Healthsifter by mary desmond pinkowish, since 2003

Anxious? Depressed? Try Some Acetaminophen (Tylenol)

The areas of your brain that manage physical and social pain overlap. So is it any surprise that a common pain killer might alleviate social/psychological as well as social distress? Here's an excerpt from an article at PyschCentral:

In the first experiment, 62 healthy volunteers took 1,000 milligrams daily of either acetaminophen or a placebo. Each evening, participants reported how much they experienced social pain using a version of the “Hurt Feelings Scale” – a measurement tool widely accepted by psychologists as a valid measure of social pain.

Hurt feelings and social pain decreased over time in those taking acetaminophen, while no change was observed in subjects taking the placebo. Levels of positive emotions remained stable, with no significant changes observed in either group. These results indicate that acetaminophen use may decrease self-reported social pain over time, by impacting emotions linked to hurt feelings.

Continuing...

Depression and Alcohol Abuse: Chicken or Egg?

Do people with depression self-medicate with alcohol? Or does alcohol abuse cause depression? As reported at ScienceDaily, some scientists think that alcohol overuse may lead to depression. These investigators, based in New Zealand used data collected from more than 1,000 people born in 1977 and determined that people with drinking problems were nearly twice as likely as people who did not to have major depression. Using statistical modeling, they then tried to assess the nature of the relationship between the two disorders:

 "This analysis suggested that the best-fitting model was one in which there was a unidirectional association from alcohol abuse or dependence to major depression but no reverse effect from major depression to alcohol abuse or dependence," the authors write.

"The underlying mechanisms that give rise to such an association are unclear; however, it has been proposed that this link may arise from genetic processes in which the use of alcohol acts to trigger genetic markers that increase the risk of major depression," they continue. "In addition, further research suggests that alcohol's depressant characteristics may lead to periods of depressed affect among those with alcohol abuse or dependence."

...ScienceDaily

Defeat Procrastination to Reduce Depression, Anxiety

Read Nancy Schimelpfening's excellent column at About.com on how depression/anxiety can feed into procrastination. The combination can get your head into a nasty spin cycle. Been there, done that. She has some good advice here, and it might be useful to you as you write your New Year's resolutions--or whatever you do on the last day of the old year. 

Depression Advice

Read advice from "Dear Prudence" at Slate to a woman who says she has hated herself since Day One and often feels compelled to cut herself and perform other self-injurious acts. It's just one person, but Prudence gives some generalizable advice.

Depression (the kind in your head) and the Economy

The emotional fallout from our current worldwide economic troubles is building, no surprise there. The Los Angeles TImes covers it today. There's an interesting description of how therapists may become financial coaches, as well:

"Unlike many emotional troubles, patients' depression is so connected to their financial state that mental health professionals say they must also tackle patients' money problems. Kaiser Permanente's Turner said some patients are so debilitated that he must take on the role of financial coach.

In some cases, he has helped patients apply online for mortgage refinancings during counseling sessions.

"These people are so depressed they just throw up their hands. They can't do anything, and problems pile up," he said. "They don't realize that if they fill out one piece of paper or make one phone call they could avoid some of these negative outcomes."

Even for those who manage to dig themselves out of trouble, the psychological effects of the downturn could be lasting.

"If they translate the financial crisis as personal failure, it could have long-term consequences. If they feel there is no need to try very hard they will lower expectations of themselves," Martin said."

Foods that Fight Depression?

Depression-fighting foods may never take the place of therapy and/or drugs for people who are seriously ill with a mood disorder. But it's hard to argue with any of the advice in this article in today's Parade magazine (check your Sunday paper). They discuss research suggesting that people with seasonal affective disorder may benefit from higher intakes of vitamin D. During the short daylight of winter, our bodies don't manufacture as much vitamin D as they do during the long days of summer. Scientists think that some of us are more sensitive to vitamin D depletion than others, and that depression could be one result. Also discussed here: the role of B vitamins and omega-3 fatty acids in combating depression. Psychiatrists sometimes suggest that their depressed patients take a bit of fish oil or an omega 3 capsule every day, along with any meds they use. 

Depression after a Heart Attack

The American Heart Association today released guidelines that urge depression screening in people who've had heart attacks. WebMD has a good summary of the recommendations that includes the screening questions. Here's a quote here from the Reuters story on the study:

"[The guidelines] reflect growing evidence that depression often follows a heart attack, and depressed heart patients are at higher risk for more heart trouble.

"Studies show that depression is about three times more common in patients following a heart attack than in the general community," said Judith Lichtman of Yale University School of Medicine, who helped write the new guidelines, which appear in the journal Circulation.

"Because there has been no routine screening for depression in heart patients, we think there is a large group of people who could benefit from appropriate treatment," she said in a statement."

