Should Ecstasy (MDMA) be a Psychiatric Medication?

Posted by Natasha Tracy | Sep 26, 2011

You may not know this, but ecstasy (MDMA) has been studied as a psychiatric medication. Yes, that’s right, that stuff kids take at raves. The stuff that makes you thirsty and fall in love to the person next to you. That stuff. And MDMA was shown effective in several psychiatric uses.

But research on MDMA (ecstasy) was curtailed in 1985 when the US government named it a class 1 drug (like heroin) over the objections of doctors. Psychiatric research on MDMA is gearing up again though and it has shown promise in treating post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) and possibly depression and anxiety.

I Can’t Get Pregnant – I Have Bipolar Disorder

Posted by Natasha Tracy | Sep 22, 2011

Should People with Bipolar Have Kids?

I am now 33. And that’s one of those ages where the biological clock starts to have a deafening ring. But the thing is I can’t get pregnant; I can’t have kids; I have bipolar disorder.

Antipsychotic Warning, Saffron for Depression, Polypharmacy – 3 New Things

Posted by Natasha Tracy | Sep 8, 2011

It’s a bit of a short week what with the holiday and all, but still, there is time for three new things about mental health. Today’s three new things are:

A safety warning on the atypical antipsychotic drug asenapine maleate (Saphris)
Saffron and depression
Multi-drug (polypharmacy) treatment of mental illness

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

Linky-Madness, Drugging Children and Anxious Hat Makers – 3 New Things

Posted by Natasha Tracy | Aug 25, 2011

In my line of work I come across the most obscure information, which is why I love sharing it with you. This week’s three new things about mental illness include:

A weekly mental health link-party
How scientists want to drug children who might get a mental illness
How hat makers used to experience social phobia

How could you not want to know the details about that?

Mixed Moods in Bipolar Disorder and Depression in the DSM-V

Posted by Natasha Tracy | Aug 16, 2011

The Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM), the manual that defines all mental illness in the US, is being revised and a new version is due out in 2013. One of the proposed changes to the DSM is to the diagnosis of mixed moods. This change is being proposed by a mood disorders workgroup. It aims to reflect clinical practice where doctors already refer to a “mixed” mood that doesn’t officially meet the DSM criteria. (As I noted, mixed moods are only technically recognized in bipolar type 1.)

Changes to the mixed mood diagnosis will help people with bipolar 1, bipolar 2 and unipolar depression get better treatment.

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.

Depressed People Who Take Antidepressants Do Better Long-Term

Posted by Natasha Tracy | May 12, 2011

Recently the controversy over long-term outcomes of those who use psychotropic medication has flared up again. Some people argue depression/bipolar/mental illness patients do the same, or better, when they don’t take psychiatric medications long-term. However, the statistics they use to assert this claim are often faulty.

A study from Calgary, Alberta, Canada (yes, we do research up here too) has attempted to fix some of the bias seen in other long-term depression treatment outcome statistics. I’ll cut to the chase for you:

Over the course of eight years people with depression who took antidepressants had better outcomes.

Is There a Blood Test for Schizophrenia? – VeriPsych Tests for Schizophrenia

Posted by Natasha Tracy | Apr 18, 2011

Hot on the heels of my post about the neurobiological evidence for major depressive disorder comes this: the first blood-based diagnostic aid for schizophrenia.

Um, what’s that again?