how accurate are they? also, did u have any strange experiences you wanna share?

I have been doing astrology readings for about twelve or 13 years now. The impression I get is that astrology really works, otherwise I probably would not pay attention to it. I know a little about numerology but I dont think it works. And as for psychic Readings I think it is usually a scam but once in awhile there is something supernatural going on.
My studies are mostly with dead and missing persons. The question is whether people who die mysteriously like Elvis or Marilyn or Michael does their astrology say anything about their death. I usually see a very strong relationship.
For example take Michael Jackson. He was into prescription drugs and probably was having insomnia problems and that eventually led to his death, at least that is what I get from the media. So what does his astrology reading say about it?
I just key in MJs birthdate 8/29/58 in www.astro.com and then check his short term forecast, looking particularly for Neptune transits, because Neptune is the planet that most affects people with drugs.
From his current transits, I see this, which is pretty much what I would expect.
Neptune opposition Mercury: An overactive imagination
End of February 2009 until end of December 2010: Thinking and communication will be problem areas in your life during this time. You are more subject to confusion at this time than at any other, and it is a very dangerous time to make important decisions. Either you misunderstand the circumstances that affect your decision, or you do not have all the facts. It is also possible that someone has deceived you about the facts.
In communicating with others, be very careful that what you say is clear, and if you dont understand what someone else says to you, clarify it to yourself. Misunderstanding others is a great danger at this time and can lead to most unpleasant situations.
You are more than usually subject to strange ideas now. Be careful not to become obsessed by delusions, for you will find it very difficult to tell what is a delusion and what is not. The tried and true principles that have guided your life are more reliable than newer ones.
In business deals or any other buying or selling negotiations, be extremely careful, for you can easily be deceived. Make sure that what you buy is exactly as it is represented, and always be sure to get a guarantee when you make a purchase. If you are selling, be sure to make some kind of contractual arrangement with the buyer.
Avoid getting involved in any scheme that you know to be dishonest. When it comes to deceiving others, luck is not with you; the one who gets hurt will be you.
So what I see is that not only is Neptune opposite his Mercury which means fuzzy thinking to keep it short, but Jupiter is conjunct Neptune at the same time. Jupiter tends to make things , and so the combination was quite lethal for him. His fuzzy thinking led to an overdose of a lethal drug. And what the astrology says is that he was under complete influence of the planets which caused it all to happen.

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You can stop an anxiety attack from becoming worse or even initially starting. To do this, breathe slowly and try to relax - calm your mind and change your focus to more happy images.  It may be wise to practice deep diaphramatic breathing when you are not having an anxiety attack. This practice will come in handy when you really do need to try to stop an anxiety attack.
Avoid consuming caffeine or similar stimulants. This is one of the simplest ways to stop an anxiety attack. During an anxiety attack, your body becomes extremely alert and hyper aware of everything and having stimulants within your body make it even worse. Dont eat or drink anything that has caffeine. If you follow this rule, then your chances of suffering from an anxiety attack will dramatically decrease.
Regular exercise is important if you suffer from anxiety. This helps to control and lower your levels of adrenaline. This helps stop anxiety attacks as anxiety increases the level of adrenaline in the body. Lower levels of adrenaline help you manage your thoughts and actions if you try to keep more fit and healthy.
Thinking about positive things can help when you begin to feel anxious. Think about the people who love you and remember good times you have had instead of allowing the anxiety take over. Having a focus on empowering and positive things in your life will help in limiting the onset of an anxiety attack.
Keeping your mind and body in a healthy state does wonders when dealing with anxiety. There is no one magic treatment for anxiety and not a single way to stop an anxiety attack. You should focus on what you can do to be calm and relax and learn to stop an anxiety attack before it even starts. .

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Since the 1970s, meditation and other stress-reduction techniques have been studied as possible treatments for depression and anxiety. One such practice, yoga, has received less attention in the medical literature, though it has become increasingly popular in recent decades. One national survey estimated, for example, that nearly 8 percent of U.S. adults had tried yoga at least once, and that nearly 4 percent practiced yoga in the previous year.
Yoga classes can vary from gentle and accommodating to strenuous and challenging; the choice of style tends to be based on physical ability and personal preference. Hatha yoga, the most common type of yoga practiced in the United States, combines three elements: physical poses, called asanas; controlled breathing practiced in conjunction with asanas; and a short period of deep relaxation or meditation.
Many of the studies evaluating yogas therapeutic benefits have been small and poorly designed. However, a 2004 analysis found that, in recent decades, an increasing number have been randomized controlled trials—the most rigorous standard for proving efficacy.
Available reviews of a wide range of yoga practices suggest they can reduce the impact of exaggerated stress responses and may be helpful for both anxiety and depression. In this respect, yoga functions like other self-soothing techniques, such as meditation, relaxation, exercise, or even socializing with friends.
Taming the stress response
By reducing perceived stress and anxiety, yoga appears to modulate stress response systems. This, in turn, decreases physiological arousal—for example, reducing the heart rate, lowering blood pressure, and easing respiration. There is also evidence that yoga practices help increase heart rate variability, an indicator of the bodys ability to respond to stress more flexibly.
A small but intriguing study further characterizes the effect of yoga on the stress response. In 2008, researchers at the University of Utah presented preliminary results from a study of varied participants responses to pain. They note that people who have a poorly regulated response to stress are also more sensitive to pain. Their subjects were 12 experienced yoga practitioners, 14 people with fibromyalgia (a condition many researchers consider a stress-related illness that is characterized by hypersensitivity to pain), and 16 healthy volunteers.
When the three groups were subjected to more or less painful thumbnail pressure, the participants with fibromyalgia—as expected—perceived pain at lower pressure levels compared with the other subjects. Functional MRIs showed they also had the greatest activity in areas of the brain associated with the pain response. In contrast, the yoga practitioners had the highest pain tolerance and lowest pain-related brain activity during the MRI. The study underscores the value of techniques, such as yoga, that can help a person regulate their stress and, therefore, pain responses.
