Mental Health News

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While depression is a mental and emotional disorder, many people don’t realize that the physical symptoms can be as debilitating as the psychological symptoms.  Since depression affects your brain chemicals, it makes sense that how you feel pain may also be altered.  If you are depressed, don’t be surprised if you start experiencing some of these symptoms as well:

Headaches and Back Pain.  These often appear or worsen with depression.

Chest Pain. While it could be the sign of a heart problem, chest pain also appears with the stresses of depression as well.

Exhaustion and Sleep Problems.  People suffering from depression may sleep a lot and still feel fatigued or may experience problems falling and staying asleep which can also lead to fatigue and exhaustion.

People often don’t realize that these symptoms go along with depression.  Treating depression might also help treat these symptoms, but not always.  It’s important to bring up any concerns with your doctor to get the appropriate treatment for ALL of your depression symptoms.

New studies are showing a link between thrill-seeking personalities and the rates of alcoholism.  This is because the thrill-seekers are always looking for new experiences and using alcohol can help add new and exciting experiences to their lives.  This doesn’t mean that people are prone to become alcoholics because of their personalities, however.  The studies just give more awareness to people who might have problems in the future and who might need more help finding alternatives to alcohol to fulfill their need for thrills!

According to an agency study by the Veterans Health Administration, one-third of Iraq and Afghanistan war veterans are seeking treatment for stress, depression and other mental health disorders.  This is tenfold increase in the last 18 months.  The dramatic increase may be due to the fact that more and more troops are facing multiple tours in Iraq and Afghanistan.  Veterans groups fear that they will not be able to meet the demands of these veterans suffering from mental health issues. 

Many veterans complain of long waits for doctor’s appointments and lack of medical centers that are ran by the Veterans Affairs Department.  Veterans and Defense Department officials say the increase in mental health disorders may be due to the commanders and medical personnel being able to better recognize symptoms in the troops.  Veteran’s officials claim that they have raised funding and hired at least 100 counselors to keep from being overwhelmed. 

Most troops who return from war suffer from flashbacks and trouble sleeping.  These conditions are considered normal reactions to abnormal situations.  The Veterans Affairs officials say that they are looking to obtain $300 million for post-traumatic stress disorders this year and are seeking another $300 million for next year.

A new treatment may eventually be available for the treatment of depression and it’s not what you’d expect at all.  Botox.

The injections that are used to do fine facial sculpting and plumping may hold a solution to battling depression.

Researchers suspect that facial expressions may have a subtle role in the condition of depressive disorders.  They attempted to discover what would happen should people suffering from depression were prevented from frowning facial expressions due to Botox injections.

Nine of the ten patients reported were no longer depressed.  The other participant reported that their mood was improved.

Who knows, in a few years, you may hear of more cases being treated with Botox and less with medications.

Do you experience obessions, compulsions and anxiety from time to time?  How do you know if it is simply a quirk in your personality or if it’s a full-blown anxiety disorder?

Some of the anxeity disorders are panic, obsessive-compulsive, post-traumatice stress, social anxiety and phobias.  Each specific disorder has its own symptoms, but all of the symptoms all revolve around excessive fear.

One way to know is that if your symptoms last for more than six months instead of a mild, short-term bout of anxiety, it’s probably a disorder.  Also, if the feelings are debilitating and overwhelming to the point that you cannot function properly, it’s probably a disorder.  Finally, if you find that your anxiety symptoms lead you to have other problems such as substance abuse or other addictions, you might have an anxiety disorder. 

September is National Alcohol and Drug Abuse Recovery Month.  This shouldn’t be surprising since 9% of the American population is alcohol dependant and 4% is drug dependant.  These addictions wreck havoc on families, friends and other acquaintances of the person struggling with the addiction.

But there’s great news, well suited for this recovery month, for people struggling with chemical addictions.  A new drug, Ibogaine, is available in treatment centers in Canada.  It is purported to be a powerful new agent in breaking addictions. 

The success of the treatment is tied to the coupling of the use of the medication to therapy sessions that unravel the psychological causes of the start of the addiction cycle.  Patients taking Ibogaine claim they have deeper insights after one use.  It also keeps them free from cravings from weeks to months following the treatment.  By addressing the causes of the drug or alcohol use, patients are less likely to return to using once the treatment has concluded.

September is the perfect time to break the cycle, and now there’s hope for a permanent break from chemical addictions.

U.S. researchers have reported a link between a brain protein that plays a role in both anxiety problems and alcohol disorders.  Researchers report that alcoholism is highly associated with anxiety disorders.  People who suffer from high levels of anxiety often look for alcohol.  The brain protein, brain-derived neurotrophic factor (BDNF), may be responsible for the link of anxiety and excessive alcohol consumption.  The reaction takes place in the area of the brain called the amygdala.  

Lower levels of BDNF in this area resulted in an increase in anxiety and alcohol consumption in rats.  Higher levels of the BDNF restored the levels of the protein to normal and the anxiety and alcohol consumption diminished.  BDNF is important in the growth and maintenance of brain neurons.  There have been previous studies in humans that suggested a link between the protein and anxiety disorders.  This information may result in an increase in better drugs that will help treat individuals suffering from anxiety and alcoholism.

Epilepsy patients who have not responded to treatment have been able to use a device called a vagus nerve stimulator (VNS) to help regulate the electrical impulses in their brains.  The VNS was approved by the FDA in 2005 and since then, epilepsy patients who use the treatment have also been reported positive changes in their moods.

This is great news for the 20% of depressed people who have not responded to traditional treatments.  While VNS hasn’t been approved for treatment of depression yet, the clinical trials have shown positive results.  For example, the researchers found that the results improved over time which is good news that this could be a long-term solution for many people.

According to a study by Ohio State University, marriage enhances your mental health.  Using a 3,066-person sample they measured symptoms of depression including inability to sleep and persistent sadness before and after marriage.  They found that depressed people experienced an extreme decrease in symptoms.  

They also found that if you are not depressed and you get married-you may have the opposite effect occur.

New studies published by the Journal of Clinical Psychiatry shows a link between patients suffering from fibromyalgia and mental disorders including depression, anxiety and bipolar disorder, suggesting that the diseases might be linked.

Of the 108 adults with the disease, most reported that they had suffered the mental disorders before the onset of fibromyalgia, indicating that the chronic pain was not the cause of the mood disturbances.

These subjects were taken out of 336 adults.  Those with fibromyalgia were at increased risk for bipolar disorder, two to three times more likely to develop an eating disorder, seven times more likely to suffer from anxiety and three times more likely to have major depression.

This isn’t to imply that the disease causes psychiatric problems, but more that there may be a genetic or environmental factor that leaves individuals more vulnerable to suffer from the array of disorders.  Armed with this knowledge, there’s hope for researchers to isolate these factors for preventative measures in the future.