Is There A Developmental Component To The Risk For Depression?
December 27th, 2007 Subscribe To Our Feed
Psychiatrists remain divided as to how to define and classify the mood and anxiety disorders, the most common mental disorders. Committees across the globe are currently pondering how best to carve nature at its anxious joints for the fifth version of the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual (DSM-V), the “gold standard” reference book for psychiatrists. Only recently has the process of refining the diagnostic system been informed by high quality longitudinal data. An important new study of this type was published in the December 1st issue of Biological Psychiatry.
Ian Colman, Ph.D., the lead author, notes, “”Rarely have classification systems in psychiatry considered the nature of symptoms of depression and anxiety over time; however research into trajectories of alcohol abuse and antisocial behaviour shows that accounting for symptoms over time may help in better understanding causes and outcomes of these disorders.” Colman and colleagues at the University of Cambridge in England and the Medical Research Council National Survey of Health and Development (now called the MRC Unit for Lifelong Health and Ageing), using fundamental ideas about the life-course origins of common mental illnesses, statistical techniques for handling large quantities of longitudinal information and one of the longest running cohort studies in the world, were able to analyze data by grouping people according to their symptoms of anxiety and depression over a 40-year period.
The researchers were able to identify six courses of mental health, ranging from those with repeated severe symptoms to those in good mental health, while others fluctuated in between. Dr. Colman adds, “The usefulness of characterizing people by their experience over time became evident when we investigated markers of early development, and found that those with poorer mental health over time were more likely to be smaller at birth and tended to reach developmental milestones later than those with good mental health.”
John H. Krystal, M.D., Editor of Biological Psychiatry and affiliated with both Yale University School of Medicine and the VA Connecticut Healthcare System, comments, “The study by Colman and colleagues suggests that children with low weight during infancy or slight developmental delays may be at greater risk for developing depression. How does this risk work” After all, it is extremely unlikely that adults bear emotional scars from very subtle delays in their standing or walking.” The authors explain that their findings support a proposed “fetal programming” model for depression and anxiety, which posits that prenatal stress may result in permanent maladaptive changes to the developing fetal brain. Particularly notable was the fact that differences with regards to early development were apparent not only for those with severe problems with mental health, but also for those with mild to moderate symptoms of depression and anxiety over time. Dr. Krystal adds that it may also be “that genes that are involved in shaping the development of the brain and the emergence of particular behaviors during infancy also influence the development of brain circuits that influence the risk for depression later in life.”
The authors hope that this rich-data/whole life approach may foster insights into the causes of brief versus persistent and early vs late onset disease processes, and eventually identify underlying mechanisms responsible for such different life course outcomes in mental ill-health.
(Source: Jayne Dawkins)
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How To Use Anxiety Attack To Relief Heart Problems?
December 25th, 2007 Subscribe To Our Feed
There are many people living on this planet are suffering from heart problems. Some are due to imbalance diet, some due to excessive alcohol, some are compulsive smokers, some are just having work stress, some are due to anxiety or panic disorders, and etc…
Having said that, some people’s heart problems are due to anxiety attack. These are problems relating to the cardiovascular system of the human body that are caused by anxiety and panic attacks.
Due to the very nature of a panic attack, it is not surprising that anxiety attack heart problems are among the leading causes of heart attacks or other cardiovascular issues among North Americans and other nationalities today. Once you understand what is really anxiety attacks, you can find relief in your heart problems.
Why are we saying this?
This is not to say that an anxiety or panic attack does not have a heavy effect on other systems of the body as well, but it’s effect on the heart and blood flow is easily measured and quite noticeably dangerous. This way, most people that are prone to heart-related problems living in the 21st century are more stress and tense due to globalization.
What is a panic attack?
It is a sudden onset of fear or other terror that causes scary symptoms that can immoblize a person in the mood of the moment. Many people report the notion of being “frozen by fear” and an anxiety attack definitely resembles that to a large degree.
What are the symptoms of panic attack heart problems?
#1 Shaking of the hands
#2 Feeling trembling
#3 Numbness in extremities
#4 Heart palpitations
#5 Trouble breathing
#6 Some other things that are caused by the great difficulty of a panic attack.
It is most common because of the close association stress has with other similar heart sickness. Anxiety can accompany with any heart disease or cardiac conditions that causes a drop in blood pressure because of this close relationship in systems and various body functions.
What other causes does anxiety attack affect?
This, in fact, causes a sudden decrease in cardiac output, which is the amount of blood being pumped by the heart. Anxiety is also closely related to (but not the cause of) a condition called mitral valve prolapse or MVP.
What is “fight” or “flight”?
Panic attacks often generate a common human response to danger: the “fight or flight” syndrome or reaction. This was said to evolve from early human types that either fled danger or took it on if they could. This form of reaction is often relates to the mental immediate reaction to tense situation.
How do it impact our body?
Fight or flight generates a lot of biological processes because of the energy the body needs to perform either task. The heart races, the blood quickens, the eyes function differently, senses are heightened, and other parts of the body begin to react in other ways such as muscles tightening, etc. It is as if the whole body is under alert mode and anything amiss around the surroundings will be quickly be detected.
The role of the brain.
Anxiety attack heart difficulties can arise from the heart being told to work too fast by the brain, which is in charge of the “fight or flight” mechanism. At this point, the body often decides to simply shut down because it’s easier on the systems involved.
For this reason, the heart once again runs the virtual gamut of both beating faster and beating slower; calming the body down and slowing blood flow one moment and then speeding the body up and creating more blood flow the next minute.
There you have it, understand the anxiety attacks can really help to control heart problems, there are tons of ways to relief heart problems. Continue to read my other articles to find your answers to your pressing anxiety problems.
Take care and talk soon!
Eddy
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