Improved mood and functioning
Questions remain about exactly how yoga works to improve mood, but preliminary evidence suggests its benefit is similar to that of exercise and relaxation techniques.
In a German study published in 2005, 24 women who described themselves as emotionally distressed took two 90-minute yoga classes a week for three months. Women in a control group maintained their normal activities and were asked not to begin an exercise or stress-reduction program during the study period.
Though not formally diagnosed with depression, all participants had experienced emotional distress for at least half of the previous 90 days. They were also one standard deviation above the population norm in scores for perceived stress (measured by the Cohen Perceived Stress Scale), anxiety (measured using the Spielberger State-Trait Anxiety Inventory), and depression (scored with the Profile of Mood States and the Center for Epidemiological Studies Depression Scale, or CES-D).
At the end of three months, women in the yoga group reported improvements in perceived stress, depression, anxiety, energy, fatigue, and well-being. Depression scores improved by 50%, anxiety scores by 30%, and overall well-being scores by 65 percent. Initial complaints of headaches, back pain, and poor sleep quality also resolved much more often in the yoga group than in the control group.
One uncontrolled, descriptive 2005 study examined the effects of a single yoga class for inpatients at a New Hampshire psychiatric hospital. The 113 participants included patients with bipolar disorder, major depression, and schizophrenia. After the class, average levels of tension, anxiety, depression, anger, hostility, and fatigue dropped significantly, as measured by the Profile of Mood States, a standard 65-item questionnaire that participants answered on their own before and after the class. Patients who chose to participate in additional classes experienced similar short-term positive effects.
Further controlled trials of yoga practice have demonstrated improvements in mood and quality of life for the elderly, people caring for patients with dementia, breast cancer survivors, and patients with epilepsy.
Yoga and PTSD
Since evidence suggests that yoga can tone down maladaptive nervous system arousal, researchers are exploring whether or not yoga can be a helpful practice for patients with post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD).
One randomized controlled study examined the effects of yoga and a breathing program in disabled Australian Vietnam veterans diagnosed with severe PTSD. The veterans were heavy daily drinkers, and all were taking at least one antidepressant. The five-day course included breathing techniques (see above), yoga asanas, education about stress reduction, and guided meditation. Participants were evaluated at the beginning of the study using the Clinician Administered PTSD Scale (CAPS), which ranks symptom severity on an 80-point scale.
Six weeks after the study began, the yoga and breathing group had dropped their CAPS scores from averages of 57 (moderate to severe symptoms) to 42 (mild to moderate). These improvements persisted at a six-month follow-up. The control group, consisting of veterans on a waiting list, showed no improvement.
About 20 percent of war veterans who served in Afghanistan or Iraq suffer from PTSD, according to one estimate. Experts treating this population suggest that yoga can be a useful addition to the treatment program.
Researchers at the Walter Reed Army Medical Center in Washington, D.C., are offering a yogic method of deep relaxation to veterans returning from combat in Iraq and Afghanistan. Dr. Kristie Gore, a psychologist at Walter Reed, says the military hopes that yoga-based treatments will be more acceptable to the soldiers and less stigmatizing than traditional psychotherapy. The center now uses yoga and yogic relaxation in post-deployment PTSD awareness courses, and plans to conduct a controlled trial of their effectiveness in the future.
Cautions and encouragement
Although many forms of yoga practice are safe, some are strenuous and may not be appropriate for everyone. In particular, elderly patients or those with mobility problems may want to check first with a clinician before choosing yoga as a treatment option.
But for many patients dealing with depression, anxiety, or stress, yoga may be a very appealing way to better manage symptoms. Indeed, the scientific study of yoga demonstrates that mental and physical health are not just closely allied, but are essentially equivalent. The evidence is growing that yoga practice is a relatively low-risk, high-yield approach to improving overall health.
Benefits of controlled breathing
A type of controlled breathing with roots in traditional yoga shows promise in providing relief for depression. The program, called Sudarshan Kriya yoga (SKY), involves several types of cyclical breathing patterns, ranging from slow and calming to rapid and stimulating, and is taught by the nonprofit Art of Living Foundation.
One study compared 30 minutes of SKY breathing, done six days a week, to bilateral electroconvulsive therapy and the tricyclic antidepressant imipramine in 45 people hospitalized for depression. After four weeks of treatment, 93 percent of those receiving electroconvulsive therapy, 73 percent of those taking imipramine, and 67 percent of those using the breathing technique had achieved remission.
Another study examined the effects of SKY on depressive symptoms in 60 alcohol-dependent men. After a week of a standard detoxification program at a mental health center in Bangalore, India, participants were randomly assigned to two weeks of SKY or a standard alcoholism treatment control. After the full three weeks, scores on a standard depression inventory dropped 75 percent in the SKY group, as compared with 60 percent in the standard treatment group. Levels of two stress hormones, cortisol and corticotropin, also dropped in the SKY group, but not in the control group. The authors suggest that SKY might be a beneficial treatment for depression in the early stages of recovery from alcoholism.
Copyright © 2009 by the Presidents and Fellows of Harvard College. Used with permission of StayWell. All rights reserved. Harvard Medical School does not approve or endorse any products on the page. Harvard is the sole creator of its editorial content, and advertisers are not allowed to influence the language or images Harvard uses.

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At the time of his departure from the major league, Greinke wasn't sure that he would ever return. However, after spending several months away from the game, and receiving treatment for his depression and anxiety, it seems Greinke is back with a vengeance and performing better than ever. This is an inspirational story to those suffering with SAD who think the future looks bleak. With time, patience, and the right form of treatment, anything truly is possible.

