Determining the most effective treatment for a patient suffering from depression is crucial. Beidal, Bulik, & Stanley, 2014 state that a combination of therapies and antidepressants is the most common today and typically effect for most people (p.224). Therapies like cognitive-behavioral and interpersonal therapy are the most common forms of therapy used when treating depression. Cognitive-behavioral therapy focuses on identifying and changing patterns of thought (Beidel, Bulik, & Stanley, 2014,…
Two large well-controlled trials have been conducted to compare CBT and psychodynamic therapy for depression. The first was the Treatment of Depression Collaborative Research Project (TDCRP) conducted in the 1980s. This study compared the efficacy of CBT, interpersonal psychotherapy, and pharmacotherapy for depression. Outcomes for CBT and interpersonal therapy were generally equivalent (Elkin et al., 1989), although CBT did not fare as well as IPT or antidepressant medication among the more…
Although the literature is filled with information about the prevalence and incidence of back pain in general there is less information about chronic low back pain, partly because of lack of agreement about the definition. Chronic back pain sometimes is defined as back pain that lasts longer than 7-12 weeks. Others define is as pain that lasts beyond the expected period of healing, and acknowledge the chronic pain may not have well-defined underlying pathological causes. Others classify…
Lamictal (lamotrigine) is an anti-epileptic medication, also called an anticonvulsant.It is used either alone or in combination with other medications to treat epileptic seizures in adults and children. This drug is also used to delay mood episodes in adults with bipolar disorder (manic depression). Precautions: You should not take this drug if you are allergic to lamotrigine. To make sure you can safely take Lamictal, tell your doctor if you have any of these other conditions: * kidney or…
The notion that an antidepressant you might take is presumably not any more successful than taking a sugar pill is alarming, especially giving the amount of Americans being treated for depression with these -be cures. A meta-analysis distributed in 2010 in the Journal of the American Medical Association, has uncovered precisely this; Six separate studies were joined into one to investigate the viability of antidepressants, and the outcomes have demonstrated that treating the root causes for…
Obsessive Compulsive Disorder is a condition of excessive intrusive thoughts, called obsessions, that lead to repetitive behaviors or rituals, called compulsions, to soothe the brain. This condition makes people's brains feel overwhelmed or out of “control” of a simple worry, so it causes them to have irrational behaviors to calm this worry down. OCD obsessions usually occurs around themes such as doing well in school, excelling at athletics, job related matters, self appearance, keeping things…
severe side effects, these antidepressants are used on patients who have experienced a resistance to other medications, or have been diagnosed with general anxiety in addition to depression. Tricyclic antidepressants work similarly to the reuptake inhibitors by blocking reabsorption of serotonin into nerve cells, though can have harsh side effects, including issues surrounding heart rhythms and . On the other hand, MAOIs consist of an enzyme which breaks down neurotransmitters like serotonin and…
targeting the biological causes of depression. The most widely prescribed medication in the world for depression appears to have a specific effect on the serotonin neurotransmitter system (Vallone, 1997). The introduction of selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors (SSRIs) has dramatically changed the treatment of depression around the world ((Vallone, 1997). The neurotransmitter serotonin affects many diverse functions, such as mood, sleep, appetite, sexual function and body temperature…
Rheumatoid arthritis is the most severe type of arthritis. Women are affected with this disease more than men are. It causes progressive deterioration with functional decline, and it leads to disability, and an impaired life quality. Rheumatoid arthritis patients experience a lot of psychological distress compared to someone without this disease. There was a study created to determine whether to rheumatoid arthritis would achieve immediate improvements in heath related outcomes, and whether…
We read with great interest the recent work by Stevens et al, in which the authors performed an excellent work showing intestinal barrier permeability biomarkers, e.g., zonulin and FABP2, have a closely relationship with endotoxin lipopolysaccharide (LPS) and abnormal composition of gut microbiota in patients with anxiety or depression. This directly suggests that abnormalities in gut, especially intestinal barrier, are of great importance for brain function. We appreciate this finding and would…