Summary: Studies have shown that many women handle chronic stress or depression differently than men, and women tend to develop alcohol abuse issues later in life more often than men, and at a faster rate, says the Chicago Tribune. Female drivers make up about 25 percent of DUI arrests across the country, as opposed to just 10 percent in the 80s. Society changes and the demands of balancing a career with motherhood and family life may contribute to more women drinking and driving. Many factors can lead to stress severe enough that women feel they need to try to cope by drinking, according to the Traffic Injury Research Foundation. Full Article: Click Here
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By Cathy Fitzpatrick-Platt Summary: Depression affects approximately 2 percent of children nationwide and 6 percent of teenagers at any given time, according to Dr. Shashank V. Joshi, assistant professor of psychiatry and behavioral sciences at the Stanford School of Medicine. "Twenty to 25 percent will have experienced depression of some sort by the time they graduate from high school," Joshi said, describing this depression as feeling in a sad mood for more than a few days. Most bounce back and continue with normal activities and friendships. But for some, the depression lingers. And many teens will suffer in silence, as, according to Joshi, they often don't talk about their own depression, what he calls a "brain-based medical condition." The cause of this painful disorder? According to the Stanford University Depression Research Clinic website, the exact cause of depression is still unknown, but biological, psychological and environmental factors can be contributors. It is thought that an imbalance of certain neurotransmitters in the brain, such as serotonin, norepinephrine and dopamine, can contribute to some people's depression. Antidepressants target biological causes associated with an imbalance of neurotransmitters in the brain. "The neurotransmitter story is not the whole story. ... There are areas of the brain that can change with talk therapy," Joshi said. Treatments for mild to moderate depression include cognitive behavioral, or talk, therapy, he said, while moderate to severe depression is treated with a combination of psychotherapy and medication. What do you do? Pay attention, Joshi recommends. If a teen is in a sad mood for a week or more, shows a loss of interest or withdrawal from friends, and is no longer doing what she likes to do, ask questions. Talk to the teen's primary care provider or school counselor. Read about depression. Go to the Heard Alliance website (where there are questionnaires, under resources, and educational information on depression, mood disorders, anxiety, and more), and the American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry website. Full Story: Click Here From Health.com Full Article: Click Here Summary: There are many safe nondrug remedies for anxiety, from mind-body techniques to supplements to calming teas. Some start working right away, while others may help lessen anxiety over time. Chamomile If you have a jittery moment, a cuppa chamomile tea might help calm you down. Some compounds in chamomile (Matricaria recutita) bind to the same brain receptors as drugs like Valium. You can also take it as a supplement, typically standardized to contain 1.2 percent apigenin (an active ingredient), along with dried chamomile flowers. In one study at the University of Pennsylvania Medical Center, in Philadelphia, patients with generalized anxiety disorder (GAD) who took chamomile supplements for eight weeks had a significant decrease in anxiety symptoms compared to patients taking placebo. L-theanine (or green tea) They say Japanese Buddhist monks could meditate for hours, both alert and relaxed. One reason may have been an amino acid in their green tea called L-theanine, says Mark Blumenthal, of the American Botanical Council. Research shows that L-theanine helps curb a rising heart rate and blood pressure, and a few small human studies have found that it reduces anxiety. In one study, anxiety-prone subjects were calmer and more focused during a test if they took 200 milligrams of L-theanine beforehand. You can get that much L-theanine from green tea, but you'll have to drink many cups—as few as five, as many as 20. Hops Yes, it's in beer, but you won't get the tranquilizing benefits of the bitter herb hops (Humulus lupulus) from a brew. The sedative compound in hops is a volatile oil, so you get it in extracts and tinctures—and as aromatherapy in hops pillows. "It's very bitter, so you don't see it in tea much, unless combined with chamomile or mint," says Blumenthal. Hops is often used as a sedative, to promote sleep, often with another herb, valerian. Note: Don't take sedative herbs if you are taking a prescription tranquilizer or sedative, and let your doctor know any supplements you are taking. Valerian Some herbal supplements reduce anxiety without making you sleepy (such as L-theanine), while others are sedatives. Valerian (Valeriana officinalis) is squarely in the second category. It is a sleep aid, for insomnia. It contains sedative compounds; the German government has approved it as a treatment for sleep problems. Valerian smells kind of nasty, so most people take it as a capsule or tincture, rather than a tea. If you want to try it, take it in the evening—not before you go to work! Valerian is often combined with other sedative herbs such as hops, chamomile, and lemon balm. Lemon balm Named after the Greek word for "honey bee," lemon balm (Melissa officinalis), has been used at least