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1: Z Psychosom Med Psychother. 2009;55(2):180-188. [Social phobia - the blind spot: Infrequently diagnosed, highly complex, and a predictor for unfavourable therapy outcomes?] [Article in German] Pöhlmann K, Döbbel S, Löffler S, Israel M, Joraschky P. PD Dr. phil. Karin Pöhlmann, Universitätsklinik für Psychotherapie und Psychosomatik, Technische Universität Dresden, Fetscherstr. 74, D-01307 Dresden, Germany, E-Mail: Karin.Poehlmann@tu-dresden.de. Objectives: The objectives of the studywere to examine (1) whether patients with social phobia report higher symptom load at the beginning and at the end of treatment and 1 year aftertreatment; and (2) whether the presence of social phobia is a factor that influences the course of treatment. Methods: 613 patients from a university hospital for psychosomatic medicine filled out questionnaires assessing symptom load (SCL 90-R, KOPS), physical symptoms, psychological and social impairment (KOPS), and depression (BDI). Social phobia was diagnosed based on astandardized diagnostic interview. Results: 25%of the patients suffered from social phobia. They had significantly more concurrentmental disorders (4.18 vs. 2.41) and a higher symptom load than patients suffering from other mental disorders. They reported more physical complaints and depression and felt more impaired psychologically as well as socially. Even though both groups of patients profited from the treatment, compared to other patients, social phobia patients still had higher symptom load, impairment, and depression scores at the end of treatment and even at the follow-up 1 year after treatment. Discussion: Social phobia is a severe disorder in which concurrent disorders frequently cause a high level of distress and impairment. These patients may benefit more from longer coursesof treatment and/or disorder-specific treatment elements. Diagnostic and therapy approaches tailored to the generalized type of social anxiety are discussed. PMID: 19402021 [PubMed - as supplied by publisher] 2: Z Psychosom Med Psychother. 2009;55(2):113-140. [Weiterbildung CME: Depersonalisation/derealization - clinical picture, diagnostics and therapy] [Article in German] Michal M, Beutel ME. PD Dr. med. Matthias Michal, Klinik und Poliklinik für Psychosomatische Medizin und Psychotherapie, Johannes Gutenberg Universität Mainz, Untere Zahlbacher Str. 8, D-55131 Mainz, Germany, E-Mail: michal@uni-mainz.de. The present state of knowledge about depersonalization (DP) and derealization (DR) is reviewed with respect to classification, epidemiology, etiology, and therapy. Mild and transient DP-DR are considered to be common phenomena. The prevalence of depersonalization-derealization disorder (DP-DR-D) is estimated to be approx. 1-2% of the general population in the Western hemisphere. DP-DR-D is probably severely underdiagnosed. DP-DR-D is strongly associated with depression and anxiety disorders. It is suggested that symptoms of DP-DR indicate disease severity and negatively predict therapy outcome. Neurobiological and psychological models have shown that a disordered body schema and emotional and autonomic blunting are essential components of the disorder. Despite the frequency of DPDR and its clinical relevance, there is a considerable lack of empirical research on DP-DR with respect to the health-care situation of depersonalized patients and with regard to treatment options. PMID: 19402018 [PubMed - as supplied by publisher] 3: World J Biol Psychiatry. 2009 Apr 28:1-7. [Epub ahead of print] Co-morbidity of bipolar disorder in children and adolescents with attention deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) in an outpatient Turkish sample. Lus G, Mukaddes NM. Child Psychiatry Department, Istanbul School of Medicine, Istanbul University, Istanbul, Turkey. This study aimed to assess the prevalence of bipolar disorder (BPD) in children and adolescents with attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), and to compare the clinical characteristics of a group with ADHD with a group with co-morbidity of ADHD and BPD. The study includes 121 individuals, aged 6-16 years, with a diagnosis of ADHD. Co-morbidity of BPD was evaluated using the Schedule for Affective Disorders and Schizophrenia for School-age Children-Present and Lifetime version (K-SADS-PL) and the Parent-Young Mania Rating Scale (P-YMRS). The Child Behavior Checklist (CBCL) was used to assess psychopathology in two groups. Ten children (8.3%) in the ADHD sample received the additional diagnosis of BPD. The ADHD+BPD group had significantly higher scores than the ADHD group on withdrawn, anxiety/depression, social problems, thought problems, attention problems, aggression, externalization, total score items of CBCL, and on the P-YMRS. It could be concluded that BPD is not a rare co-morbid condition in children with diagnosis of ADHD and subjects with this co-morbidity show more severe psychopathology than subjects with pure ADHD. Differential diagnosis of BPD disorder in subjects with ADHD seems crucial in establishing an effective treatment program, and therefore improving mental health outcomes. PMID: 19401947 [PubMed - as supplied by publisher] 4: World J Biol Psychiatry. 2009 Apr 28:1-6. [Epub ahead of print] Lower rates of comorbidities in euthymic bipolar patients. Nery-Fernandes F, Quarantini LC, Galvao-de-Almeida A, Rocha MV, Kapczinski F, Miranda-Scippa A. Center for Study and Treatment of Affective Disorders (CETTA), Universidade Federal da Bahia (UFBA), Salvador-Ba, Brazil. Objective. This study assessed the frequency of axis I psychiatric comorbidities in euthymic bipolar patients and the clinical differences between patients with and without comorbidities. Method. In this study, 62 euthymic bipolar outpatients assessed using a clinical questionnaire underwent a structured diagnostic interview (SCID/CV - DSM-IV) as well as a symptoms evaluation (YMRS and HAM-D-17). Results. The lifetime frequency of patients with comorbidities was 27.4%. The most frequent comorbidities were anxiety disorders (33.7%), and the positive associated variables were more advanced age, the presence of a steady partner, a first episode of the depressive type and lifetime attempted suicide. Conclusions. The lower frequency of comorbidities found in our study in comparison with those described in the literature may be due to the evaluation restricted only to euthymic patients. This suggests the importance of assessing psychiatric comorbidity in bipolar individuals while not in acute phases of the disorder. PMID: 19401946 [PubMed - as supplied by publisher] 5: Psychother Psychosom. 2009 Apr 28;78(4):202-211. [Epub ahead of print] Fifty Years with the Hamilton Scales for Anxiety and Depression. A Tribute to Max Hamilton. Bech P. Psychiatric Research Unit, Frederiksborg General Hospital, Hillerød, Denmark. From the moment Max Hamilton started his psychiatric education, he considered psychometrics to be a scientific discipline on a par with biochemistry or pharmacology in clinical research. His clinimetric skills were in operation in the 1950s when randomised clinical trials were established as the method for the evaluation of the clinical effects of psychotropic drugs. Inspired by Eysenck, Hamilton took the long route around factor analysis in order to qualify his scales for anxiety (HAM-A) and depression (HAM-D) as scientific tools. From the moment when, 50 years ago, Hamilton published his first placebo-controlled trial with an experimental anti-anxiety drug, he realized the dialectic problem in using the total score on HAM-A as a sufficient statistic for the measurement of outcome. This dialectic problem has been investigated for more than 50 years with different types of factor analyses without success. Using modern psychometric methods, the solution to this problem is a simple matter of reallocating the Hamilton scale items according to the scientific hypothesis under examination. Hamilton's original intention, to measure the global burden of the symptoms experienced by the patients with affective disorders, is in agreement with the DSM-IV and ICD-10 classification systems. Scale reliability and obtainment of valid information from patients and their relatives were the most important clinimetric innovations to be developed by Hamilton. Max Hamilton therefore belongs to the very exclusive family of eminent physicians celebrated by this journal with a tribute. Copyright © 2009 S. Karger AG, Basel.

