The Anxiety Report

CBS News and PTSD

Not two acronyms you would expect to find next to one another, but this morning on the CBS website was posted an FYI: Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder: Learn About Symptoms, Treatments, Warning Signs And Where Those At Risk Can Get Help and a good article it is. The article provides a surprising amount of information about the condition, as well as signs to watch for, especially for soldiers returning from Iraq and Afghanistan. A series of questions are answered about the condition. A link is also provided to United States Department of Veteran Affairs, National Center for Post Traumatic Stress Disorder. More and more of our soldiers are returning from war, having faced things that have changed their lives forever. You don’t have to lose an arm or a leg to be traumatized. Just seeing your friend loose an arm is enough to mark you.

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Jazz Pharmaceuticals and Luvox CR

A press release from Jazz Pharmaceuticals

announced today that Once-A-Day LUVOX(R) CR (fluvoxamine maleate) Extended-Release Capsules is now available at pharmacies throughout the United States. LUVOX CR was recently approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) for the treatment of social anxiety disorder (SAD) and obsessive compulsive disorder (OCD) in adult patients. SAD and OCD are two difficult-to-treat, under diagnosed and under treated anxiety disorders.

Now when I did some internet research each page started out with a list of warnings. But don’t be alarmed because all antidepressant and almost all psychiatric medications carry some type of risk. We do not live in a risk free world, and that includes or medications. I do think it is unfair of some sites to post the WARNINGS first before anyone can read what the medication is, and what it does.

However, further research turned up a couple of worrisome things. First was this one from The Carlat Psychiatry Blog.

It has very little going for it. Its half-life is about 15 hours, and it causes more drug-drug interactions than any other SSRI. Before, Luvox was a pretty useless drug; come next year, we’ll have a pretty useless drug that lasts even longer than the original.

That is not encouraging as the writer is a psychiatrist. And this less than encouraging opening page. But, go to this page, it is a research page, and read the conclusion. Lastly, make your own decision based on MedMaster Patient Drug Information

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Brain Cells Inc.

Apparently this Phase II study for BCI-540, is ready to start. A few things you might want to read: From Medical News Today , and from The Scientist.com.

It seems to me that if someone comes out with something new, then someone else is going to oppose it for some reason. Also, this is listed as a clinical trial, and I tend to trust their view more than others, but this study is still recruiting people.

Tags: Research, articles by Stephen
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Maybe They Weren’t as Drunk as You Thought

According to Psychology Today and their article “The Illusion of College Drinking,” they college kids aren’t as drunk as everyone has assumed. It seems stereotypes must have gotten in the way.

Researchers found that the image of a typical college student as a drunken frat boy is largely a myth. Moreover, when students find out that their classmates are relatively modest in their drinking habits, they cut back on their own drinking as well.

Well, DUH is all I can think of to say to that.

Researchers led by Robert Foss of the UNC Highway Safety Research Center used voluntary breathalyzer tests to measure the blood alcohol concentration (BAC) of students returning at night to their living quarters. In an initial sample of over 2,000 students, the research team found that on ‘party nights,’ two out of three students hadn’t had a drop to drink. On Mondays through Wednesdays, fully 85 percent had no alcohol in their systems—findings at odds with the stereotype of beer-swilling ‘party schools.’

That should quiet some people down.

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Psychiatric Times.

Being a male, the menstrual cycles of women have largely been none of my business, all my life. Or at least that’s what I was told. IN the paper ‘The Complex Interrelationships of Menstrual Cyclicity and Anxiety Disorders: Premenstrual Exacerbation of Anxiety Disorders’ by Miki Peer, Claudio N. Soares, MD, PhD, and Meir Steiner, MD, PhD,

Premenstrual worsening is frequently reported by women with general anxiety disorder (GAD); one study reported a prevalence of 52%.3 The mechanisms by which some women experience premenstrual worsening of GAD, however, are not known. Limited evidence suggests that GAD is associated with decreased serum levels of pregnanolone sulfate,12 but changes in neurosteroid levels in women who experience premenstrual exacerbation of GAD have not, to our knowledge, been examined. Benzodiazepines are more likely to be prescribed for women with GAD than for men, and while these compounds demonstrate good efficacy in GAD treatment,1,28,29 a significant influence of the menstrual-cycle phase in treatment response has been observed.

It is a highly technical article, but it does fit in at the anxiety report.

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On a Literary Note

This comes from Alicia Sparks blog on mental health notes.  It talks about how Rowling kept her sanity by retreating into the characters of the novels.  I can understand that, writing blogs sometimes helps me retreat from the mundane world of taking meds, and disability.  Anyway, it’s always worth reading Alicia’s blog.

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From the Editor

From time to time I will write an editorial.  Hopefully,they will be readable.  The more research I read to put onto this site, the more convinced I become that I’m going to have to find someone who can help me translate into English what the heck they’re trying to say.  I’m doing my best, but I fear that’s not good enough.  At any rate, I’ll keep at it, you keep coming back to visit me.

Tags: Research by Stephen
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Children’s Mental Health Coalition Introduces Bill Of Rights For Families Living With Mental Illnesses

I was very interested in this article because when I think of the various agonies I put my family through as a teenager with serious problems.