The Increased Suicide Rates in Teens

After years of decline, teen suicide rates increased in 2005 (the last year for which data are available). This sad puzzle needs solving. Some suspect that the black box warnings added to SSRI antidepressant labels stating that the drugs themselves might cause suicidal thoughts may have scared some parents away from these drugs. In fact, 2007 statistics confirm that fewer teens are taking SSRIs. But antidepressants do apparently lessen suicide risk, so if fewer depressed teens take them, it's possible that one result might be more suicides. Other people have wondered about the effect of social networking sites (Facebook, MySpace) and easier access to alcohol and guns, as discussed today at MedPage Today. Sarah Rubenstein also writes about these new data in today's Wall Street Journal. Here's a timeline of the situation from her article:

How a trend changed direction.

1990-2003: The suicide rate for people 10 to 24 years old slid more than 28%.

2003-2004: The FDA issued advisories on antidepressants and required 'black box' warnings on labels.

2003-2004: The suicide rate for young people rose 8%.

2004-2005: The teen suicide rate slipped but remained elevated.

The original research appears in the current issue of the Journal of the American Medical Association, and it was also covered in the LA Times, Washington Post, and ScienceDaily.

Autism and Vaccines: Autism One Conference, Chicago

AMEDnews reports evenhandedly on the Autism One conference, which was held in Chicago over the Memorial Day weekend.One of the featured speakers was Dr. Andrew Wakefield, the British physician whose 1998 paper in The Lancet claimed an association between autism and the measles, mumps, and rubella (MMR) vaccine and autism in 12 kids. But this is what's happened since then, quoting from AMEDNews:

"Every so often, a small study such as the one conducted by Dr. Wakefield comes along to buttress that belief. In this case, the momentum has held, even though 10 of the 13 authors on the 1998 paper published a statement inThe Lancet in 2004 retracting the original interpretation that their data indicated a causal link between MMR and autism, and Dr. Wakefield faces significant professional scrutiny."

That is, Dr. Wakefield is in danger of losing his license to practice. In June, the UK health authorities declared that measles is now endemic in that country and confirmed a recent measles-related death. In the US, measles rates are at their highest since 2001. It's more than spots: encephalitis and pneumonia are just two possible complications.

Damage done.

Suicide

From the July 6 issue of the New York Times magazine comes this article on suicide. Author Scott Anderson tells a frustrating tale. The most troublesome question concerns why improvements in mental health care have not led to a reduction in the suicide rate, which has remained constant since 1965 at 11 per 100,000 people. But the really fascinating part comes at the end. Anderson speaks with people who have survived a suicide attempt and have become different people--with no further inclination to kill themselves. I'll quote some it here:

"One aspect of the survivors’ personalities that appears to have been left behind is whatever mind-tumble caused them to try to kill themselves in the first place. Since their attempts, none of the survivors I spoke with had experienced another impulse toward suicide...

"For each, it’s almost as if their near-death experience scared them straight, propelled them back to a point of recovery beyond even their own imagining. But that’s actually not so unusual; just as Seiden [a resesarcher] found that less than 10 percent of people thwarted from jumping off the Golden Gate Bridge went on to kill themselves, a host of studies show that same percentage holds among those who carry out “near fatal” attempts but somehow survive. Beginning in the 1970s, Dr. David Rosen, a psychiatrist and Jungian psychoanalyst, tracked down and conducted lengthy interviews with nine people who survived leaps from the Golden Gate, as well as one who had gone off the nearby Bay Bridge.

“What was immediately apparent,” Rosen recounted, “was that none of them had truly wanted to die. They had wanted their inner pain to stop; they wanted some measure of relief; and this was the only answer they could find. They were in spiritual agony, and they sought a physical solution.”

"In September 2000, Kevin Hines, a 19-year-old college student suffering from bipolar disorder, leapt from the Golden Gate. Along with Ken Baldwin, he is one of only 29 known survivors of the fall. Today Hines controls his bipolar disorder with medication and a strictly controlled regimen of diet and exercise and sleep, even while maintaining a frenetic schedule. Having recently married, he is frequently on the road lecturing for a suicide-prevention network while simultaneously working toward a psychology degree. One of his most intense ambitions, though, is to finally see a suicide barrier erected on the Golden Gate.

“I’ll tell you what I can’t get out of my head,” he told me in his San Francisco living room. “It’s watching my hands come off that railing and thinking to myself, My God, what have I just done? Because I know that almost everyone else who’s gone off that bridge, they had that exact same thought at that moment. All of a sudden, they didn’t want to die, but it was too late. Somehow I made it; they didn’t; and now I feel it’s my responsibility to speak for them.”