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1: Eat Disord. 2009 May-Jun;17(3):211-24. Psychological determinants of emotional eating in adolescence. Nguyen-Rodriguez ST, Unger JB, Spruijt-Metz D. Institute for Health Promotion and Disease Prevention, Keck School of Medicine, University of Southern California, 1000 S. Freemont Ave, Unit 8, BldgA4, Rm 4102, Alhambra, CA 91803, USA. selenang@usc.edu Emotional eating is conceptualized as eating in response to negative affect. Data from a larger study of physical activity was employed to examine the associations among specific emotions/moods and emotional eating in an adolescent sample. Six-hundred and sixty-six students of diverse backgrounds from 7 middle schools in Los Angeles County participated. Cross-sectional analysis revealed no gender differences in emotional eating, and showed that perceived stress and worries were associated with emotional eating in the total sample. Gender stratified analyses revealed significant associations of perceived stress, worries and tension/anxiety to emotional eating for girls, while only confused mood was related to emotional eating in boys. These findings bear potential implications for the treatment and prevention of pediatric obesity and eating disorders because they suggest that interventions would benefit from incorporation of stress-reduction techniques and promotion of positive mood. PMID: 19391020 [PubMed - in process] 2: J Clin Psychiatry. 2009 Apr 21. [Epub ahead of print] Refining posttraumatic stress disorder diagnosis: evaluation of symptom criteria with the national survey of adolescents. Ford JD, Elhai JD, Ruggiero KJ, Frueh BC. Department of Psychiatry MC1410, University of Connecticut Health Center, 263 Farmington Ave, Farmington, CT 06032, USA. ford@psychiatry.uchc.edu. OBJECTIVE: To compare the prevalence estimates, comorbidity rates, and structural validity of a revised symptom criteria set for the diagnosis of posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) with those of the DSM-IV criteria in a representative community sample of adolescents. METHOD: Cross-sectional data from the National Survey of Adolescents, a 1995 household probability sample of 4,023 adolescents aged 12-17 years, were examined. DSM-IV PTSD symptoms were assessed with a modification of the National Women's Study PTSD module. Three- and 4-factor DSM-IV models were compared to a 2-factor PTSD model that deleted symptoms potentially overlapping with depression or other anxiety disorders. Comorbidity was assessed using DSM-IV criteria for major depressive episodes and substance use disorders. RESULTS: PTSD prevalence varied across models (ie, 5.2%-8.8%, lifetime; 3.2%-5.7%, past 6 months). When the 2-factor model was used with a proportionate symptom threshold, lifetime PTSD prevalence was comparable to that with the 3-factor DSM-IV model, and major depressive episode comorbidity was reduced by 9%-14%. Comorbidity with substance use disorders was comparable across models. Structural validity, tested with confirmatory factor analyses, showed that the 2-factor model and a 4-factor DSM-IV model were superior to the DSM-IV 3-factor model. CONCLUSIONS: Compared to the DSM-IV 3-factor PTSD model, a 2-factor model that removed depression and anxiety symptoms and used a proportionate symptom threshold may produce comparable lifetime PTSD prevalence estimates, reduced PTSD-depression comorbidity, and superior structural validity (comparable to a 4-factor PTSD model) when applied to community samples of adolescents. Further research on PTSD structure and diagnosis with adolescents is warranted. © Copyright 2009 Physicians Postgraduate Press, Inc. PMID: 19389336 [PubMed - as supplied by publisher] 3: J Clin Psychiatry. 2009 Apr 21. [Epub ahead of print] A double-blind, randomized, placebo-controlled trial of fluoxetine in patients with intermittent explosive disorder. Coccaro EF, Lee RJ, Kavoussi RJ. Clinical Neuroscience Psychopharmacology Research Unit, Department of Psychiatry, MC #3077, University of Chicago, 5841 South Maryland Ave., Chicago, IL 60637, USA. ecoccaro@yoda.bsd.uchicago.edu. BACKGROUND: Intermittent explosive disorder (IED) is a disorder of impulsive aggression that affects as many as 7.3% of the U.S. population during some period of life. Since central serotonergic (5-HT) system dysfunction is related to impulsive aggressive behavior, pharmacologic enhancement of 5-HT activity should reduce impulsive aggressive behavior in individuals with IED. METHOD: A double-blind, randomized, placebo-controlled trial of the selective 5-HT uptake inhibitor fluoxetine was conducted in 100 individuals with IED (research diagnostic criteria) and current histories of impulsive aggressive behavior. The primary efficacy measure was the aggression score from the Overt Aggression Scale-Modified (OAS-M) for Outpatient Use. Secondary efficacy measures included the irritability score from the OAS-M and the Clinical Global Impressions-Improvement scale (CGI-I) score. The study took place between July 1990 and July 1999. RESULTS: Fluoxetine treatment resulted in a sustained reduction in OAS-M aggression, and OAS-M irritability scores, apparent as early as week 2 (p .01 for aggression and p .001 for irritability at endpoint). Fluoxetine was also superior to placebo in the proportion of responders on the CGI-I (p .001). Closer examination of the data revealed that full or partial remission of impulsive aggressive behaviors, as reflected by the A criteria for IED, occurred in 46% of fluoxetine-treated subjects. Fluoxetine did not exert an antidepressant or antianxiety effect, and its effects on impulsive aggression were not influenced by presence of current symptoms of depression or anxiety. CONCLUSION: Fluoxetine treatment has a clear antiaggressive effect in impulsive aggressive individuals with IED. However, while fluoxetine's antiaggressive effects appear robust, they lead to full or partial remission of IED in less than 50% of subjects treated with fluoxetine. © Copyright 2009 Physicians Postgraduate Press, Inc. PMID: 19389333 [PubMed - as supplied by publisher] 4: Trials. 