“This Bill of Rights represents the standard of what families living with mental illnesses should expect from treatment,” said AACAP’s President, Robert Hendren, D.O. “Children do better when they receive consistent, tailored treatment. Few children receive any treatment and fewer still receive the sustained, quality care that they require.”

The fact that it is centered on children is helpful to parents, teacher, and baby sitters, but doesn’t do much for families living with someone with a variety of anxiety conditions and other possible mental illnesses. Living with an adult with anxiety disorders can be so challenging that it can end up in divorce. Just something worth thinking about, and perhaps someone will work out a Bill of Rights for the Family of Anxiety Patients.

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How Long Do I Have to Take This?

According to How long is anxiety medication needed?it all depends on what is being treated.

When I prescribe medication for a patient with a mental health problem, I’m frequently asked, “How long will I have to take this medication?” It’s a good question. But for someone with an anxiety disorder, the answer is particularly complex.

It’s one of the first questions I asked the first doctor who helped me; how long do I have to take this? He said pretty much what the last sentence of the quote says, except he added, “you’ll probably be on something the rest of your life.”

There are short term disorders where the medication can be stopped at a point where the patient feels ready to give it a go without the drugs. Dr. Kahn continues: “A specific phobia can be treated as needed, for example, just before getting on an airplane or giving a speech.”

But other anxiety disorders — for example, generalized anxiety disorder, panic disorder, and obsessive-compulsive disorder — commonly require ongoing treatment. Experience shows that when drug therapy is stopped, symptoms often recur. Only 25% of patients who stop taking antidepressants for anxiety have relief for two years or longer. Two studies found that one in four people with generalized anxiety disorder relapse within a month of going off medications. Similarly, most people with obsessive-compulsive disorder relapse within a month unless they either continue drug treatment indefinitely or undergo behavior therapy.

So for some of us, we’ll always be taking one drug or another. When you consider the return to anxiety attacks, or OCD symptoms, you realize that each day you will take your medications.

Isn’t it a small price to pay for the freedom from symptoms?

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Herschel Walker’s Battle with D.I.D. And Suicidal Thoughts: And My Own Struggle with Mental Illness

For those who do not know who Herschel Walker is check this page out. He has D.I.D. Dissociative Identity Disorder. In other words, multiple personalities.

Walker had several alternate personalities, known as alters. After retiring from the NFL, Walker dealt with memory loss, a symptom of D.I.D. Because other personalities are the ones taking action, he often cannot remember things he has said or done.

That is down right scary condition to have. I think someone of Walker’s fame and position in football history, to come out with this book at such a time is worthy of many kudos.

Tags: News, Research, articles by Stephen
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Andrea Gordon’s article for the Toronto Star, is one that I think should wake us all up to the true danger of teen depression. We’re all used to the sullen teenager period that all adolescents go through, but this article isn’t about a period or a phase, it’s about suicide.

The parents of teens who commit suicide suffer something similar to those who loose a teen to a serial killer who tortures them to death. In both cases, torture unto death was involved. I have no science to back that up, but anything that drives a teenager to take their own life has got to be torture.

A survey last year by Kinark found 38 per cent of 1,500 parents would be too embarrassed to admit their child or teen had an illness like depression or anxiety.

So, out of that number, which is horribly large, their child needing medication for depression or anxiety was a stigma, a cause of shame. Didn’t I just talk about this in a post not long ago? The stigma of mental illness. I wonder if they would feel that way if their child had cancer? No, because then they’d be out there beating a drum calling attention to cancer research.

When it comes to mental health issues no one wants to talk about it. So I’ll end this post with this quote.

Ellen Ostofsky of the Mood Disorders Association of Ontario said stigma is still huge and that fewer than half of the 20 per cent of Canadians with a mental illness will end up seeking treatment.

Health warnings and controversy over antidepressants and teens “is a muddy, muddy issue,” she said. And rather than making decisions based on news reports, parents must raise these questions with a professional and consider the needs of their own child, she said.

“It is so important to be vigilant and watch your loved one,” she said, particularly if they have started or changed medication.

Tags: News, Research, articles by Stephen
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You should check out this interesting press release. BASEL, Switzerland, March 31, PRNewswire. Yet another epilepsy drug is showing anti anxiety effects as well. It does beg the question, is there a relationship between epilepsy and anxiety? Let’s start here

Synosia Therapeutics today announced the start of a multi-site, Phase II clinical trial to evaluate the efficacy of rufinamide (SYN-111), a sodium channel blocker, as a potential treatment for general anxiety disorder.

The name Rufinamide should not cause fear as the date rape drug, because they are not the same thing, flunitrazepam is the date rape drug. Rufinamide is a triazole derivative. They are not the same thing so let us return to the article.

“Given the extensive safety experience available from previous studies, we believe this structurally novel compound has the potential to relieve anxiety without the adverse side effects of current treatments,” said Stephen Bandak, Synosia’s chief medical officer. “There is a real need for new treatment options without the limited compliance associated with selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors (SSRIs) or the risk of dependence of benzodiazepine-based treatments.”

Whoa! Now that is some claim to make. It’s a claim I like and hope for, because I know that sooner or later my doctor will take me off of Klonopin and I’ll be right back where I was before, malfunctioning. So this little press release offers some hope. Interestingly, when they first marketed the drug they were not allowed to offer it as an anti anxiety.

This bears watching.

Tags: Research, articles by Stephen
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