Mental health and Psychiatry articles
Obesity Rejected as Psychiatric Diagnosis in DSM-5
Neither obesity nor simple overeating will be included in the DSM-5, the forthcoming revision to the Diagnostic and…
Cocaine abuse may increase risk of Parkinson’s disease
Adults who abuse cocaine might increase their risk of developing Parkinson’s disease (PD), and pregnant women who abuse…
Depression and Anxiety Improve After Epilepsy Surgery
Depression and anxiety are common problems for people whose epilepsy cannot be controlled by medication. A new study…
Increased Secretion of Proinflammatory Cytokines
Inflammation and associated secretion of proinflammatory cytokines may mediate the association of depression and atherosclerostic progression. During inflammation,…
Effects of Mood and Anxiety Disorders on the Cardiovascular System
Depression and Comorbid Medical Illness
The interactions of personality traits, psychiatric symptoms and syndromes, and…
Alterations in Platelet Receptors and/or Reactivity
The adverse effects of depression on cardiovascular disease also may be mediated by platelet mechanisms. Markovitz and Matthews…
Diminished Heart Rate Variability
Alterations in autonomic nervous system activity, as demonstrated by exaggerated responses in heart rate to orthostatic challenge or…
Effects of Mood and Anxiety Disorders: Future Directions for Research
Usually underdiagnosed and undertreated, major depression and anxiety disorders are encountered commonly in patients with CAD and patients…
Treatment of Major Depression and Anxiety Disorders in Patients with Cardiovascular Disease
As with other medical disorders, effective treatment of major psychiatric illnesses such as major depression and panic disorder,…
Anxiety Disorders and Cardiovascular Disease
Anxiety disorders are the most prevalent psychiatric disorders in the United States (Table…
Hypothalamic- Pituitary- Adrenocortical and Sympathomedullary Hyperactivity
Pathophysiology
Hypothalamic-Pituitary-Adrenocortical and Sympathomedullary Hyperactivity
Advances in biological psychiatry have included the discovery of…
Pathophysiology of Anxiety
The neurocircuitry of anxiety has been postulated to arise from the amygdala, the brain area that registers the…
Depression and Cardiovascular Disease: Clinical Samples
Relatively consistent point prevalence rates of depression have been documented in patients with CAD, ranging from 15 to…
Legal Issues in Psychiatry
Legal issues affect all areas of medicine, including psychiatry. The laws that govern medical practice address physician duty,…
Psychological Theories in Psychiatry
There are a large number of competing theories influencing contemporary psychotherapeutic thinking. Psychotherapies derived from psychoanalytic, cognitive, and…
Elder Abuse
Approximately 10% of those older than 65 are abused. Victims usually live with their assailants, who are often…
How Antidepressants Work
Understanding the complex chemical processes of antidepressants is a book-worthy endeavor. This article will focus on how some…
What to Do When a Friend is Depressed
You know that these school years can be complicated and demanding. Deep down, you are not quite sure…
What To Do When an Employee is Depressed
Depression Affects the Workplace
As a supervisor, you may notice that some employees seem less productive…
Going to Extremes: Manic-Depressive Illness
There is a tendency to romanticize manic-depressive illness. Many artists, musicians and writers have suffered from its mood…
The Dystonias Fact Sheet
What are the dystonias?
The dystonias are movement disorders in which sustained muscle contractions cause twisting…
Depression, Bone Mass, and Osteoporosis
The National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH) has launched a new study of women ages 21 to 45…
Plain Talk About… Depression
In any given 1-year period, 9.5 percent of the population, or about 18.8 million American adults, suffer from…
Older Adults: Depression and Suicide Facts
Major depression, a significant predictor of suicide in older adults, is a widely underrecognized and undertreated…
Depression Glossary
Aerobic exercise: physical activity that requires extra effort of the heart and lungs to meet the body’s increased…
Depression: Frequently Asked Questions
Q: Is entering psychoanalysis a good way to quickly get over Depression?
