In psychiatry, a prodrome refers to the period of time a person may exibit psychiatric symptoms that may not be serious enough to generate medical attention, but significant enough to cause problems in the person’s functioning. This period precedes the development of the full blown psychiatric disorder. One example of how this may manifest is […]
Childhood Depression Makes Adulthood Worse
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 […]