Finding Relief Beyond the Pill: Mindfulness Shows Promise for Military with Chronic Pain

adminBest Practices, Other Psychiatric Disorders, Physical Conditions and Health, Psychobiology, Self Care Leave a Comment

Chronic pain and opioid dependence can be a debilitating double whammy for military personnel and veterans. But a recent study offers a beacon of hope: mindfulness training, coupled with therapy techniques, can significantly reduce both pain symptoms and opioid use in this population. The research, published in The American Journal of Psychiatry, compared two approaches to treating chronic pain in …

Simple Blood Test May Help Diagnose Bipolar Disorder

adminDiagnosis, Psychobiology, Testing Leave a Comment

Bipolar disorder is a mental health condition that causes extreme mood swings, from manic highs to depressive lows. It can be a difficult condition to diagnose, as the symptoms can overlap with other conditions, such as depression, anxiety, ADHD, etcetera. A new study from the University of Cambridge suggests that some day a blood test could help to diagnose bipolar …

Brain Imaging-Based Biomarker of Depression Identified

adminDepression, Diagnosis, Major Depression, Mental Health, Psychobiology, Treatments of Depression Leave a Comment

Depre­ssion is a widespread and devastating me­ntal health disorder that impacts millions of individuals across the globe­. It is characterized by enduring fe­elings of sadness and despair, along with alte­rations in appetite, slee­p patterns, and energy le­vels. Despite the­ existence of effective treatme­nts for depression, numerous individuals do not e­xperience improve­ment with these inte­rventions. Additionally, accurately predicting tre­atment response re­mains …

Qi Gong

adminGeneral, Mental Health, Physical Conditions and Health, Psychobiology, Self Care Leave a Comment

Qi Gong is an ancient Chinese practice that combines physical postures, breathing exercises, and meditation. It is said to promote health and well-being by harmonizing the flow of energy, or “qi,” throughout the body. Qi Gong is a safe and gentle practice that can be done by people of all ages and fitness levels. It is a good way to …

Breathing, Hyperventilation, Carbon Dioxide and Panic

adminAnxiety, Basic Science, Psychobiology Leave a Comment

How does a panic attack relate to how we are breathing and the level of carbon dioxide and oxygen in our blood, and what is the fundamental flaw in brain programming that makes some of us so vulnerable to panic attacks? I was debriefing with a young woman who took too much of a new medication and ended up in …

Inflammation and Depression – Specific Symptom Cluster

adminBasic Science, Depression, Diagnosis, Major Depression, Physical Conditions and Health, Psychobiology Leave a Comment

A study of 15 population-based cohorts, totalling 56,351 individuals, suggests that there is a correlation between inflammation as measured by elevated  C-reactive protein (CRP) and interleukin-6 (IL-6) and a specific sub-group of symptoms of depression. The inflammation cluster consisted of four physical symptoms: changes in appetite, felt everything was an effort, loss of energy, sleep problems; and one cognitive symptom: little …

Family Risk of Bipolar 1 and 2 Disorders and Schizophrenia

Peter ForsterDiagnosis, Psychobiology Leave a Comment

Interesting study out of Taiwan that uses their fairly comprehensive population based data set to look at the relative risk of having different disorders in a family where one parent either has bipolar one or bipolar two disorder. I found this study interesting in that it suggests that bipolar one has a higher genetic loading for any kind of bipolar …

Limbic and Prefrontal Connectivity and Treatment Selection for Depression

Peter ForsterBasic Science, Best Practices, Major Depression, Psychobiology, Treatments of Depression

Boadie Dunlop, M.D., M.S., and Helen Mayberg, M.D., both of Emory University School of Medicine, and colleagues assessed resting-state functional connectivity between the subcallosal cingulate cortex (SCC) and three other brain regions—the dorsal midbrain, the ventrolateral prefrontal cortex and anterior insula, and the ventromedial prefrontal cortex—in 122 patients with depression. The patients were then randomized to 12 weeks of cognitive-behavioral …

Depression Resilience and Neural Connectivity

Peter ForsterBasic Science, Major Depression, Psychobiology Leave a Comment

Much has been written about risk factors for depression but we know less about depression resilience factors. Why do some people at high risk develop depression, while others do not. A study conducted at Stanford by Adina S. Fischer, MD PhD, and colleagues, suggests that increased regulation of limbic areas (the parts of the brain that are most directly involved in …

Shared Gene Expression

Shared Gene Expression in Mental Disorders

Peter ForsterDiagnosis, Psychobiology Leave a Comment

Four distinct psychiatric disorders – autism, schizophrenia, bipolar disorder and depression – have shared gene expression, according to research published online Feb. 8 in the journal Science. Researchers arrived at the study’s findings by analyzing RNA in 700 tissue samples from the brains of dead people who had autism, schizophrenia, bipolar disorder, major depression or alcohol abuse disorder, then comparing those samples …