2009 Apr 23;10(1):24. [Epub ahead of print] Effectiveness of the psychological and pharmacological treatment of catastrophization in patients with fibromyalgia: a randomized controlled trial. Garcia-Campayo J, Serrano-Blanco A, Rodero B, Magallon R, Alda M, Andres E, Luciano JV, Lopez-Del Hoyo Y. ABSTRACT: BACKGROUND: Fibromyalgia is a prevalent and disabling disorder characterized by widespread pain and other symptoms such as insomnia, fatigue or depression. Catastrophization is considered a key clinical symptom in fibromyalgia; however, there are no studies on the pharmacological or psychological treatment of catastrophizing. The general aim of this study is to assess the effectiveness of cognitive-behaviour therapy and recommended pharmacological treatment for fibromyalgia (pregabalin, with duloxetine added where there is a comorbid depression), compared with usual treatment at primary care level. METHOD: Design: A multi-centre, randomized controlled trial involving three groups: the control group, consisting of usual treatment at primary care level, and two intervention groups, one consisting of cognitive-behaviour therapy, and the other consisting of the recommended pharmacological treatment for fibromyalgia. Setting: 29 primary care health centres in the city of Zaragoza, Spain. Sample: 180 patients, aged 18-65 years, able to understand and read Spanish, who fulfil criteria for primary fibromyalgia, with no previous psychological treatment, and no pharmacological treatment or their acceptance to discontinue it two weeks before the onset of the study. Intervention: Psychological treatment is based on the manualized protocol developed by Prof. Escobar et al, from the University of New Jersey, for the treatment of somatoform disorders, which has been adapted by our group for the treatment of fibromyalgia. It includes 10 weekly sessions of cognitive-behaviour therapy. Pharmacological therapy consists of the recommended pharmacological treatment for fibromyalgia: pregabalin (300-600 mg/day), with duloxetine (60-120 mg/day) added where there is a comorbid depression). Measurements: The following socio-demographic data will be collected: sex, age, marital status, education, occupation and social class. The diagnosis of psychiatric disorders will be made with the Structured Polyvalent Psychiatric Interview. Other instruments to be administered are the Pain Catastrophizing Scale, the Hamilton tests for Anxiety and for Depression, the Fibromyalgia Impact Questionnaire (FIQ), the EuroQuol-5 domains (EQ-5D), and the use of health and social services (CSRI). Assessments will be carried out at baseline, 1, 3, and 6 months. Main variable: Pain catastrophizing. Analysis: The analysis will be per intent to treat. We will use the general linear models of the SPSS version 15 statistical package, to analyse the effect of the treatment on the result variable (pain catastrophizing). DISCUSSION: It is necessary to assess the effectiveness of pharmacological and psychological treatments for pain catastrophizing in fibromyalgia. This randomized clinical trial will determine whether both treatments are effective for this important prognostic variable in patients with fibromyalgia. Trial registration: Current Controlled Trials ISRCTN10804772. PMID: 19389246 [PubMed - as supplied by publisher] 5: Acta Paediatr. 2009 May;98(5):771-3. Febrile seizures. Østergaard JR. Department of Pediatrics A, Aarhus University Hospital, Skejby, Denmark. johnoest@rm.dk Febrile seizures (FS) are the most common seizure disorder in childhood, affecting 2-5% of children between the ages of 3 and 60 months. Differentiation of FS from acute symptomatic seizures secondary to central nervous system infection is essential. Those with a focal onset, prolonged duration or which occur more than once within the same febrile illness are considered complex and have an increase in risk of subsequent epilepsy development. The vast majority of febrile convulsions are simple, lasting only a few minutes and without need of drug intervention. They have an excellent outcome with no increased risk of decline in IQ, subsequent epilepsy or increased mortality. Febrile seizure can recur, and as it often is a frightening and anxiety-provoking event for parents and caregivers, an understanding of the natural history and prognosis should enable the physician to reassure the parents providing an appropriate counselling and reassurance. CONCLUSION: Febrile seizure can recur, and as it often is a frightening and anxiety-provoking event for parent and caregivers. An understanding of the natural history and prognosis should enable the physician to reassure the parents providing an appropriate counselling and reassurance.

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Im about to violate a rule for bloggers: Dont ever explain a protracted absence from blogging. Blogging experts say that its better to never complain and never explain and to just pick up blogging where you left off.
However, I feel that I owe it to my readers to let you know why there have been no new posts in over two months, and what Im doing about it.
The primary focus of this blog is the Anxiety Disorders, obviously. The blogs genesis arose from my own struggles with multiple Anxiety Disorders, with the hope that I could help someone else. 
But if you read the About Me or the My Story tabs, you will learn that I also have bipolar disorder with rapid cycling. Dealing with my underlying bipolar disorder can be challenging, to say the least. 
