Dorothy Rowe shows us how to have the courage to acknowledge and face our fears – only through courage can we find a sustaining happiness. Fear is the great unmentionable. We fear loss, bereavement, old age, death, rejection, failure – most of all we fear annihilation of the self. Yet all of this we keep to ourselves, afraid of being thought weak.
Denying our fear of self-destruction, around which our entire sense of self is built, can have profound effects upon ourselves and those around us in later life. It can lead to physical illness, like anorexia, or to mental problems, such as panic attacks, depression and schizophrenia. In “Beyond Fear” psychologist Dorothy Rowe explains how to recognize the need for change and how to bring it about.
First published in 1987, Beyond Fear has changed the lives of thousands of people. In this second edition, the renowned psychologist Dorothy Rowe examines the changes in the psychiatric system since 1987 in the context of showing how most of our suffering comes from our greatest fear, that of being annihilated as a person, when we shall disappear like a puff of smoke in the wind, never to have existed.
We feel this fear whenever others humiliate or belittle us, or whenever we discover a serious discrepancy between what we thought our life was and what it actually is. The greater our fear, the more desperate our defence against it, the most desperate of defences being what psychiatrists call mental disorders. Yet, by knowing ourselves we can go beyond our fear and face life with courage.
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Psychiatric researchers at Rush University Medical Center have found a non-invasive, non-drug therapy to be an effective, long-term treatment for major depression.
The study was done to determine the durability and long-term effects of transcranial magnetic stimulation (TMS).
TMS therapy is a non-invasive technique that delivers highly focused magnetic field pulses to a specific portion of the brain, the left prefrontal cortex, in order to stimulate the areas of the brain linked to depression.
These pulses are of a similar intensity to the magnetic field produced during an MRI imaging scan. The repeated short bursts of magnetic energy introduced through the scalp excite neurons locally and in connected areas in the brain.
TMS received clearance from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) in October 2008. This novel treatment option is a safe and effective, acute antidepressant therapy, but there is limited information on its long-term benefits.
In the study, 301 patients suffering from major depression were randomly assigned to receive active or sham TMS in an acute, six-week, controlled trial. Patients who responded then underwent a three-week, transition period where they were tapered off of active or sham TMS treatment and started on a standard antidepressant for maintenance. After any successful acute treatment for depression such as TMS, antidepressant medications or electroconvulsive (ECT) therapy, it is usual practice to introduce maintenance medication to lessen the chance of relapsing.
In the acute, randomized trial, 142 patients who received active TMS therapy responded and entered the three-week, transition phase. One hundred twenty-one patients completed this phase without relapse. Of those patients, 99 (81.8 percent) then agreed to be followed for an additional 24-week period during which only 10 patients relapsed.
In addition, TMS was successfully used as an intermittent rescue strategy to preclude impending relapse in 32 of 38 (84 percent) patients. This indicated that the therapeutic effects of TMS are durable in the majority of acute responders and that reintroduction of TMS as an adjunct to medication was effective and safe in preventing relapse.
Results of the study were published in the October 2010 issue of Brain Stimulation, a journal published by Elsevier.
Excessive Internet browsing can lead to social isolation, insomnia, depression, anxiety and obesity thus affecting mental health of an individual, says a report.
A study conducted by the Associated Chamber of Commerce and Industry of India also said children of working parents are found to be more Internet addictive in the absence of parental supervision as compared to those whose single parents are employed.
The basic purpose of the study was to ascertain the extent of Internet overuse, especially by children between eight to 18 years.
According to the survey, half of the children interviewed said that they accessed Internet for over five hours a day. Boys reported excessive Internet browsing as compared to girls.
The report cited the reasons for excessive use of Internet that including no rules with regard to Internet use at home, less likelihood of having friends and feelings of sadness or depression.
“Easy availability of internet coupled with lack of parental supervision is a significant reason for this ever-increasing menace of Internet addiction,” said the report.
