http://www.health.am/psy/ Depression treatment - Manic depression http://www.health.am/psy/more/alternative-treatments-for-autism/ As more research is done on autism, a brain development disorder, doctors and researchers are finding alternative ways to treat it. Medication used to be the only recourse and can have nasty side effects. Parents are looking for different, natural ways to treat their autistic children. There have been some alternative methods in treating autism that are more common than others. Some work alone while others are used in combination. There is no telling which method will work best for your child. Speak with your doctor to learn about alternative treatments for autistic children. 1. Music Therapy: Autistic children have been found to respond to music in a number of ways. Sometimes the music makes them happy and they want to move around, helping with their motor skills. Other times children sing along to the words of the song, helping with speech therapy. This has been seen in children who do not even talk. Music therapy is a natural way to help autistic children. 2010-03-22T14:01:00-08:00 http://www.health.am/psy/more/failed-college-dreams-dont-spell-depression/ High school seniors, take note: A wise person once said, “It is better to shoot for the stars and miss than aim at the gutter and hit it.” That’s right on, says Florida State University Sociology Professor John R. Reynolds, who just completed a study to determine whether unrealized educational expectations are associated with depression among adults. Reynolds also is the director of the Pepper Institute on Aging and Public Policy at Florida State. He and co-author Chardie L. Baird, an assistant professor of sociology at Kansas State University, found no long-term emotional costs of aiming high and falling short when it comes to educational aspirations, despite several social psychological theories that would seem to suggest otherwise. The researchers’ conclusion: Society should not discourage unpromising students who have dreams of earning a college degree. 2010-03-19T22:00:00-08:00 http://www.health.am/psy/more/treatment-options-for-generalized-anxiety-disorder/ A little worry is normal, but people who constantly worry about daily concerns, even when times are good, may have generalized anxiety disorder (GAD). GAD is excessive worry that lasts at least six months and disrupts daily activities, according to the March issue of Mayo Clinic Women’s HealthSource. Typically starting during middle age and more common in older adults, GAD affects an estimated 4 to 7 percent of adults 65 and older and often goes hand in hand with depression or other anxiety disorders, such as phobias. It’s believed that people with GAD have abnormal levels of brain chemicals that affect the response to stressful or uncertain situations. This overactive fear circuitry in the brain can cause a person to view many situations, even harmless ones, as threats.  2010-03-18T11:43:01-08:00 http://www.health.am/psy/more/depressed-children-not-being-diagnosed/ UP to 75 per cent of children and adolescents suffering depression and other clinically identifiable mood disorders remain undetected in the community. And many of those detected receive no treatment, according to a new set of draft guidelines on treating depression. The draft, prepared by depression initiative beyondblue for consideration by the National Health and Medical Research Council, says young people may not seek help because they believe their symptoms are a normal part of growing up, or they fear the stigma of mental health problems. 2010-03-16T07:58:00-08:00 http://www.health.am/psy/more/mothers-flu-during-pregnancy-risk-of-schizophrenia/ Rhesus monkey babies born to mothers who had the flu while pregnant had smaller brains and showed other brain changes similar to those observed in human patients with schizophrenia, a study at the University of Wisconsin-Madison in collaboration with the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill has found. The study, published online by the journal Biological Psychiatry, is the first study done with monkeys that examines the effects of flu during pregnancy. Results from this study support findings from rodent studies suggesting this type of infection may increase the risk of schizophrenia in the offspring, said lead author Sarah J. Short, Ph.D. Short worked on the study while earning her doctorate at Wisconsin and now is a post-doctoral fellow at UNC working with John H. Gilmore, M.D., professor of psychiatry in the UNC School of Medicine. 