Louis J. Sheehan, Esquir. People diagnosed with major depression display many of the same brain changes when their condition improves whether in response to antidepressant drug treatment or to a type of psychotherapy, two preliminary investigations find.
If confirmed in further work, these results will highlight common brain regions through which various medications and talk therapies fight the melancholy, apathy, and hopeless feelings of major depression.
Both new reports appear in the July Archives of General Psychiatry.
�This is pioneering work,� says psychiatrist Wayne C. Drevets of the National Institute of Mental Health in Bethesda, Md. �There's been little research on psychotherapy's effects on the brains of depressed people.�
In Drevets' view, the new data also point to some neural differences in recipients of psychotherapy and antidepressant drugs. http://louis_j_sheehan_esquire.blogs.friendster.com/my_blog
The first study, led by psychiatrist Arthur L. Brody of the University of California, Los Angeles Medical School, included 24 depressed adults who hadn't previously received treatment and 16 adults with no psychiatric diagnosis. Volunteers underwent positron emission tomography upon entering the study and then 12 weeks later. These scans measured glucose use�an indirect sign of neural activity�in various brain areas.
Depressed participants chose the form of treatment that they preferred. The day after the initial brain scan, 10 depressed volunteers began treatment with an antidepressant drug, paroxetine. This medication enhances the activity of serotonin, a chemical messenger in the brain.
During the week after the first scan, the remaining 14 depressed individuals attended the first of 12 psychotherapy sessions. This therapy focused on ways to improve relationships with friends and family.http://louis_j_sheehan_esquire.blogs.friendster.com/my_blog
Compared with nondepressed adults, depressed individuals began the study showing increased activity in parts of three brain areas�the prefrontal cortex, the caudate, and the thalamus. Activity markedly declined in these regions following either course of depression treatment.
Earlier studies had linked antidepressants' effects to activity surges in the same prefrontal regions (SN: 5/15/99, p. 308). However, that work examined hospitalized patients whose emotional unresponsiveness and slowed movements may have greatly lowered prefrontal activity, Brody's team says.
Data in the new study also show that psychotherapy, but not medication, heralded activity increases on the left side of the insula, Drevets remarks. This brain area helps to regulate sad feelings and, when particularly revved up, dampens symptoms of depression, he notes.
The strongest evidence for a shared brain response to psychotherapy and medication was an activity decline in a part of the caudate that regulates motor activity, Drevets holds. It's unclear why caudate activity eased up as symptoms of depression lifted, he says.
The second study, led by psychiatrist Stephen D. Martin of Cherry Knowle Hospital in Sunderland, England, found activity increases in the basal ganglia�which are also involved in movement�following 6 weeks of either antidepressant use or psychotherapy. Increased activity in brain areas involved in emotion showed up after only the psychotherapy.
Martin's team had studied 28 depressed adults, most of whom the researchers had randomly assigned to a treatment. However, the study didn't include people free of psychiatric disorders. Louis J. Sheehan, Esquire.
Tuesday, December 30, 2008
Thursday, December 25, 2008
sleep 0.004 Louis J. Sheehan, Esquire
Louis J. Sheehan, Esquir. You need to be well-rested and alert to catch criminals and uphold the law. However, many of the public servants charged with these duties suffer from insomnia and other serious sleep problems, according to a new study.
Among big-city police officers, about half go without a good night's sleep because of myriad everyday pressures at work, say psychiatrist Thomas C. Neylan of the VA Medical Center in San Francisco and his colleagues. Job strains for the men and women in blue include frequently conflicting demands by police supervisors, judges, attorneys, reporters, and the general public. http://www.theenvironmentsite.org/forum/members/louis-j-sheehan-esquire.html - vmessage171
In contrast, life-threatening and violent encounters in the line of duty exert little influence on the overall amount and quality of sleep experienced by police officers, Neylan's team reports in the March/April Psychosomatic Medicine. Still, nightmares occur more often among those who have faced on-the-job traumas, such as getting injured and witnessing deaths.