since the Middle Ages to reduce stress and anxiety, and help with sleep. In one study of healthy volunteers, those who took standardized lemon balm extracts (600 mg) were more calm and alert than those who took a placebo. While it's generally safe, be aware that some studies have found that taking too much can actually make you more anxious. So follow directions and start with the smallest dose. Lemon balm is sold as a tea, capsule, and tincture. It's often combined with other calming herbs such as hops, chamomile, and valerian. Exercise Exercise is safe, good for the brain, and a powerful antidote to depression and anxiety, both immediately and in the long term. "If you exercise on a regular basis, you'll have more self-esteem and feel healthier," says Dr. Drew Ramsey, assistant clinical professor of psychiatry at New York-Presbyterian Hospital, Columbia University. "One of the major causes of anxiety is worrying about illness and health, and that dissipates when you are fit." The 21-minute cure Twenty-one minutes: That's about how long it takes for exercise to reliably reduce anxiety, studies show, give or take a minute. "If you're really anxious and you hop on a treadmill, you will feel more calm after the workout," Ramsey says. "I generally ask my patients to spend 20 to 30 minutes in an activity that gets their heart rate up, whether it's a treadmill or elliptical or stair stepping—anything you like. If you rowed in college, get back to rowing. If you don't exercise, start taking brisk walks." Passionflower In spite of the name, this herb won't help you in love. It's a sedative; the German government has approved it for nervous restlessness. Some studies find that it can reduce symptoms of anxiety as effectively as prescription drugs. It's often used for insomnia. Like other sedatives, it can cause sleepiness and drowsiness, so don't take it—or valerian, hops, kava, lemon balm, or other sedative herbs—when you are also taking a prescription sedative. Be careful about using more than one sedative herb at a time, and don't take passionflower for longer than one month at a time. Lavender The intoxicating (but safe) aroma of lavender (Lavandula hybrida) may be an "emotional" anti-inflammatory. In one study, Greek dental patients were less anxious if the waiting room was scented with lavender oil. In a Florida study, students who inhaled lavender oil scent before an exam has less anxiety—although some students said it made their minds "fuzzy" during the test. In one German study, a specially formulated lavender pill (not available in the U.S.) was shown to reduce anxiety symptoms in people with Generalized Anxiety Disorder (GAD) as effectively as lorazepam (brand name: Ativan), an anti-anxiety medication in the same class as Valium. Hold your breath! Ok, let it out now. We're not recommending that you turn blue, but yoga breathing has been shown to be effective in lowering stress and anxiety. In his bestselling 2011 book Spontaneous Happiness, Dr. Andrew Weil introduced a classic yoga breathing technique he calls the 4-7-8 breath. One reason it works is that you can't breathe deeply and be anxious at the same time. To do the 4-7-8 breath, exhale completely through your mouth, then inhale through your nose for a count of four. Hold your breath for a count of seven. Now let it out slowly through your mouth for a count of eight. Repeat at least twice a day. Eat something, quick "Almost universally, people get more anxious and irritable when they are hungry," says Ramsey, coauthor of The Happiness Diet. "When you get an anxiety attack, it may mean your blood sugar is dropping. The best thing to do is to have a quick sustaining snack, like a handful of walnuts, or a piece of dark chocolate, along with a glass of water or a nice cup of hot tea." In the long term, diet is key to reducing anxiety, says Ramsey. His advice: Eat a whole-foods, plant-based diet with carefully selected meat and seafood, plenty of leafy greens (such as kale) to get folate, and a wide variety of phytonutrients to help reduce anxiety. Eat breakfast Stop starving yourself, advises Ramsey. "Many people with anxiety disorders skip breakfast. I recommend that people eat things like eggs, which are a satiating and filling protein, and are nature's top source of choline. Low levels of choline are associated with increased anxiety." Eat omega-3s You know fish oils are good for the heart, and perhaps they protect against depression. Add anxiety to the list. In one study, students who took 2.5 milligrams a day of mixed omega-3 fatty acids for 12 weeks had less anxiety before an exam than students taking placebo. Experts generally recommend that you get your omega-3s from food whenever possible. Oily, cold-water fishes like salmon are the best sources of the fatty acids; a six-ounce piece of grilled wild salmon contains about 3.75 grams. Other good choices: anchovies, sardines, and mussels. Stop catastrophizing When you're attacked by anxiety, it's easy to get into a mind set known as "catastrophic thinking" or "catastrophizing." Your mind goes to the bad terrible really horrible just unbearable things and what if they really do happen? "You think, ‘This could really ruin my life,'" says Ramsey. Instead, take a few deep breaths, walk around the block, and consider the real probability that this problem will really spin out into catastrophe. How likely is it that you'll lose your job, never talk to your sister again, go bankrupt? Chances are a catastrophic outcome is a lot less likely than you think when you're consumed with anxiety. "Very few events really change the trajectory of your