“There’s striking evidence that some users have developed a compulsive internet habit, whereby they replace real-life social interaction with online chat rooms and social networking sites,” said D.S. Rawat secretary general Assocham.
“The results suggest that this type of addictive surfing can have a serious impact on mental health,” he added.
The scourge of premenstrual tension, which affects more than half of women and causes physical as well as emotional trauma, could soon be eradicated by a safe, low-dose pill, scientists said yesterday.
A laboratory-based study has found that very low doses of the anti-depression drug Prozac can eliminate the symptoms of premenstrual syndrome, which include mood swings, tiredness, irritability, headaches and joint pains.
The scientist leading the research said the findings, which have so far been observed in laboratory rats, are strong enough to warrant a full-scale clinical trial with Prozac given that the drug has already undergone the necessary safety tests at the higher doses needed to treat depression. A clinical trial could begin within six months, and if the results are favourable, women could be taking the drug to treat premenstrual syndrome within two years, said Thelma Lovick, a neuroscientist at the University of Birmingham, who led the study.
Not all women have the monthly symptoms associated with their menstrual cycle, but it is estimated that 75 per cent have experienced them at some time and that between 30 and 40 per cent have more severe symptoms that badly affect their work and family lives.
The combination of depression and coronary heart disease in a patient could be much more deadly than either condition alone, researchers say.
French and British experts say people with both conditions could be four times more likely to die from heart or circulatory disease.
The study, in Heart journal, tracked the mental and physical health of 6,000 middle-aged people over five years.
Experts said doctors must pay more heed to depression in heart patients.
Experts from the University College London and the University of Versailles followed the health of just under 6,000 male and female civil servants for an average of five and a half years.
The volunteers were taking part in the British Whitehall Study II, which is looking at social and economic factors in long-term health.
A single dose of the drug Ketamine acts like “magic” lifting people out of depression in hours and lasting more than a week, scientists claim.
The drug has traditionally been used as an anaesthetic for animals and, in some cases, humans – but has also established itself as a nightclub favourite in recent years, where it is nicknamed Special K.
But studies have found it can treat depression within hours, even when years of alternative treatments have failed.
And the effects of just one dose can last up to 10 days.
Most antidepressant drugs currently available on prescription need several months or even years to take effect and must be taken everyday.
However, scientists discovered that rats given ketamine stopped displaying symptoms of depressive behaviour within hours of their first fix.
The drug was even shown to restore brain-connections damaged by stress.
A similar study conducted at the Connecticut Mental Health Centre also found 70 per cent of depressed patients who failed to respond to years of treatment on traditional antidepressants improved within hours of receiving a dose of ketamine.
The world literally fades to grey when we feel depressed, scientists have discovered.
Depression has an effect on the eyes that makes it harder to detect the black and white contrasts.
Scientists in Germany carried out tests on the retinas of patients which showed the effect – similar to turning down the contrast control on a TV.
The effect was so marked that scientists believe the test could provide an objective way of measuring depression levels.
It could be one reason why throughout the ages and regardless of culture or language, artists have consistently depicted depression using symbols of darkness or grey uniformity.
The study, conducted by Dr Ludger Tebartz van Elst and researchers at the University of Freiburg, was reported today in the journal Biological Psychiatry.
Dr John Krystal, who edits the journal, said: ‘These data highlight the profound ways that depression alters one’s experience of the world.
‘The poet William Cowper said that ‘variety’s the very spice of life’, yet when people are depressed, they are less able to perceive contrasts in the visual world. This loss would seem to make the world a less pleasurable place.’
The German team measured electrical responses to gauge the activity of the retina in two groups of depressed and non-depressed individuals.
The retina, at the back of the eye, contains the sensitive cells that turn light signals into nerve messages, making it possible to see.
Depressed patients were found to have dramatically lower retinal contrast ‘gain’ than the volunteers who were not suffering from depression.
The number of antidepressants prescribed by the NHS has almost doubled in the last decade, and rose sharply last year as the recession bit, figures reveal.
