Here is an awesome, free, online cognitive behavioural program to treat depression. It is offered by Australian National University. It is particular good for young adults (or youthfully-minded older adults!). I have had great success with some of my patients, who report: It is very educational and it opens your eyes to things you never […]
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The Voice of the American Psychiatric Association and the Psychiatric Community joriswiggers@gmail.com sent you this article, saying: I thought this would interest you! Mortality Risk High for Dementia Patients Taking Antipsychotics, Study Finds Researchers from the University of Michigan Health System say that though antipsychotic medications are associated with increased mortality in older adults, little […]
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I found this online. I hope you find it as fascinating as I did. Your mood is greatly influenced by the bacteria in your intestines! There are ten times more microbes in your intestines than there are cells in your body. Go figure! A link to the following Medscape article was sent […]
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The brain has (surface) grey matter and (deep) white matter. The front of the brain is called the frontal lobe, and the grey matter is called the frontal cortex. The sides of the brain are called the temporal cortices. The white matter includes the basal ganglia; it interconnects different parts of the brain cortex. The system […]
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There are so many many diets out there, and arguably the DASH diet is one of the elder statesmen of the diet world. It was extensively studied in 1997 at Harvard University, and spawned several other good studies (OmniCarb, OmniHeart, DASH-Sodium, etc.). I find DASH fairly straightforward: it is Mediterranean-like, reasonable, intuitive, and it comforts […]
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Electroconvulsive Therapy (ECT) maintains an important position along the treatment pathway for refractory, chronic depression. Typically ECT is reserved for more difficult to treat depressive disorders, and it has a higher rate of success than antidepressants. The problem of ECT lies with in its high relapse rate within six months. Continuation ECT is one solution, in which an […]
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Insulin (Canadian discovery) controls blood sugar. High blood sugar is a problem for many people when insulin is less effective in the body. Often the body becomes resistant to insulin as you get older and gain weight. Insulin transports sugar into the cells, and when it cannot, sugar stays high in the blood stream. The […]
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Lower methylation of glucocorticoid receptor gene promoter 1F in peripheral blood of veterans suffering from post-traumatic stress disorder. Apropos to my recent post about depression and the HPA axis, this study has revealed for the first time a possible link between trauma, PTSD, and genetic change. I said in the last post that a […]
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An original article appeared this month in the psychiatric literature which reviewed our current understanding of the stress response system (the HPA: hypothalamic pituitary axis). The research group was looking for genetic variations in the HPA to see if there was a link to depression. The brain has widely distributed receptors for a hormone called […]
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In his methodical and enthusiastic review of Lithium, Dr. Wise Young, paints a rosy picture of this misunderstood and feared element. As I wrote in a previous post, Lithium appears to be more beneficial than we realize. His article is very heady and difficult to read: it is a recitation of hundreds of research studies […]
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Dr. Joris Wiggers