2010-03-11T18:20:00-08:00 http://www.health.am/psy/more/more-cocaine-overdose-deaths-seen-on-hotter-days/ The number of New Yorkers who die of cocaine overdose appears to go up when the temperature surpasses 75 degrees, a new study suggests. The findings, reported in the journal Addiction, suggest that relatively hot days may increase cocaine users’ vulnerability to the drug’s potentially fatal effects. For the study, researchers analyzed data on deaths and weather for New York City for the years 1990 through 2006. They found that for every 2-degree increase in average temperature beyond 75 degrees, there were 0.25 additional cocaine-overdose deaths per 1 million residents each week.  2010-03-10T18:54:00-08:00 http://www.health.am/psy/more/awareness-timely-treatment-can-help-cure-schizophrenia/ The brain is the core of an individual’s personality, but some times it becomes one’s enemy when it starts acting as another individual and creates an entire living world which only the affected can person see, hear and live within. This is what happened with 27-year-old Shamin who sent the Lucknow police into a tizzy for over 40 hours last month. Medically, this condition called schizophrenia—one of the many daunting mental health challenges that affect patients, their families, health care givers and even the society. Surprisingly, the media hype over Shamim episode has helped in creating awareness on mental disorders, claims Dr Harjeet Singh of psychiatry department, Chhatrapati Shahuji Maharaj Medical University (CSMMU).  2010-03-09T12:14:00-08:00 http://www.health.am/psy/more/the-real-risks-of-mental-illness/ Reports that the Yorkshire Ripper, Peter Sutcliffe, may appeal against his conviction on the ground of diminished responsibility because he had paranoid schizophrenia when he murdered his victims can only reinforce public perception that the mentally ill pose a serious threat and further stigmatise an already poorly understood condition. Some people with serious mental illnesses are dangerous but, although cases involving them invariably hit the headlines, they represent a tiny minority of the hundreds of thousands affected. Even when a person’s illness does lead to violence, it is nearly always directed against him or herself. People with schizophrenia are much more likely to take their own life than to harm others. Despite major strides forward in our knowledge of the brain, schizophrenia remains much less well understood than conditions affecting other vital organs in the body. It is a striking illness, though, because it is so alien to the uninitiated. I vividly recall meeting my first case in a cell-like room in a grim asylum. I was a medical student and he was a young man of similar age to me who had been placed in hospital against his will. His problems had started when he withdrew from his college course and barricaded himself in his digs to keep out the “watchers” — people who had been monitoring him and his thoughts since he began university. But the barricade hadn’t stopped them from inserting a bug into his brain so they could eavesdrop. I can still see the earnest look on his face as he pulled me close to whisper that he knew the psychiatrist didn’t believe him, but he had proof that the bug was there because he could smell hot electrics in his sweat.  2010-03-09T12:11:00-08:00 http://www.health.am/psy/more/effective-screening-tool-for-common-psychiatric-disorders/ A one-page, 27-item questionnaire that is available free online is a valid and effective tool to help primary care doctors screen patients for four common psychiatric illnesses, a study led by University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill researchers concludes. Results of the My Mood Monitor (M-3) checklist study are published in the March/April 2010 issue of Annals of Family Medicine. The checklist was developed by M-3 Information of Bethesda, Md., and is available at http://www.mymoodmonitor.com. “About one in 10 Americans who suffer from depression and anxiety-related mental health disorders never receives treatment because they don’t understand what’s wrong, and when they go to their family doctor these treatable illnesses are too often missed,” said Bradley Gaynes, M.D., M.P.H, lead author of the study and an associate professor of psychiatry in the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill School of Medicine. 2010-03-09T09:35:00-08:00 http://www.health.am/psy/more/obesity-and-depression-are-a-two-way-street/ People who are obese are at increased risk of becoming depressed, and people who are depressed are at increased risk of becoming obese, Dutch researchers have found. “There is a reciprocal association over time between depression and obesity,” Dr. Floriana S. Luppino, of Leiden University Medical Center, the Netherlands, told Reuters Health by email. Obesity, Luppino and colleagues found, increases the risk of depression in initially non-depressed individuals by 55 percent and depression increases the risk of obesity in initially normal-weight individuals by 58 percent.  2010-03-04T23:16:00-08:00