Several recent studies show that in some elderly patients who met criteria for depression, a large percentage of them visited their doctors with only pain complaints. There seems to be a direct relationship between the number of pain complaints and the likelihood of having depression. That is, the more pain symptoms the more likely the […]
Brain Injuries Common in Our Troops
Mark McDonough PhD, who specializes in brain injuries spoke at an international conference on combat stress and discussed the impact of brain injuries on troops. He concluded that traumatic brain injury may be the “signature injury” of the Iraq war. The Kelvar helmets help prevent penetrating head wounds, but don’t adequately protect an individual from […]
What is Shift Work Sleep Disorder?
Shift work can have a dramatically negative impact on the quality of your sleep and ability to sleep. There is a diagnostic entity called Circadian Rhythm Sleep Disorder, formally called Sleep-Wake Schedule Disorder of which shift work type is a specific subtype. Circadian Rhythm Sleep Disorder occurs when a person has recurrent or persistent disrupted […]
Senior Adults Are Still Having Sex
A survey out of the University of Chicago conducted by Dr. Stacy Lindau found that one third of individuals aged 64-75 are having sex at least once a week. This survey was administered to 3005 older people who were divided into 3 groups of roughly one thousand each. The three age groups were 57-64, 65-74 […]
Anxiety Worsens Depression and Bipolar Disorder
A symptom of depression can be anxiety, but a person can also have a co-morbid (meaning simultaneously occurring) anxiety disorder that is a separate entity from their depression. Some anxiety disorders that can occur with depression are Panic Disorder, Generalized Anxiety Disorder, Obsessive Compulsive Disorder, Social Phobia and Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder. It is not uncommon […]
Marijuana Use Can Make You Crazy
Theresa H. M. Moore of the University of Bristol in England and her colleagues have conducted research which concluded that having used marijuana at any point in your life increases the risk of having a psychotic episode by 40%. This was more than twice the risk of those who have never smoked marijuana. The heavier […]