During the 1950’s extending to the 1970’s, lithium was demonstrated as the first effective treatment for
Prevalence: Depression ranks fourth in importance of all causes of disease burden for the population of…
EFFEXOR XR is a prescription medication used to treat Depression, Generalized Anxiety…
When beginning treatment with EFFEXOR XR, there are 6 things you should know: 1.…
Be sure to read the following important information carefully. However, keep in mind that it should not take…
A large-scale review of previous studies suggests electroconvulsive therapy is an effective short-term treatment for depression. …
If you have tried a number of treatments for depression without getting the results you need, your doctor…
Family life can be disrupted by the illness of a member. The stigma attached to mental illness often…
Tips for carers Your family member or friend has been diagnosed with a mental illness. What…
A therapist is there to offer a supportive, safe environment in which you can deal with your problems.…
You’re depressed and not coping. Your friends have suggested therapy and you’re finally considering it. But where should…
Research has shown that the best form of treatment is a combination of psychotherapy and pharmacotherapy. There are…
A psychologist is someone who specialises in psychotherapy, the so-called “talking therapies”. In order to become…
Although up to 50% of people with dysthymia start symptoms before the age of 25, many go years…
Dysthymia, like depression, is thought to be caused by a combination of biochemical, genetic and environmental factors. Have you felt sad, blue, down, low and not interested in your usual activities for most of the…
It is thought to affect about 3% to 6% of the population. Dysthymia, like depression, can affect both…
Dysthymia, can be described as a long-lasting, less severe experience of depression symptoms. Without treatment, studies have shown…
The symptoms of depression, like insomnia, a change in appetite, a feeling of worthlessness and anhedonia - a…
Tired of tossing and turning at night, watching the hours tick by and panicking that you will have…
Self-help is not a treatment for a depressive illness on its own, but it can contribute towards accelerating…
Step 1: Understanding the relationship between depression and diet Point blank refusal of treatment due to a mental illness can be a major problem. South…
If there isn’t a support group in your area, you could start your own. Here are useful guidelines…
These antidepressants do not fit into the aforementioned groups and many of them are newer agents. This is an older group of antidepressants, which is used less frequently today. These agents act by inhibiting…
This is an older group of drugs, which has been in use since 1957. These drugs affect predominantly…
These are among the newer antidepressants, which have been available from 1988. They act on the neurotransmitter serotonin.…
It is important to inform your prescribing doctor of the following: One in five pregnant women may suffer symptoms of depression, but few get treatment for it. That’s the…
The Post Natal Depression Support Association has the following advice: The Post Natal Depression Support Association recommends three things in the treatment of PND: medication, psychotherapy and individual…
There is no single cause of Post Natal Depression. Contrary to what many people believe, PND is not…
Between 10% and 40% of women develop Postnatal Depression (PND). If one takes the lowest figure of 10%,…
During the last week before menstruating, for most of the menstrual cycles occurring during the course of a…
An American study has shown that parents may not know their teenage children as well as they think…
It has been observed in most parts of the world that twice as many women as men experience…
Depression in the aged is common and is often unrecognised as such. As they tend to present more…
Reluctance to attend school and excessive clinging to parents may be symptoms of depression. Poor academic…
One cannot alter a genetic vulnerability or a history of loss but much can be done to decrease…
In order to diagnose a depressive disorder the health professional or family doctor would do a full evaluation…
About half of patients who are diagnosed with a Major Depressive Disorder have had significant symptoms prior to…
Exactly what causes depression is not known, but research has revealed several possible causes and contributory factors. These…
Depressive disorders are common and approximately 6-10 percent of the population will experience a depressive episode in any…
Between 80-90% of all depressed people respond to treatment and almost all sufferers who are appropriately treated will…
Major Depressive Disorder is a recurrent illness. While each episode usually responds to treatment it tends to be…
Depression affects different people in different ways. Some people may present predominantly with physical symptoms such as backache,…
There are several different types and sub-types of depressive illness just as Heart disease may present…
