and care should be taken not to stress them.

Math anxiety can be considered a minor mental health disorder.  All it takes is one bad experience with math and a person can develop an anxiety around math for the rest of his life.  Most of us get plenty of bad experiences with math in school, so we end up feeling nervous about handling the checkbook, doing taxes and dealing in numbers as adults.  This is a real phobia.  It actually has its own diagnosis code from the American Psychological Association, which is 315.1.

Math Anxiety can cripple you financially.  From a hesitance to balance your check book to avoidance in balancing your bills, this mental health disorder can be a real problem. 

However, you can slowly work your way back into feeling comfortable with working math.  Here are a few tips.

1. Use Shortcuts-Don’t be afraid to use a calculator for your daily math needs.  There is no reason to feel bad about using this tool.  You went through school to learn all the basics already.  No need to keep testing yourself on them.

2. Immerse yourself in Finances-If this mental health disorder has you feeling like you can’t handle planning for your financial future, then try learning a little bit about the sector.  Get yourself a subscription to Money Magazine or leave the television on CNBC for a few minutes each day and you’ll be surprised at how much you start to soak up about money and the math that goes with it.

3. Don’t forget the kids-Keep your kids from getting your math phobia too.  Sit down with them and help them with their math homework.  Be encouraging, without pushing them.  You can even ask your child’s math teacher what you can do to help your child learn math, without becoming overly worried or anxious about it.

In Hastings, Nebraska a small program at Hastings Regional Center, focused on mental health care for adolescents is in trouble.  It is so little used that the $3 million dollar program could be shut down. 

This mental health care program is currently only treating one adolescent, but it has a multi-million dollar budget.  However, some of the funds in the program are being used in another program at the local community focused center where both programs have a home.

The program is focused on helping adolescences with major mental health problems who haven’t been successfully treated in other programs.  It is also geared towards a community focused treatement. 

The other program receiving some of the unused funds from this mental health care program’s multi-million dollar budget is full.  It has 40 adolescent participants who are being helped with substance abuse problems.  Children’s mental health care programs such as these are important in trying to help those with mental health problems and substance abuse issues while they are still young.  They may even have a better chance at full recovery as youths. 

The Director of Behavioral Health for the Department of Health and Human Services involved with the program stated that they have tried to remain good stewards of the money provided for the program.  When they noticed the number of participants in the mental health care program dwindling they reduced the capacity size from 16 to 8 adolescents.  They also worked to cut costs to preserve the $3 million budget. 

A state legislative task force issued a report after reviewing the mental health care program’s situation that recommended the program be shut down.  There are currently no plans to shut down the other full substance abuse treatment program at the Hastings Regional Center.

Some doctors seem to think so and one Austrailain psychiatrist spoke out about the possible over diagnosis of major depression on August 17th, 2007. Doctor Gordon Parker of the University of New South Wales is that doctor. He thinks that many people today just end up getting a clinical depression diagnosis for something as simple as a bout with the blues.

We all know its normal for people to become depressed from time to time, but how much depression is normal and how much is too much? I’ve listed the signs of depression here previously but to recap they basically involve,

Chronic sad or anxious mood
Feelings of hopelessness or pessimism
Feelings of guilt or worthlessness
Lack of interest in favorite activities
Fatigue or tiredness
Trouble concentrating
Insomnia or oversleeping
Changes weight or in appetite
Thoughts of death or suicide
Agitation or irritability
chronic pain

Most people can safely claim at least a few if not more of those symptoms for a case of the blues as well as for major depression. Where can the line be drawn and when do people need treatment for depression? Clinical depression was once only diagnosed in about 5 to 10 percent of the population, while today’s wide range of criteria could cover as much as 90 percent. Now, it’s very likely that previously the 5 to 10 percent of the population which was diagnosed was way less than the actual numbers of people with major depression. However, it is hard to believe that as many as 90 percent of people could be dealing with major depression. That would be natural selection gone very wrong. Where do you stand on the issue?

Most likely the difference between a bout of the blues and major depression has to do with length of time. A bout with the blues is just that, a bout. Clinical depression is very hard to ‘get over’ and many of those with diagnosable major depression have been dealing with the same feelings of sadness, anxiety and anger for weeks, months or years consistently.

