An article published in the October issue of the American Journal of Psychiatry (164:1539-1546) concluded that the earlier in life a person develops major depression, the more likely they are to have long term social and occupational problems. The authors studied a group of 4 thousand people ages 18-75 with major depression from both primary […]
Caretakers More Likely to be Depressed
The Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration published a report on the incidence of depression in adults by occupation. They found the 2 occupational categories with the highest incidence of depression were personal care services and food preparation. They also found that that 7 percent of all full-time workers experienced an episode of depression […]
What’s Wrong With Being Emotionally Unavailable?
The short answer is nothing, if you don’t want to have close relationships. There are people who really are content to live as an island. But most people aren’t built this way. The usual scenario I see is the person who spends their young adulthood (20’s and 30’s) charging forward with their career, with limited […]
What is Panic Disorder?
Panic attacks can be extremely disabling, so much so that often individuals who have had a panic attack have already made a trip to their local emergency department. What is a panic attack? There are many physical symptoms associated with it, but in general it is a discrete period of intense fear accompanied by physical […]
Chronic Terminal Illness, When Do You Say Goodbye?
Dealing with a chronic illness is difficult on many levels. But how do you handle someone having a terminal illness that lingers on? Let’s look at Judy Judy’s mom has a medical illness that was diagnosed when Judy was a teenager. Her mom was in and out of the hospital for years then seemed to […]
Provigil May Help With Bipolar Depression
There seems to be a lot of buzz about Provigil lately. I’ve mentioned in a previous post that Provigil is used to treat wakefulness disorders such as narcolepsy, sleep apnea and shift-work disorder. Psychiatrists and others have used Provigil off label (non-FDA approved reasons) for other indications such as an adjunct to antidepressants, to counteract […]