Depression, which must be distinguished from sadness or “the blues” is a common and legitimate medical illness. Everyone…
Panic disorder is characterised by the occurrence of repeated panic attacks, which last anything from a few seconds…
Do you have an intense fear for animals, heights, blood, injections, planes? Would you rather climb ten flights…
Everybody worries at times. But in the case of Generalised Anxiety Disorder…
Description How common is it? Depression can cause distress in many different aspects of one’s life including home, work and school. Research shows…
Venlafaxine is an antidepressant medication. It affects chemicals in your brain that may become unbalanced and cause…
Are you feeling really sad, tired, and worried most of the time? Are these feelings lasting more than…
A clinical depression is a syndrome or constellation of signs or symptoms beyond a normal reaction to life’s…
Depression is one of the most common--and serious--mental health problems facing people today. Each year, more than 1…
Depression among seniors (individuals over age 65) can be somewhat different than depression in the younger population. Although…
Survivors of stroke experience many changes resulting from their illness. Most people are aware of the physical changes…
Introduction People who experience symptoms of depression are at an increased risk of developing stroke, suggest the results of…
Bipolar disorder is a mental illness that causes extreme changes in mood, thinking, and behavior. During a “manic…
During the 1950’s extending to the 1970’s, lithium was demonstrated as the first effective treatment for bipolar disorder,…
A mental health professional will carefully evaluate a person’s symptoms to determine whether the symptoms meet the criteria…
The First Steps Towards Proper Diagnosis The first step in getting treatment for bipolar disorder is…
Bipolar disorder is a recurrent illness with high morbidity for some patients. Episodes increase in frequency with time,…
Bipolar disorder symptoms are cyclic. Patient’s cycle into manic episodes, then return to normal before cycling into a…
Genetic or hereditary factors contribute to the risk of bipolar disorder. Studies have demonstrated that the prevalence of…
Every year more than 17 million Americans suffer from clinical depression. It strikes men, women and children of…
Sure, everybody feels sad or blue now and then. But if you’re sad most of the time, and…
Bipolar Disorders: Clinical Complexities, Current Challenges
Recognising Depression
How EFFEXOR XR Works
Taking EFFEXOR XR
Frequently Asked Questions About EFFEXOR XR
Electroconvulsive therapy effective?
What is electroconvulsive therapy?
Effects of mental illness on the family
Caring for someone who is depressed
What you can’t expect from your therapist
How to choose the right therapist
Different schools of psychotherapy
What is a psychologist?
Can dysthymia lead to major depression?
What is the cause of dysthymia?
What are the symptoms of dysthymia?
Who gets dysthymia?
What is dysthymia?
Depression and sex
Depression and sleep
Depression: Self-help
Depression and diet
You feel down and depressed. Does diet…
Social Anxiety Disorder
Description
What if an ill person refuses treatment?
Depression: Guidelines on starting a support group
Other antidepressants
…
Monoamine Oxidase Inhibitors (MAOI’s)
Tricyclics
Selective Serotonin Reuptake Inhibitors (SSRI’S)
Antidepressants? Tell your doctor this
Blues missed in moms-to-be
Post Natal Depression: Self-care
How is Post Natal Depression treated?
What causes Post Natal Depression (PND)?
Postnatal Depression
Premenstrual dysphoric disorder
Teen depression unnoticed
Depression in women
Depression in the elderly
Depression in childhood
Prevention of depression
Diagnosis of depression
Course of depression
Causes of depression
Who becomes depressed?
Treatment of depression
Prognosis of depression
Symptoms of depression
Types of depression
What is depression?
Panic Disorder
Phobias
Generalised Anxiety Disorder
What is Generalised Anxiety Disorder (GAD)?
Anxiety disorders
Description
Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder
The links between anxiety and depression
Depression Treatment. Real Solutions
Effexor Overview / Effexor Side Effects
Stories of Depression--Do Any of These Personal Accounts Sound Like You?
Poststroke Depression
What is Long-Term Depression?
When You’re Older and Depressed…
Emotional After-Effects of Stroke
Depression and Stroke
Depression can strike anyone, but people with serious illnesses such as stroke may be at…
Depression Linked To Stroke
What is bipolar disorder?
BIPOLAR DISORDER: Clinical Complexities, Current Challenges
Mental health: About Specific Symptoms
Bipolar Disorder Diagnosis and Symptoms
Structural and Functional Brain Changes in Patients with Bipolar Disorder
What are the symptoms of bipolar disorder?
What are the risk factors and causes of bipolar disorder?
A Checklist for depression
Let’s Talk About Depression
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