I have been in a depressive cycle for over 2 months, and it has been very difficult to perform the basic functions in my life, much less write blog articles. Though I have good medication that prevents me from going into the deepest depression, I still could not focus or concentrate enough to write. My therapist and I are working on ways for me to continue with this blog when I am depressed, and I believe we have made good progress.
While Im not out of the woods yet, my bipolar disorder is beginning to cycle away from  the depression. In addition, I have learned some things that will help me write, no matter what mood I happen to be in at the time.
I am working on new articles now, and I expect to resume posting very soon. I definitely am not abandoning this blog lets just say Ive had a long time-out.

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1: Hum Mutat. 2009 Mar 3. [Epub ahead of print] Allele variants in functional MicroRNA target sites of the neurotrophin-3 receptor gene (NTRK3) as susceptibility factors for anxiety disorders. Muiños-Gimeno M, Guidi M, Kagerbauer B, Martín-Santos R, Navinés R, Alonso P, Menchón JM, Gratacòs M, Estivill X, Espinosa-Parrilla Y. Centro de Investigación Biomédica en Red en Epidemiología y Salud Pública (CIBERESP), Barcelona, Spain. Genetic and functional data indicate that variation in the expression of the neurotrophin-3 receptor gene (NTRK3) may have an impact on neuronal plasticity, suggesting a role for NTRK3 in the pathophysiology of anxiety disorders. MicroRNA (miRNA) posttranscriptional gene regulators act by base-pairing to specific sequence sites, usually at the 3'UTR of the target mRNA. Variants at these sites might result in gene expression changes contributing to disease susceptibility. We investigated genetic variation in two different isoforms of NTRK3 as candidate susceptibility factors for anxiety by resequencing their 3'UTRs in patients with panic disorder (PD), obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD), and in controls. We have found the C allele of rs28521337, located in a functional target site for miR-485-3p in the truncated isoform of NTRK3, to be significantly associated with the hoarding phenotype of OCD. We have also identified two new rare variants in the 3'UTR of NTRK3, ss102661458 and ss102661460, each present only in one chromosome of a patient with PD. The ss102661458 variant is located in a functional target site for miR-765, and the ss102661460 in functional target sites for two miRNAs, miR-509 and miR-128, the latter being a brain-enriched miRNA involved in neuronal differentiation and synaptic processing. Interestingly, these two variants significantly alter the miRNA-mediated regulation of NTRK3, resulting in recovery of gene expression. These data implicate miRNAs as key posttranscriptional regulators of NTRK3 and provide a framework for allele-specific miRNA regulation of NTRK3 in anxiety disorders. Hum Mutat 30:1-10, 2009. (c) 2009 Wiley-Liss, Inc. PMID: 19370765 [PubMed - as supplied by publisher] 2: Cochrane Database Syst Rev. 2009 Apr 15;(2):CD006117. Sertraline versus other antidepressive agents for depression. Cipriani A, La Ferla T, Furukawa TA, Signoretti A, Nakagawa A, Churchill R, McGuire H, Barbui C. Department of Medicine and Public Health, Section of Psychiatry and Clinical Psychology, University of Verona, Policlinico "G.B.Rossi", Piazzale L.A. Scuro, 10, Verona, Italy, 37134. BACKGROUND: The National Institute for Health and Clinical Excellence clinical practice guideline on the treatment of depressive disorder recommended that selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors should be the first-line option when drug therapy is indicated for a depressive episode. Preliminary evidence suggested that sertraline might be slightly superior in terms of effectiveness. OBJECTIVES: To assess the evidence for the efficacy, acceptability and tolerability of escitalopram in comparison with tricyclics (TCAs), heterocyclics, other SSRIs and newer agents in the acute-phase treatment of major depression. SEARCH STRATEGY: MEDLINE (1966 to 2008), EMBASE (1974 to 2008), the Cochrane Collaboration Depression, Anxiety and Neurosis Controlled Trials Register and the Cochrane Central Register of Controlled Trials up to July 2008. No language restriction was applied. Reference lists of relevant papers and previous systematic reviews were hand-searched. Pharmaceutical companies and experts in this field were contacted for supplemental data. SELECTION CRITERIA: Randomised controlled trials allocating patients with major depression to sertraline versus any other antidepressive agent. DATA COLLECTION AND ANALYSIS: Two review authors independently extracted data. Discrepancies were resolved with another member of the team. A double-entry procedure was employed by two reviewers. Information extracted included study characteristics, participant characteristics, intervention details and outcome measures in terms of efficacy (the number of patients who responded or remitted), acceptability (the number of patients who failed to complete the study) and tolerability (side-effects). MAIN RESULTS: A total of 59 studies, mostly of low quality, were included in the review, involving multiple treatment comparisons between sertraline and other antidepressant agents. Evidence favouring sertraline over some other antidepressants for the acute phase treatment of major depression was found, either in terms of efficacy (fluoxetine) or acceptability/tolerability (amitriptyline, imipramine, paroxetine and mirtazapine). However, some differences favouring newer antidepressants in terms of efficacy (mirtazapine) and acceptability (bupropion) were also found. In terms of individual side effects, sertraline was generally associated with a higher rate of participants experiencing diarrhoea. AUTHORS' CONCLUSIONS: This systematic review and meta-analysis highlighted a trend in favour of sertraline over other antidepressive agents both in terms of efficacy and acceptability, using 95% confidence intervals and a conservative approach, with a random effects analysis. However, the included studies did not report on all the outcomes that were pre-specified in the protocol of this review. Outcomes of clear relevance to patients and clinicians were not reported in any of the included studies. PMID: 19370626 [PubMed - in process] 3: Nord J Psychiatry. 