anxiety-disorders

Don’t worry, be happy: How excessive worrying may influence the rate of neurodegeneration

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Wor­ry­ing and the Aging Brain (Dana Foundation):

Over the past decade, sci­en­tists and clin­i­cians have not­ed a sig­nif­i­cant asso­ci­a­tion between com­mon men­tal health con­di­tions and accel­er­at­ed brain aging—the changes to brain struc­ture, phys­i­ol­o­gy, and func­tion that are thought to lead to lat­er cog­ni­tive decline. Both depres­sion and anx­i­ety dis­or­ders, for exam­ple, are strong­ly cor­re­lat­ed with the devel­op­ment of demen­tias includ­ing Alzheimer’s dis­ease lat­er in life, yet it has been unclear why. Neu­ro­sci­en­tists and geron­tol­o­gists around the globe have dili­gent­ly worked to inves­ti­gate which par­tic­u­lar symp­toms might con­tribute to age-relat­ed cog­ni­tive decline. [Read more…] about Don’t wor­ry, be hap­py: How exces­sive wor­ry­ing may influ­ence the rate of neurodegeneration

Study finds psychiatric diagnoses to be ‘scientifically meaningless’

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Psy­chi­atric diag­no­sis ‘sci­en­tif­i­cal­ly mean­ing­less’ (Sci­ence Daily):

“A new study, pub­lished in Psy­chi­a­try Research, has con­clud­ed that psy­chi­atric diag­noses are sci­en­tif­i­cal­ly worth­less as tools to iden­ti­fy dis­crete men­tal health disorders.

The study, led by researchers from the Uni­ver­si­ty of Liv­er­pool, involved a detailed analy­sis of five key chap­ters of the lat­est edi­tion of the wide­ly used Diag­nos­tic and Sta­tis­ti­cal Man­u­al (DSM), on ‘schiz­o­phre­nia’, ‘bipo­lar dis­or­der’, ‘depres­sive dis­or­ders’, ‘anx­i­ety dis­or­ders’ and ‘trau­ma-relat­ed dis­or­ders’ [Read more…] about Study finds psy­chi­atric diag­noses to be ‘sci­en­tif­i­cal­ly meaningless’

Time to rethink Mental Health, especially anxiety disorders and depression

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The glob­al men­tal health cri­sis could cost the world $16 tril­lion by 2030. With men­tal dis­or­ders on the rise in every coun­try in the world, nowhere is immune.

Poor men­tal health stops employ­ees from reach­ing their full poten­tial and forces them to take more sick days, stunt­ing pro­duc­tiv­i­ty and eco­nom­ic growth. This is also a chal­lenge with soci­ety-wide ram­i­fi­ca­tions. Lone­li­ness and iso­la­tion affect many of the most vul­ner­a­ble among us. Peo­ple with seri­ous con­di­tions such as schiz­o­phre­nia or bipo­lar dis­or­der are espe­cial­ly like­ly to be mar­gin­alised by their com­mu­ni­ties. Those with the most severe con­di­tions pay with their lives, dying pre­ma­ture­ly – as much as two decades before their time.

For­tu­nate­ly, com­ing into Davos this year we are rid­ing a sea change in how the world approach­es men­tal health.

–> Keep read­ing Why this is the year we must take action on men­tal health over at the World Eco­nom­ic Forum blog.

Article in context:

Q: What do people with schizophrenia, bipolar disorder, depression, addiction, obsessive-compulsive disorder, and anxiety have in common? A: A brain with similar gray-matter loss

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graymatter_comparison

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Dif­fer­ent men­tal dis­or­ders cause same brain-mat­ter loss, study finds (press release):

“A meta-analy­sis of 193 brain-imag­ing stud­ies shows sim­i­lar gray-mat­ter loss in the brains of peo­ple with diag­noses as dif­fer­ent as schiz­o­phre­nia, depres­sion and addiction…The find­ings call into ques­tion a long­stand­ing ten­den­cy to dis­tin­guish psy­chi­atric dis­or­ders chiefly by their symp­toms rather than their under­ly­ing brain pathol­o­gy. [Read more…] about Q: What do peo­ple with schiz­o­phre­nia, bipo­lar dis­or­der, depres­sion, addic­tion, obses­sive-com­pul­sive dis­or­der, and anx­i­ety have in com­mon? A: A brain with sim­i­lar gray-mat­ter loss

Study: Long-term use of anxiety and sleeping pills can increase Alzheimer’s risk

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benzodiazepinesAnx­i­ety and sleep­ing pills ‘linked to demen­tia’ (BBC):

“A study of old­er Cana­di­an adults found that past ben­zo­di­azepine use for three months or more was linked to an increased risk (up to 51%) of dementia…Benzodiazepines are used to treat anx­i­ety dis­or­ders and insomnia.

Dr James Pick­ett, head of research at the Alzheimer’s Soci­ety, said [Read more…] about Study: Long-term use of anx­i­ety and sleep­ing pills can increase Alzheimer’s risk

PTSD: Can we Disrupt the Reconsolidation of Traumatic Memories?

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8% of Amer­i­cans suf­fer from PTSD and this rate increas­es up to 15% as far as vet­er­ans are con­cerned. PTSD or Post Trau­mat­ic Stress Dis­or­der is a type of anx­i­ety dis­or­der that occurs after see­ing or expe­ri­enc­ing a trau­mat­ic event. Peo­ple with PTSD have per­sis­tent fright­en­ing thoughts and mem­o­ries of the event. They may expe­ri­ence sleep prob­lems, feel detached or numb, or be eas­i­ly startled.

This arti­cle from the Dana Foun­da­tion asks a very inter­est­ing question:

Can we dis­rupt the recon­sol­i­da­tion of trau­mat­ic mem­o­ries that con­tribute to PTSD and bring relief to patients suf­fer­ing from this disorder?

This com­plete and stim­u­lat­ing read tells us how mem­o­ries are formed and con­sol­i­dat­ed. The authors dis­cuss the dif­fer­ent tech­niques used or under research that can help PTSD patients. Since avail­able ther­a­pies have suc­cess rates of only 60%, this is a press­ing top­ic these days. The eth­i­cal ques­tion of whether it is okay to look for solu­tions to erase mem­o­ries is also raised.

Relat­ed arti­cle: Can Brain Fit­ness Inno­va­tion Enhance Cog­ni­tive Rehab?