life," says Ramsey. Get hot Ever wonder why you feel so relaxed after a spell in the sauna or a steam room? Heating up your body reduces muscle tension and anxiety, research finds. Sensations of warmth may alter neural circuits that control mood, including those that affect the neurotransmitter serotonin. Warming up may be one of the ways that exercise—not to mention curling up by a fire with a cozy cup of tea—boosts mood. As one group of researchers put it, "Whether lying on the beach in the midday sun on a Caribbean island, grabbing a few minutes in the sauna or spa after work, or sitting in a hot bath or Jacuzzi in the evening, we often associate feeling warm with a sense of relaxation and well-being." Take a 'forest bath' The Japanese call it Shinrin-yoku, literally "forest bath." You and I know it as a walk in the woods. Japanese researchers measured body changes in people who walked for about 20 minutes in a beautiful forest, with the woodsy smells and the sounds of a running stream. The forest bathers had lower stress hormone levels after their walk than they did after a comparable walk in an urban area. Learn mindfulness meditation Mindfulness meditation, originally a Buddhist practice but now a mainstream therapy, is particularly effective in treating anxiety, says Teresa M. Edenfield, a clinical psychologist in the Veterans Administration Medical Center in Durham, N.C., who often uses it to treat anxiety patients. "The act of practicing mindful awareness allows one to experience the true essence of each moment as it really occurs, rather than what is expected or feared," she says. How to begin? You can start by simply "paying attention to the present moment, intentionally, with curiosity, and with an effort to attend non-judgmentally," Edenfield says. Breath and question To stay mindful, ask yourself simple questions while practicing breathing exercises, Edenfield suggests. "Sit in a comfortable place, close your eyes, and focus on how your breath feels coming in and out of your body. Now ask yourself silent questions while focusing on the breath." What is the temperature of the air as it enters your nose? How does your breath feel different as it leaves your body? How does the air feel as it fills your lungs? Give yourself credit Are you having anxious thoughts? Congratulations. You're aware of your emotional state, and that awareness is the first step in reducing anxiety, says Edenfield. "Remember to give yourself credit for being aware that you are having anxious thoughts, and probably body changes. This is truly a skill of mindfulness that must be learned, and is essential in making the next steps of intervening through strategies such as positive self-talk, cognitive reframing, or the use of mindfulness or relaxation strategies." Summary: "In the past 13 years, 217,409 incidents of anxiety disorders were diagnosed among the active component of the US Armed Forces, according to data from the Armed Forces Health Surveillance Center's Medical Surveillance Monthly Report. "In the US Armed Forces, mental disorders ... are a leading cause of morbidity, disability, health care service utilization, lost duty time and attrition from military service," Army Col. William Corr, deputy director of the division of epidemiology and analysis at the Armed Forces Health Surveillance Center, said in a press release. "Incidence rates of mental disorders diagnoses overall and anxiety disorders in particular have increased sharply among US military members during the past 10 years." From 2000 to 2012, the unadjusted incidence rate of anxiety disorder diagnosis among active members of the US Army, Navy, Air Force, Marine Corps and Coast Guard was 117.2 per 10,000 person-years. "Non-specific anxiety disorder" was the first anxiety disorder-related diagnosis among 205,717 incident cases. According to the report, more specific anxiety-related disorders were diagnosed among many of these active members, including generalized anxiety (14.3%), panic disorder without agoraphobia (8.2%), specified phobic disorders (4.5%) and obsessive-compulsive disorder (1.6%). Additionally, within 1 year before or after their case-defining anxiety disorder encounter, about one-third of service members diagnosed with an anxiety disorder also were diagnosed with an adjustment (34.3%) or a depressive (33.5%) disorder. Phobic disorders accounted for 21,675 cases and obsessive-compulsive disorders accounted for 8,370 cases. In terms of health care burdens during the 13-year period, anxiety disorders were responsible for 93,992 hospital bed days; researchers noted a 316% increase in anxiety disorder-related hospital bed days from the first to the last year of the study period." Full Article: Click Here From The Huffington Post UK Full Article: Click Here How can you actually reduce anxiety? 