CNN: “How Your Smart Phone Affects Your Sleep”By Sanjay Gupta, MD1 min, 31 secDr. Gupta explains in this video how using our smart phones before bed can hurt our chances of a good night’s sleep. He says that looking at emails or other content on our phones can "take our brains from 0 to 60" (in terms of arousal) very quickly. In addition, the light from the phone (and other electronics) can disrupt our circadian rhythms. The light can inhibit the production of melatonin, a chemical in the body that's involved in helping us fall asleep. The vast majority of the ADHD clients I work with have problems with regulating sleep and oversleeping or insomnia also is frequently a symptom of depression or anxiety.
Depression: 'Second biggest cause of disability' in world
BBC reports that depression is the number two cause of disability worldwide, second only to back pain.http://www.bbc.com/news/health-24818048
BBC: "Ketamine 'exciting' depression therapy"
BBC reports that Ketamine (considered a "dissociative anesthetic") has been shown to have some very rapid and dramatic effects on depression in early research studies. As the article describes, there are also potential side effects that are quite serious and "it's not about to replace prozac" anytime soon. They believe that in the future Ketamine itself will not be used, but understanding how it affects the brain will yield new medications with fewer side effects.
"Head line": Botox for depression?
Scientific American reports on a depression treatment study published in the Journal of Psychiatric Research. The “head line” was that injecting Botox into facial muscles involved that are in frowning decreased depressive symptoms by 47% compared to a 9% decrease in the placebo group. But don’t go to your psychiatrist asking for Botox just yet. The results would need to be replicated and the treatment would undergo a rigorous process before it could be approved by the FDA.However it is an intriguing, if not surprising, result. Our emotions are not just how we feel subjectively. They are composed of our thoughts, physiological response, action urges, facial expression, and more. Changing one part of the system feeds into the rest of the system, changing the emotional experience. It is the idea behind cognitive therapy. If you can change the way you think, it can change the way you feel.Read the article here.
Can depression cause inability to focus?
Can depression cause inability to focus?CNN HealthDr. Charles Raison, an associate professor of psychiatry and behavioral sciences at Emory University, answers a question about ADHD, depression, and how antidepressants may affect your concentration.
Shared Genes May Link ADHD, Autism and Depression
"'This study, for the first time, shows that there are specific genetic variants that influence a range of childhood and adult-onset psychiatric disorders that we think of as clinically different,' said lead researcher Dr. Jordan Smoller, a professor of psychiatry at Harvard Medical School in Boston.'We also found that there was significant overlap in the genetic components of several disorders, especially schizophrenia with bipolar disorder and depression, and to a lesser extent autism with schizophrenia and bipolar disorder,' he said."Source: US New and World Report, February 28, 2013, "Shared Genes May Link ADHD, Autism and Depression. Largest study of its kind also found ties to schizophrenia, bipolar disorders"http://health.usnews.com/health-news/news/articles/2013/02/28/shared-genes-may-link-adhd-autism-and-depression