2009 Apr 15:1-11. [Epub ahead of print] SPIFA-A presentation of the Structured Psychiatric Interview for General Practice. Dahl AA, Kruger MB, Dahl NH, Karlson H, Knorring LV, Stordal E. Department of Clinical Cancer Research, The Norwegian Radiumhospital, Rikshospitalet University Hospital, Oslo. Background: The diagnostic ability of general practitioners (GPs) concerning mental disorders is not optimal, and could be improved by structured diagnostic interviews. Various aspects of the Structured Psychiatric Interview for General Practice (SPIFA) are examined. Aims: The inter-rater reliability of the SPIFA, the time used by GPs and specialists and the GPs satisfaction are examined. The properties of the SPIFA are compared with those of the Prime-MD and the MINI schedules. Methods: Inter-rater reliability of the SPIFA was tested in 336 patients in general practice. The patients were randomized to two interview strategies. Either both GPs and psychiatrists used the SPIFA, or GPs used the SPIFA and psychiatrists a modified version of the SCID for Axis I disorders. The satisfaction was investigated by a questionnaire sent to 1000 GPs who had SPIFA training. Results: The SPIFA showed adequate inter-rater reliability for depression, anxiety disorders and increased suicidal risk for both interview strategies. In patients with more than two co-morbid disorders, the inter-rater reliability was poor. The mean duration of SPIFA was 21 min for SPIFA screening and 22 min for SPIFA manual. The 192 GPs responding to the questionnaire were mostly satisfied with the SPIFA. Conclusions: The SPIFA seems to be a reliable, valid and helpful instrument for GPs making diagnoses of mental disorders in their patients. Compared with the Prime MD and the MINI, the SPIFA seemed to have comparable psychometric properties but better feasibility in primary care. PMID: 19370449 [PubMed - as supplied by publisher] 4: J Neural Transm. 2009 Apr 16. [Epub ahead of print] Response to methylphenidate in children and adolescents with ADHD: does comorbid anxiety disorders matters? Garcia SP, Guimarães J, Zampieri JF, Martinez AL, Polanczyk G, Rohde LA. Federal University of Rio Grande do Sul, Porto Alegre, Brazil. There are controversial evidence in the literature on the role of comorbid anxiety disorders (ANX) in the improvement of attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) symptoms with methylphenidate (MPH) treatment. Our main objective was to assess differences in the response to MPH treatment in children and adolescents with ADHD with and without comorbid ANX. We extensively evaluated response to MPH in a naturalistic study of 280 children and adolescent with ADHD according to DSM-IV criteria. Psychiatric diagnoses (ADHD, ANX, and other comorbidities) were assessed by semi-structured interviews (K-SADS-E). Response to MPH was assessed by means of total score in the Swanson, Nolan, and Pelham Scale-version IV (SNAP-IV) after 1 month of treatment. There was no significant between-group difference in the response to treatment with MPH after 1 month either when SNAP-IV scores were assessed dimensionally or categorically (moderate response) (P 0.05). Our findings suggest that comorbid ANX do not interfere in the response to MPH on core ADHD symptoms. PMID: 19370390 [PubMed - as supplied by publisher] 5: J Occup Environ Med. 2009 Apr 14. [Epub ahead of print] The Direct and Indirect Costs of Employee Depression, Anxiety, and Emotional Disorders-An Employer Case Study. Johnston K, Westerfield W, Momin S, Phillippi R, Naidoo A. From BlueCross BlueShield of Tennessee, Chattanooga, Tenn. OBJECTIVE:: To quantify the direct and indirect costs of employee depression, anxiety, and emotional disorders at one large employer in 2004 using administrative data sources. METHODS:: Health care claims, personnel, disability, and productivity data were merged at the individual employee level. Direct medical costs were attributed to disease status using Episode Treatment Groups, and indirect costs were attributed using regression models and relative weights. RESULTS:: Depression, anxiety, and emotional disorders were the fifth costliest of all disease categories. The average cost per case was $1646, with 53% coming from indirect costs and 47% from direct costs. CONCLUSIONS:: The cost burden of depression, anxiety, and emotional disorders is among the greatest of any disease conditions in the workforce. It is worth considering methods for quantifying direct and indirect costs that use administrative data sources given their utility.

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", originally published in O, The Oprah Magazine, author Martha Beck describes steps for overcoming the fear of being embarassed. One of her tips involves asking yourself a simple question every time a negative thought creeps in ... "So?". For example, if you think, "If I say what is really on my mind, people might disagree with me", say to yourself "So?". The idea is to put yourself in the frame of mind to realize that the worst case scenario is not the end of the world. The next time negative thoughts start to creep in, give "So?" a try.

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The feelings of anxiety can present itself in many different ways, not just mentaly but physicaly too. It is our body’s way of dealing with fear and worry. Think about this situation for a moment, you have just had a great night out with your friends, and it’s time to go home. You step outside, it’s dark and raining and there’s no-one around. You turn left into an alleyway and suddenly you hear heavy footsteps coming faster and faster towards you. What do you feel? scared? panicky? Kind of breathless? Well this is also anxiety that is making you feel this way.
Whilst in the above situation anxiety is actualy a good thing, it is making us aware of any danger that we could be facing. However for some people anxiety can become a real problem. It can overwhelm them and take over their life. They constantly feel jittery and on edge, it affects their relationships, their ability to hold down a job and even the way they behave. They can wake up with a feeling of dread that they just can’t seem to shift. When anxiety becomes this bad it can be very scary.
The feelings of anxiety no matter how big or small are usualy triggered by an event. whether it be a current situation you are in like a confrontation with someone or it could be triggered by something big that has happened in your life like moving house or a death of a loved one. The most important thing to remember is that anxiety is a part of every day life and you shouldn’t be worried about it. The more you worry about feeling anxious the more anxious you are likely to feel. If these feelings become too much and happen on an every day occurance it could be the time to seek medical advice.

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When male police officers need to de-stress, they might trade war stories but likely not with their female colleagues.
But the guys don't necessarily have it easy. They are often discouraged from showing emotion when dealing with stress and are expected to uphold the overtly masculine idea of what it means to be a police officer.
