Most of us have seen the list of symptoms that indicate possible depression:
* Persistent sad, anxious, or “empty” mood
* Feelings of hopelessness, pessimism
* Feelings of guilt, worthlessness, helplessness
* Loss of interest or pleasure in hobbies and activities that were once enjoyed, including sex
* Decreased energy, fatigue, being “slowed down”
* Difficulty concentrating, remembering, making decisions
* Insomnia, early-morning awakening, or oversleeping
* Appetite and/or weight loss or overeating and weight gain
* Thoughts of death or suicide; suicide attempts
* Restlessness, irritability
* Persistent physical symptoms that do not respond to treatment, such as headaches, digestive disorders, and chronic pain
One of the reasons that it took me so long to recognize that I had depression was not due to the lack of availability of lists of symptoms. I did come across these lists from time to time. But they didn’t seem to fit me.
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People who want to learn things might do better by simply stopping to smell the roses, researchers reported on Thursday.
German researchers found they could use odors to re-activate new memories in the brains of people while they slept — and the volunteers remembered better later.
Writing in the journal Science, they said their study showed that memories are indeed consolidated during sleep, and show that smells and perhaps other stimuli can reinforce brain learning pathways.
Jan Born of the University of Lubeck in Germany and colleagues had 74 volunteers learn to play games similar to the game of “Concentration” in which they must find matched pairs of objects or cards by turning only one over at a time.
While doing this task, some of the volunteers inhaled the scent of roses. The volunteers then agreed to sleep inside an MRI tube. Functional magnetic resonance imaging was used to “watch” their brains while they slept.
At various stages during sleep, Born’s team wafted in the same scent of roses.
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I wrote in an earlier blog piece that depression seems to bring other disorders with it more often than not. These include anxiety disorders, eating disorders, drug and alcohol addiction and attention-deficit disorder. The most common of these companion illnesses is any type of anxiety disorder. According to a study by the National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH), anxiety disorders affect about 40 million adult Americans in any given year.
Several different disorders fall under the anxiety category. These include Generalized Anxiety Disorder (GAD), Panic Disorder, Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder, Acute Stress Disorder, PTSD (Post TraumaticStress Disorder), phobias (including social phobia) and Agoraphobia.
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I read a news story the other day that was upsetting to me on so many levels – as a parent, a mental health advocate and simply as a human being. A four year old girl died from what appears to be an overdose of the prescription drugs she was being given for psychiatric disorders.
Rebecca Riley was taking Seroqel, an anti-psychotic; Depakote, which was presumably prescribed for bipolar disorder; and Clonidine, a blood pressure drug that is apparently used “off-label” to calm children. Off-label means that the drug is being used for a purpose other than the purpose approved by the FDA. Also, none of these drugs were approved by the FDA for use in children, for any purpose.
I have to say that my jaw dropped when I read this list of drugs, especially as Rebecca had been taking them since she was 2, when she was diagnosed with attention deficit disorder and bipolar disorder. Not only is prescribing a medication off-label risky, since it has not been tested for that purpose, but prescribing several off-label medications together is even riskier, since their interaction has not been tested.
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