Scientists have recently finished taking a look at the mental health issues that develop amongst those working and living in the Antarctic for up to a year at times. They have found that a bizarre kind of ‘Polar Madness’ often grips those who come to the arctic and live for an extended period of time.  This polar madness can lead to anything from symptoms of depression to extreme anger and in the worst case scenarios, mutiny, lunacy and cannibalism.  The worst of these polar madness cases happened during some of the earliest expeditions to deep frozen lands at either pole of the world.

Now a days we have the facilities set up to help keep the polar madness from developing into such extremes.  The researchers in the north and south poles have warm shelter, food, mental diversions and company to keep with each other.  Not to mention medical facilities with ample supplies for some of the mental health issues that may pop up from living in such extreme conditions.  If worst came to worst they could also request that an individual or the entire group be evacuated from the facility.

Researchers state that it is important to know how living in such an extreme environment can affect the mental health of people for safer living conditions and for possible use as research to help those astronauts whom eventually make the long trip to Mars. 

Some of the symptoms those living in the poles have experienced include;

• Sleep Problems
• Depression and anxiety
• Anger
• Intellectual inertia
• Irritability
• Conflict with co-workers
• Memory impairment
• Reduced alertness
• Headaches
• Boredom
• Fatigue
• Lack of personal hygiene
• Over-eating

If you are currently living or working in the Antarctic and experiencing any of these conditions you need to report to the nearest medical facility.  Just kidding folks, although these findings are very important for the mental health and well-being of those we send to work in such extreme environments.

Remember that weird kid in elementary school who seemed to be a few crayons short of a 64 color set of Crayola crayons-you know some mental health and behavioral issues that caused problems in school, at home and amongst his peers.  Well, many times we’ve seen that kid grow up as we moved through school with him or her and saw for ourselves what researchers are only now ‘confirming’ with studies.  Early mental health problems and behavior problems lead to rejection and friendlessness amongst their peers.  Duh.

Researchers apparently studied previous reports that followed the mental health problems of children around the ages of 6 and 7 and later compared them to reports of the same kids at 12 and 13 with problems of depression, loneliness and delinquency.  The researchers gathered information on 551 children and their teachers, mothers and peers to come to this eureka conclusion.  Most of the problems that qualified as mental health and behavioral problems were anxiety and fear of change, playing by oneself, hyperactivity, and physical aggression.

It’s nice that the researchers have found the studies back up this fact of life but it’s not an amazing discovery.  Unfortunately children with strange behavior in early childhood tend to be rejected by their peers as they grow older.  One could almost compare this to pack behavior or survival instinct.  They also found that kids with mental health problems such as anxiety tended to have fewer friends, though their chances of being rejected by their peers weren’t any less than other children.  Meaning, kids who are anxious are usually shy in new situations and around new people so they aren’t likely to be the life of the party and make a lot of friends.  However, that doesn’t mean others see anything wrong with them in particular.

In recent mental health news it seems that our small friends, the laboratory mice over at MIT’s Picower Institute for Learning and Memory underwent a series of harrowing foot shock treatments.  These electrifying tests were performed in order to allow their researcher handlers to find a way to halt the fear response. 

Fear and anxiety treatment in humans may soon benefit from what researchers learned from these little white mice.  Many mental health conditions such as PTSD and anxiety attacks are a result of our inability to stop experiencing learned fear from a specific traumatic event.  This happens a lot with soldiers returning home from wars.

The researchers recreated traumatic events for mice by placing them in an environment where their feet would be randomly shocked with mild currents of electricity.  Later they placed those mice back in the same environment without shocking their feet.  What makes this big mental health news? Well, the mice with elevated levels of an enzyme called, Cdk5, persistently froze up in fear even after they should have realized that their feet wouldn’t be shocked.  Other mice whose levels of the same enzyme were inhibited by researchers quickly got over their learned fear in the same environment. 

In people it’s possible that inhibiting this same enzyme in those who experience fear and anxiety can help them overcome their mental health issues faster.  Although so far this particular idea is still in the early stages of study, its possible that a drug can be created that will eliminate fear.