No Evidence of the Effectiveness of Psychotherapy? – 3 New Things

Posted by Natasha Tracy | Sep 15, 2011

This week I learned three new things about psychotherapy and depression.

I’m a fan of psychotherapy for everyone. In fact, if we could get the mid-East folks to sit down for some good counselling, I think it would be more effective in bringing peace than anything you can do with a gun.

With that said, there are limitations to therapy and sometimes therapy is not all it’s cracked up to be. So this week, a look at three perspectives on psychotherapy:

Psychotherapy is no better than placebo in treating depression?
Which type of psychotherapy is better for depression?
How does psychotherapy change the brain?

New Antipsychiatry Discussion, L-Theanine, Rapid Cycling Markets – 3 New Things

Posted by Natasha Tracy | Sep 1, 2011

This week’s three new things include:

A new supplement that may help brain health and mental illness: l-theanine
A poor comparison between rapid cycling bipolar disorder and the financial markets
A new discussion of antipsychiatry

Safety Warnings for St. John’s Wort

Posted by Natasha Tracy | Aug 21, 2011

Including the Dangers of Using St. John’s Wort to Treat Bipolar Depression

I mentioned last week that St. John’s wort has been shown ineffective at treating mild depression as well as moderately severe depression (major depression).

Nevertheless, St. John’s wort is the most well-known alternative treatment for depression and many people take it. However, there are absolutely some dangers in taking St. John’s wort that you should know about, especially if you’re bipolar.

Mixed Bipolar Disorder – Mixed Mood Episodes in Bipolar 2

Posted by Natasha Tracy | Aug 10, 2011

As I mentioned, mixed moods are technically considered part of the manic phase of bipolar disorder and thus, by definition, are only a part of bipolar disorder type 1. However, those of us with bipolar type 2 can tell you we mix it up with the best of them.

So, in part II of this series on mixed moods in bipolar disorder, I look at mixed moods in bipolar type II.

Mixed Moods in Bipolar Type II

Now that we’ve wandered into Diagnostic and Statistical Manual (DSM)-free territory, definitions on mixed states get a bit looser.

Mixed mood states may be, in fact, the most common way of experiencing bipolar type II. I find most people have a hard time distinctly separating “depression” from “hypomania” from “normal” moods. There is just too much crossover.

Two Types of Mixed Moods in Bipolar Disorder

Additionally, considering mixed moods to be part of the manic phase of bipolar disorder becomes useless when looking at bipolar II. As an article in Psychiatric Times suggests, there are really two types of mixed moods in bipolar disorder:

Mixed mood with depression as the primary mood (meeting the criteria for depression with some hypomania symptoms present)
Mixed mood with hypomania as the primary mood (meeting the criteria for hypomania with some depression symptoms present)

Those two mood types better reflect my own experience and I think the clinical experience of other patients and doctors.

Mixed Bipolar Disorder – Mixed Mood Episodes in Bipolar 1

Posted by Natasha Tracy | Aug 8, 2011

Ask a Bipolar – What is a mixed mood in bipolar disorder?

As one of the Burble’s commenters mentioned, there seems to be a lack of good information on mixed moods available. After some Googling, I would tend to agree. While mixed mood episodes are pretty common for us bipolar folk, few people seem to be discussing it.

This is the beginning of a four-part series on mixed moods in bipolar disorder:

Mixed Mood Episodes in Bipolar Type I
Mixed Mood Episodes in Bipolar Type II
Changes to Mixed Mood Episode Diagnosis in the Revision of the DSM
Treating Mixed Mood Episodes

Depressed People Who Take Antidepressants Do Better Long-Term – Part 2

Posted by Natasha Tracy | May 16, 2011

As I mentioned last week, it’s very difficult to measure long-term outcomes of depression treatment due to the confounding depression variables like severity of depression, duration of depression, number of depressions and so on.

In short, the sicker you are, the more depressed you are, the more likely it is you’ll get treatment.

Antidepressant Treatment Outcomes Long-Term, A Study

I discussed the basic outcomes of this study: The association between antidepressant use and depression eight years later: A national cohort study by Colman et al. which tries to take these variables into account.

Colman et al. showed those who took antidepressants had better depression treatment outcomes than those who didn’t, eight years later, once confounding variables were taken into consideration.

I’ll now point out the strengths and weaknesses of this study as well as some other interesting tidbits shown or cited in the study. Oh, and I’ll give my opinion on what it all means.

The Neurobiology of Depression – Depression and the Brain

Posted by Natasha Tracy | Apr 15, 2011

Major Depressive Disorder: it isn’t just “all in your head.”

I have spent quite a bit of time in the last week looking at a paper: Pathophysiology of Depression: Do We Have Any Solid Evidence of Interest to Clinicians? By Gregor Hasler.

This paper discusses seven research areas relating to the neurobiology of major depressive disorder (MDD). In other words, it talks about the biological evidence of depression, mental illness. It discusses the strengths and weaknesses of biological theories of depression via evidence and aims to point out some of the reasons our current treatment isn’t as successful as it should be. The paper cites 88 other studies and was published in the Journal of World Psychiatry in 2010. It’s pretty educational.

Why Should I Continue to Fight the Pain of Depression for Another 40 Years?

Posted by Natasha Tracy | Mar 3, 2011

A commenter, Jessica, left a comment yesterday that so succinctly expresses what so many of us feel about depression, bipolar and mental illness, and continue to feel. The following is her comment and my response.

“when I just feel so sick and tired of fighting for what seems like nothing…what seems like a never ending battle…what seems like someone hitting me over the head with a two-by-four every two minutes, telling me it will never stop until the day I die, and then they explaining to me why I should continue to fight to live for another 40 years.”

Yes. I know.

Fighting the Pain of Depression

We fight to the death for millimeters when we really need a mile. I know.

Depression and Lack of Want, Desire

Posted by Natasha Tracy | Jan 19, 2011

Ah depression. Sucking, vaporizing, numbing black hole. A void where feeling used to be.

Last night I went out on a date. It was a girl I had connected with through a site online. Lovely girl. Smiling. Happy. There’s a picture of her taking another girl’s bikini top off with her teeth. Playful happiness.

And in person, she was, in fact, happy. Enthralled and entertained by me. She wanted to hear story after story. Captivated. Charmed. Her gaze burned into my flesh.