The health service issued 39.1m prescriptions for drugs to tackle depression in England in 2009, compared with 20.1m in 1999 – a 95% jump. Doctors handed out 3.18m more prescriptions last year than in 2008, almost twice the annual rise seen in preceding years, according to previously unpublished statistics released by the NHS’s Business Services Authority.
The increase is thought to be due in part to improved diagnosis, reduced stigma around mental ill-health and rising worries about jobs and finances triggered by the economic downturn.
But tonight doctors warned that some people are being put on the drugs unnecessarily, especially those with milder symptoms of depression, partly because there is too little access to “talking therapies”, which use discussion rather than drugs to tackle problems.
“I’m concerned that too many people are being prescribed antidepressants and not being given counselling and cognitive behaviour therapy, because access to those therapies, while it is improving, is still patchy,” said Professor Steve Field, the chairman of the Royal College of General Practitioners, which represents the UK’s family doctors.
“More people are being diagnosed with depression, but many of them would be treated better by having access to talking therapies, especially those with mild to moderate depression. I’m concerned that these people are being treated with medication unnecessarily,” he added.
GPs felt “cornered” into giving patients antidepressants because of a lack of alternatives, he said.
Many new fathers experience post-natal depression, yet most cases go undetected and untreated, experts warn.
One in 10 new fathers may have the baby blues, US researchers believe – based on their trawl of medical literature.
While this rate is lower than in new mothers, it is more than currently recognised, they told the Journal of the American Medical Association.
Lack of sleep and new responsibilities, or supporting a wife with post-natal depression can be triggers, they say.
The Eastern Virginia Medical School team based their findings on 43 studies involving 28,004 parents from 16 different countries including the UK and the US.
The Depression Alliance suggests that if you have experienced four or more of the following symptoms for most of the day, nearly every day, for more than two weeks, you should get help:
* Tiredness and loss of energy.
* Persistent sadness.
* Loss of self-confidence and self-esteem.
* Difficulty concentrating.
* Not being able to enjoy things that are usually pleasurable.
* Undue feelings of guilt or worthlessness.
* Feelings of helplessness and hopelessness.
* Difficulty getting off to sleep or waking up much earlier than usual.
* Avoiding people, even your close friends.
* Finding it hard to function at work or school.
* Loss of appetite.
* Loss of sex drive, or sexual problems.
* Physical pains.
* Thinking about suicide and death.
* Self-harm.
There are various recovery routes you can take. Antidepressants are certainly effective at elevating mood by adjusting the activity levels of brain chemicals that control this.
Cognitive behavioural therapy (CBT) is a short-term treatment that teaches clients to change their expectations, while psychodynamic psychotherapy explores the impact of early relationships on current behaviour.
The following ‘self-help’ techniques may also alleviate mild depression.
LEARN TO RELAX: Try yoga and meditation.
EXERCISE: Gentle pursuits such as walking or swimming lift your mood.
CHANGES TO YOUR DIET: Eating a nutrient-rich diet with plenty of fresh fruit and veg can make you feel physically and psychologically healthier.
GET OUT AND ABOUT: Interact with other people, even if it’s just going to the cinema or eating out.
SUNSHINE: Research shows that it can improve mood, so don’t hide inside.
Just five minutes of exercise in a “green space” such as a park can boost mental health, researchers claim.
There is growing evidence that combining activities such as walking or cycling with nature boosts well-being.
In the latest analysis, UK researchers looked at evidence from 1,250 people in 10 studies and found fast improvements in mood and self-esteem.
The study in the Environmental Science and Technology journal suggested the strongest impact was on young people.
The research looked at many different outdoor activities including walking, gardening, cycling, fishing, boating, horse-riding and farming in locations such as a park, garden or nature trail.
The biggest effect was seen within just five minutes.
With longer periods of time exercising in a green environment, the positive effects were clearly apparent but were of a smaller magnitude, the study found.
Looking at men and women of different ages, the researchers found the health changes – physical and mental – were particularly strong in the young and the mentally-ill.