"It's the hassles of police officers' everyday work environment that are related to their high rates of disturbed sleep," Neylan says.
There's plenty of reason to be concerned about a potentially large contingent of sleep-deprived police officers, he adds. Other research has linked stress-related sleep problems to weakened resistance to disease and declines in concentration and motor skills.
Neylan and his coworkers recruited 733 male and female officers from police departments in New York City and Oakland and San Jose, Calif. The study also included 330 men and women from the same cities whose jobs didn't include police, emergency, or security work. Most volunteers in both groups were 30 to 40 years old and married. About three-quarters of the police officers and one-quarter of the others regularly shifted between day and night work schedules.
Study participants completed questionnaires on the quality of their sleep in the past month and the stress they faced at work. They also described any psychiatric symptoms they had experienced and traumatic events they had encountered on and off the job. http://www.theenvironmentsite.org/forum/members/louis-j-sheehan-esquire.html - vmessage171
Compared with the other group, police officers reported much worse sleep quality and an average of about 30 fewer minutes of sleep per night. http://www.theenvironmentsite.org/forum/members/louis-j-sheehan-esquire.html - vmessage171
Nearly half the police officers reported symptoms of insomnia or other sleep problems. These findings held regardless of whether police officers worked variable schedules or strictly day shifts, Neylan says.
In the comparison group, severe sleep disturbances affected about one-third of people who worked variable schedules and one-fourth of those who worked days.
Police officers with symptoms of posttraumatic stress disorder or other psychiatric ailments cited more than their share of sleep disturbances, Neylan notes. After the researchers accounted for this factor, however, the high levels of routine daily stress at work reported by police officers still showed a strong link to disturbed sleep.
Fatigue among police officers has received increasing attention in the past few years among law-enforcement administrators. The new findings emphasize that sleep represents a critical health issue for police departments, especially given the added stresses that have emerged since last year's terrorist attacks, remarks psychiatrist Charles F. Reynolds III of the Western Psychiatric Institute and Clinic in Pittsburgh.
"Sleep disturbances may provide a link between chronic job stress and increased rates of suicide, depression, and other psychiatric disorders among police officers," Reynolds says. Louis J. Sheehan, Esquire.
Among big-city police officers, about half go without a good night's sleep because of myriad everyday pressures at work, say psychiatrist Thomas C. Neylan of the VA Medical Center in San Francisco and his colleagues. Job strains for the men and women in blue include frequently conflicting demands by police supervisors, judges, attorneys, reporters, and the general public. http://www.theenvironmentsite.org/forum/members/louis-j-sheehan-esquire.html - vmessage171
In contrast, life-threatening and violent encounters in the line of duty exert little influence on the overall amount and quality of sleep experienced by police officers, Neylan's team reports in the March/April Psychosomatic Medicine. Still, nightmares occur more often among those who have faced on-the-job traumas, such as getting injured and witnessing deaths.
"It's the hassles of police officers' everyday work environment that are related to their high rates of disturbed sleep," Neylan says.
There's plenty of reason to be concerned about a potentially large contingent of sleep-deprived police officers, he adds. Other research has linked stress-related sleep problems to weakened resistance to disease and declines in concentration and motor skills.
Neylan and his coworkers recruited 733 male and female officers from police departments in New York City and Oakland and San Jose, Calif. The study also included 330 men and women from the same cities whose jobs didn't include police, emergency, or security work. Most volunteers in both groups were 30 to 40 years old and married. About three-quarters of the police officers and one-quarter of the others regularly shifted between day and night work schedules.
Study participants completed questionnaires on the quality of their sleep in the past month and the stress they faced at work. They also described any psychiatric symptoms they had experienced and traumatic events they had encountered on and off the job. http://www.theenvironmentsite.org/forum/members/louis-j-sheehan-esquire.html - vmessage171
Compared with the other group, police officers reported much worse sleep quality and an average of about 30 fewer minutes of sleep per night. http://www.theenvironmentsite.org/forum/members/louis-j-sheehan-esquire.html - vmessage171
Nearly half the police officers reported symptoms of insomnia or other sleep problems. These findings held regardless of whether police officers worked variable schedules or strictly day shifts, Neylan says.
