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HealthyPlace.com Newsletter

This Week - May 12, 2003

1. Depression: A Hidden Childhood Illness
2. Viagra shows promise in women on antidepressants
3. How to help a friend with an eating disorder
4. Disgust, not fear, may be factor in OCD
5. Newer antipsychotic drugs may not be better after all
6. Magnet treatment quiets voices plaguing schizophrenics
7. U.S. lags in treating mental illness
8. Addicted to love
9. A little humor

Depression: A Hidden Childhood Illness

More than 10 percent of kids struggle with the problem

Depression may be considered a grown-up disorder, but actually it affects up to 2.5 percent of children and up to 8.3 percent of teens in the United States, according to the National Institutes of Mental Health.

Yet, therapists say, many parents remain unaware that children can be depressed.

Why is that and what can you do if you suspect your child is depressed? Find out here.

view video: Is Your Child Depressed?

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Viagra Shows Promise in Women on Antidepressants

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More than 80 percent who took part in a study said their sexual problems were "much" or "very much improved." More details here.

How to Help a Friend With an Eating Disorder

Many people have friends with eating disorders whom they would like to help, but they aren't sure of what to do.

In a continuing series of articles, here are some tips to increase the chance that your efforts to help will be seen by your friend as the caring gestures that they are meant to be. Read on.

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Disgust, not fear, may be factor in mental disorder

Joe Teller faces the snake swim challenge in NBC's "Fear Factor." University of Florida researchers suggest the popular show should be renamed "Disgust Factor."

Apparently, fear is not a factor in the behavior of some patients with obsessive-compulsive disorder.

Although it has long been held that obsessive people driven to behaviors such as continual hand washing were acting out of fear of infection or other contamination, the real motivator may be disgust, according to researchers at the University of Florida's McKnight Brain Institute.

UF psychiatrists have found that a group of healthy volunteers and people with obsessive-compulsive disorders responded in much the same way to a threatening image of a snake with bared fangs. But when the subject matter changed to views of roaches nibbling pizza, flies on pumpkin pie or a bathroom stall no one would dare use, obsessive-compulsive disorder patients responded much more profoundly to the disgusting images.

Perhaps, the psychiatrists suggest, the popular NBC show "Fear Factor" should be renamed "Disgust Factor."

"We are all familiar with what disgust feels like," said Dr. Wayne Goodman, chairman of psychiatry in UF's College of Medicine. "It's the yuck reaction, the feeling that you want to vomit."

The UF team suspects disgust may be an important component in obsessive-compulsive disorder, which in any given year, affects about 3.3 million people between 18 and 54 in the United States.

Obsessive-compulsive disorder is classified as an anxiety disorder, which Goodman said is really another word for fear.

"When you are afraid of something, you are going to freeze, fight or take flight," he said.

But that's not the same as disgust.

"If you find something disgusting, you are not going to put it in your mouth, and the next time you see or smell it, you won't go near it," he added.

As the disgust factor gains credibility, it could change traditional views of obsessive-compulsive disorder.

"We may see a paradigm shift, saying a subgroup of (obsessive-compulsive disorder) patients who have contamination concerns have these unwanted thoughts not because of fear or anxiety, but because of an overreaction to disgust," said Dr. Nathan Shapira, assistant professor of psychiatry and the lead author of the UF study, which appears in the current online issue of the journal Biological Psychiatry.

Researchers compared five women and three men who had contamination-centered obsessive-compulsive disorder with a matched group of healthy volunteers. Study participants observed 30 pictures that had been rated as threatening, disgusting or emotionally neutral in content.

At the same time, functional magnetic resonance images of the brain recorded their reactions. In the obsessive-compulsive disorder patients, one area of the brain involved with taste and smell appeared to be more activated in response to disgusting stimuli.

Shapira noted that there are different types of obsessive-compulsive disorder symptoms, and some are more associated with the fear response.

"Contamination concerns are the most common, but intrusive thoughts and safety issues are close behind," he said. "In future studies, we'd like to better define which types of individuals with (obsessive-compulsive disorder) have which brain response."

Depending on the outcome of those studies, Shapira said, it might be possible to develop more practical diagnostic procedures for this fairly common, often disabling illness.

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Newer Antipsychotic Drugs May Not Be Better After All

Newer drugs used to treat psychosis are thought to have fewer side effects, but now a new study challenges that thinking.
Continued

Treatment Quiets Voices Plaguing Schizophrenics

Auditory hallucinations are a hallmark of schizophrenia. Aided by new brain-imaging techniques, researchers have begun tracking hallucinations back to abnormalities in the brain, finding that magnetic stimulation significantly reduces the voices. Here's how it works.

U.S. Lags in Treating Mental Illness

Only 1 in 3 with serious emotional problems gets help

The United States has a greater percentage of mentally ill citizens than some other countries but typically provides less treatment for their problems, new research has found.

The study, which compared five nations in the Americas and Europe, found the United States had the highest prevalence of people who report some form of emotional trouble, at nearly 30 percent.

Although most of these were mild disorders, only a third of people in the United States with serious mental illness received treatment, the worst rate among the countries studied.

The findings appear in the May/June issue of the journal Health Affairs.

David Duncan, a Kentucky psychologist familiar with the research, says the results aren't surprising, given that the other four countries have national health insurance programs while the United States does not. "It shows the ways in which different health-care systems can have an impact" on treatment for mental disorders, Duncan says.

However, no nation in the study can claim to be doing an excellent job with their mentally ill, Duncan says. At best, only two-thirds of people with serious disorders got help for their problems. "All the countries have pretty bad under-treatment," he says. What's more, patients often see general practice doctors instead of mental health experts, a situation that can result in inadequate care.

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I'm Addicted to Him....please help me!

Addictedtohim writes:

"My narcissist husband has lied and constantly cheated on me for years. Of course, everything is my fault. I understand he never loved me. I understand he will NEVER change. I understand he doesn't love my kids. I understand he doesn't love HER!! So why can't I stop loving him and wanting him back?"

Can you help Addictedtohim? Respond here .

* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *

Here's a little humor to get you through the week

How to Keep A Healthy Level of Insanity

1. At lunch time, sit in your parked car and point a hair dryer at passing cars to see if they slow down.
2. Page yourself over the intercom. (Don't disguise your voice)
3. Every time someone asks you to do something, ask if they want fries with that.
4. Encourage your colleagues to join you in a little synchronized chair dancing.
5. Develop an unnatural fear of staplers.

From all of us here at HealthyPlace.com, we hope you have a good week.

Previous Newsletters

• April 28, 2003
• April 14, 2003
• March 31, 2003
• March 24, 2003
• March 12, 2003

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