1. Build up your sense of control As I have highlighted above, building a strong sense of secondary control is important in reducing anxiety. You want to develop resilience and realise that you do have the skills and resources to deal with any situation. Two ways that will help you to do this are: • Start changing your thoughts whenever you think in a powerless way. Our language strongly influences our beliefs and emotions. By using positive, powerful language, you will create less stress, anticipate positive outcomes and feel more empowered. Pay attention to the words you use and change any unhelpful words for more helpful ones. For example, ‘‘it’s terrifying at the dentist, I’ll be a wreck” could become “it’s a bit unpleasant at the dentist, but I can cope with it”. • One of the best ways to feel more in control is to overcome challenges. So, set yourself a personal challenge that you are going to achieve over the next week or so. This should be something that will be a little bit difficult for you to achieve BUT is something that you can do, if you put in some effort. To ensure that you succeed, you want to think about what steps you are going to take to achieve your challenge. As you work towards your goal, you want to keep encouraging yourself and praising yourself for the effort you are putting in. Once you have completed your challenge you want to recognise your achievement and say ‘well done’ to yourself for your hard work. 2. Stop avoiding feared situations When you want to avoid a particular feared situation, remind yourself that you do not need to do so. Tell yourself that you are capable of tolerating any feelings of discomfort and that you do have the skills and resources to cope with the situation. Make sure that you praise yourself for tolerating the experience. If you start to feel anxious and want to get away, slow your breathing down and tell yourself you can cope with the situation. Eg. ‘This is OK, I can tolerate this situation’. "Have you ever felt a "runner's high," that relaxing, happy feeling after a bout of exercise? Research shows that it could be an effective treatment for some types of anxiety. Researchers reviewed previous studies and trials on anxiety symptoms and exercise programs for healthy people, people with chronic illnesses and people who had been diagnosed with an anxiety disorder. They found that exercise often helped to reduce symptoms of anxiety and can sometimes be used as a part of anxiety disorder treatment. Exercise treatment showed the most consistent results for healthy people, people with chronic illnesses and people with panic disorder. The researchers emphasized that more studies are needed to look at the relationship between exercise programs and specific anxiety disorders like obsessive-compulsive disorder." By: Daniel Berarducci Full Article: Click Here Both the BBC and CBS News are reporting that depression can make your cells age faster, thus making us biologically older. Both articles are based on research published in Molecular Psychiatry this week. BBC Article: Click Here CBS Article: Click Here "Researchers have discovered that a child, as young as 18 months of age, is at an increased risk of developing emotional and disruptive problems if his or her mother suffers from anxiety and depression symptoms. According to the findings from the TOPP study, the risk persisted into adolescence and also gave an increased risk of depressive symptoms. For the study, which was conducted at the Norwegian Institute of Public Health, researchers used Norwegian mothers' self-reports of their own mental health and their children's problem behaviors, both disruptive and emotional, at five different ages from early childhood (18 months) to early adolescence (12.5 years). Questionnaire data from the adolescents are from 14.5 years and 16.5 years old. When the mother reported high levels of anxiety and depression symptoms early in the children's lives, the children had a higher risk of emotional and disruptive problem behaviors during their childhood, the results showed. In addition, the children had a higher risk of reporting depressive symptoms during adolescence. The study is published in the Journal of Developmental and Behavioral Pediatrics." Full Article: Click Here New research suggests that drinking sweetened beverages, especially diet drinks, is associated with an increased risk of depression in adults while drinking coffee was tied to a slightly lower risk. The study was released January 8 and will be presented at the American Academy of Neurology's 65th Annual Meeting in San Diego, March 16 to 23, 2013. "Sweetened beverages, coffee and tea are commonly consumed worldwide and have important physical -- and may have important mental -- health consequences," said study author Honglei Chen, MD, PhD, with the National Institutes of Health in Research Triangle Park in North Carolina and a member of the American Academy of Neurology. The study involved 263,925 people between the ages of 50 and 71 at enrollment. From 1995 to 1996, consumption of drinks such as soda, tea, fruit punch and coffee was evaluated. About 10 years later, researchers asked the participants whether they had been diagnosed with depression since the year 2000. A total of 11,311 depression diagnoses were made. People who drank more than four cans or cups per day of soda were 30 percent more likely to develop depression than those who drank no soda. Those who drank four cans of fruit punch per day were about 38 percent more likely to develop depression than those who did not drink sweetened drinks. People who drank four cups of coffee per day were about 10 percent less likely to develop depression than those who drank no coffee. The risk appeared to be greater for people who drank diet than regular soda, diet than regular fruit punches and for diet than regular iced tea. "Our research suggests that cutting out or down on sweetened diet drinks or replacing them with unsweetened coffee may naturally help lower your depression risk," said Chen. "More research is needed to confirm these findings, and people with depression should continue to take depression medications prescribed by their doctors." The study was supported by the National Institutes of Health, the National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences and the National Cancer Institute." Full Report: Click Here |
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