In the comparison group, severe sleep disturbances affected about one-third of people who worked variable schedules and one-fourth of those who worked days.
Police officers with symptoms of posttraumatic stress disorder or other psychiatric ailments cited more than their share of sleep disturbances, Neylan notes. After the researchers accounted for this factor, however, the high levels of routine daily stress at work reported by police officers still showed a strong link to disturbed sleep.
Fatigue among police officers has received increasing attention in the past few years among law-enforcement administrators. The new findings emphasize that sleep represents a critical health issue for police departments, especially given the added stresses that have emerged since last year's terrorist attacks, remarks psychiatrist Charles F. Reynolds III of the Western Psychiatric Institute and Clinic in Pittsburgh.
"Sleep disturbances may provide a link between chronic job stress and increased rates of suicide, depression, and other psychiatric disorders among police officers," Reynolds says. Louis J. Sheehan, Esquire.
Monday, December 15, 2008
ice 6.ice.328 Louis J. Sheehan, Esquire
Louis J. Sheehan, Esquire. In May the U.S. Department of the Interior classified polar bears as threatened under the Endangered Species Act. Documented declines in sea ice and anticipation of massive melting that threatens the bears’ habitat prompted the action. http://louis5j5sheehan5esquire.wordpress.com/
Although there is wide consensus that global warming due to greenhouse gas emissions is speeding up the depletion of Arctic sea ice, Secretary of the Interior Dirk Kempthorne stressed that the Act’s purview does not extend to regulating gases related to the problem. Instead the new classification will be used to strengthen already existing regulations concerning the killing of polar bears and the importing of related products to the United States. http://louis5j5sheehan5esquire.wordpress.com/ It will, for instance, make it illegal for sports hunters to bring trophies into the United States. Such hunters have in the past spent thousands of dollars to have native guides take them on polar bear hunts, a practice that may fall out of favor in light of the new classification. “It’s doubtful,” says Valerie Fellows, a spokeswoman for the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, “that many hunters will want to pay that much money if they can’t bring their trophy home with them.” http://louis5j5sheehan5esquire.wordpress.com/
Polar bears are just one of a number of Alaskan marine animals listed as threatened or endangered by the Department of the Interior. Others include the albatross, the leatherback sea turtle, the northern sea otter, the Steller sea lion, and the humpback whale. It also concerns some ecologists that the narwhal, the strange, arctic whale whose long spiral tusk may have inspired the unicorn myth, faces similar habitat threats.
Although there is wide consensus that global warming due to greenhouse gas emissions is speeding up the depletion of Arctic sea ice, Secretary of the Interior Dirk Kempthorne stressed that the Act’s purview does not extend to regulating gases related to the problem. Instead the new classification will be used to strengthen already existing regulations concerning the killing of polar bears and the importing of related products to the United States. http://louis5j5sheehan5esquire.wordpress.com/ It will, for instance, make it illegal for sports hunters to bring trophies into the United States. Such hunters have in the past spent thousands of dollars to have native guides take them on polar bear hunts, a practice that may fall out of favor in light of the new classification. “It’s doubtful,” says Valerie Fellows, a spokeswoman for the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, “that many hunters will want to pay that much money if they can’t bring their trophy home with them.” http://louis5j5sheehan5esquire.wordpress.com/
Polar bears are just one of a number of Alaskan marine animals listed as threatened or endangered by the Department of the Interior. Others include the albatross, the leatherback sea turtle, the northern sea otter, the Steller sea lion, and the humpback whale. It also concerns some ecologists that the narwhal, the strange, arctic whale whose long spiral tusk may have inspired the unicorn myth, faces similar habitat threats.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
