Causes of Mood Disorders – Serotonin, Dopamine, Norepinephrine

Posted by Natasha Tracy | Jul 26, 2009

Today, I was watching a Comcast On Demand program about the causes of bipolar. I thought I’d watching and see how ridiculous it was because obviously, no one knows the cause of bipolar disorder.

However, the spot had some interesting information on the brain, neurotransmitters and bipolar disorder, which I then transcribed so I could share it with you. (Yes, I really did transcribe the whole thing.)

It’s in fairly layperson terms, so give it a look. At the bottom is a bit more information about dopamine, norepinephrine, and serotonin. This, unfortunately, is not in layperson terms, but is interesting nonetheless.

Diet and Depression / Bipolar

Posted by Natasha Tracy | Jul 20, 2009

I’ve written about this before, but due to the amount of misinformation on the internet on this topic, I feel compelled to write about it again.

Omega-3 and Depression
Folic Acid and Depression
Low-Carb Diets and Mood

Now, first off, I do not believe you can cure depression or bipolar using diet. Let me be clear, people who tell you this are mostly flakes. There are ways though that you can possibly improve your treatment plan using dietary components.

Physiological Causes of Depression – Surgeon’s General Report

Posted by Natasha Tracy | Jul 6, 2009

I like to think I know almost all there is to know about mood disorders, but I was pretty shocked when I read this:

The Surgeon’s General Report

Differential Diagnosis
Mood disorders are sometimes caused by general medical conditions or medications. Classic examples include the depressive syndromes associated with dominant hemispheric strokes, hypothyroidism, Cushing’s disease, and pancreatic cancer (DSM-IV). Among medications associated with depression, antihypertensives and oral contraceptives are the most frequent examples. Transient depressive syndromes are also common during withdrawal from alcohol and various other drugs of abuse. Mania is not uncommon during high-dose systemic therapy with glucocorticoids and has been associated with intoxication by stimulant and sympathomimetic drugs and with central nervous system (CNS) lupus, CNS human immunodeficiency viral (HIV) infections, and nondominant hemispheric strokes or tumors. Together, mood disorders due to known physiological or medical causes may account for as many as 5 to 15 percent of all treated cases (Quitkin et al., 1993b). They often go unrecognized until after standard therapies have failed.

(bold mine)

I’m shocked. No one ever mentioned anything about birth control pills to me and I’ve been on them for years. YEARS. This is yet another reason why doctors so often get on my bad side.

This quote was taken from the Mental Health: A Report of the Surgeon General. The whole report is a good read, but very long. It’s everything you wanted to know but didn’t know you needed to ask.

I’m disgusted.

Description of Deadly Rash Caused by Medications Like Lamictal

Posted by Natasha Tracy | Jul 1, 2009

In a small number of cases people who take Lamictal or some other anticonvulsance can develop a deadly rash named Stevens-Johnson syndrome (SJS) and toxic epidermal necrolysis (TEN) (a more severe version). Again this is rare....