Research by a Kansas State University professor has found that the different ways in which men and women in the police force deal with stress may actually cause them more stress. Don Kurtz, an assistant professor of social work at K-State, studied the gender differences in stress and burnout among police officers. The work was published in the journal Feminist Criminology in 2008.
He said it is the first of his research that has examined gender. While completing his doctorate at K-State, Kurtz said he was taking classes on gender and society and was researching police stress. He noticed that there was no research studying the intersection of these two areas.
"I had come from working in social work, where they were very accepting of men in the women-dominated field," Kurtz said. "In policing, they tend to be suspicious of the abilities of women in the field."
For the research Kurtz looked at data from a survey of officers in the Baltimore Police Department. As a follow up to this part of the research, Kurtz also interviewed officers from three police departments. He found that male and female police officers have different sources of stress and different ways of dealing with it.
"Telling war stories is almost exclusively a male endeavor," Kurtz said. "It's quite often in a group social setting, and officers talk about stressful events that happened. What's interesting is that they remove the fear and emotion that go along with it and replace it with these superhuman qualities."
"I found that women felt excluded from war stories. If they started exaggerating the stories in the way that men did, they could be questioned. So it becomes a male-only way of managing stress."
In the journal article, Kurtz suggests that in some ways women have a better chance to deal with violent cases because it's more acceptable for women to be upset or vulnerable.
"For male officers to show emotion, it was career suicide," he said.
Some of the cases that men find the most stressful, Kurtz said, were likely to be given to women.
"One thing I found interesting was that when officers discuss the most stressful things, it's usually death of a child or the physical or sexual abuse of a child," he said. "Women are more likely to handle these jobs because large police departments often assign women to these investigative units. However, it's often seen as lower police work. In large departments where there are a lot of juvenile delinquents and child abuse cases, there's an idea that women are better at managing kids."
One of the biggest differences Kurtz found was the role that family played in police officers' stress. Whereas a family life can help male officers deal better with stress from the job, women may not have the same support in their own families.
"Women settle into the role of caretaker and come home to a second shift," Kurtz said.
The strange hours of police work can be seen as more acceptable for men than women, he said.
"Although family conflicts can be distressful for men, the fact that a male officer is seen as the breadwinner makes it more OK for him to miss a birthday party, for example, so he can go to work."
Kurtz also looked at how race changes the stress differences between men and women.
"We should expect a difference," he said. "In American society, race complicates everything."
For instance, white female officers are more likely to be sexualized, whereas black female officers are often seen as laborers. And, while black male officers report lower levels of stress than white men, they also report a higher rate of burnout.
The main finding of the study is that stress and burnout by officers is embedded in the gender structure and process of policing and not simply a response to high stress events.
Kurtz said he hopes his research will help police departments better understand how gender affects stress and that it will spur further academic study in this area.

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1: J Clin Psychol. 2009 Feb 19. [Epub ahead of print] The moderation of an early intervention program for anxiety and depression by specific psychological symptoms. Cukrowicz KC, Smith PN, Hohmeister HC, Joiner TE Jr. Texas Tech University. The current study examined the influence of a number of psychological factors on the effectiveness of an early intervention program targeting anxiety and depression in a non-clinical sample of college students. The early intervention program comprised elements of the cognitive-behavioral analysis system of psychotherapy (McCullough, 2000) delivered in a 2-hour computer-based educational program. Participants completed measures of depression, anxiety, and general distress prior to the intervention program and then again 8 weeks later. Additionally, participants were assessed for past major depression, sleep related difficulties, a number of anxiety disorders, and suicide ideation. Moderation of the effectiveness of the early intervention program by these factors depended on the dependent variable of interest, specifically: the effectiveness of the intervention program on symptoms of depression was moderated by insomnia; symptoms of anxiety by past post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) and specific phobia as well as sleep problems related to nightmares; and symptoms of general negative affect by social phobia and suicide ideation. Implications are discussed. (c) 2009 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Clin Psychol 65:1-15, 2009. PMID: 19229947 [PubMed - as supplied by publisher] 2: Am J Med Genet B Neuropsychiatr Genet. 2009 Feb 19. [Epub ahead of print] Polymorphisms in the GAD2 gene-region are associated with susceptibility for unipolar depression and with a risk factor for anxiety disorders. Unschuld PG, Ising M, Specht M, Erhardt A, Ripke S, Heck A, Kloiber S, Straub V, Brueckl T, Müller-Myhsok B, Holsboer F, Binder EB. Max Planck Institute of Psychiatry, München, Germany. Glutamate decarboxylase (GAD) is the rate limiting enzyme for conversion of glutamic acid to gamma-aminobutyric acid (GABA). The GAD 65 kDa isoform is encoded by the gene GAD2 and is mainly expressed in synaptic terminals. It serves as an apoenzyme, which shows enhanced availability in situations of stress, responding to short-term demands for GABA. We analyzed 18 single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) in the GAD2-gene region for associations with psychiatric diagnosis and behavioral inhibition (BI) derived from the personality traits neuroticism and extraversion as defined by the Eysenck Personality Questionaire (EPQ). A total of 268 patients with anxiety disorder (AD), 541 with unipolar depression (MD), and 541 healthy controls were included. We observe associations for five tag-SNPs with BI in the AD- and control samples as well as two additional case-control associations in the MD-sample. The associated SNPs lie within a 16KB linkage disequilibrium-block, including putative 5' GAD2-promoter-elements as well as the 3' end of the gene MYO3A. Using open access mRNA-expression data, we could show that BI-associated SNPs appear to be associated with differences in MYO3A- but not GAD2 lymphoblastoid-mRNA expression levels. These results support earlier studies that suggest associations of polymorphisms within the GAD2 locus with anxiety and affective disorders. However, data from expression studies imply that these polymorphisms could tag functional effects on the neighboring gene MYO3A, which is also expressed in the brain, including the cingulate cortex and the amygdala. (c) 2009 Wiley-Liss, Inc. PMID: 19229853 [PubMed - as supplied by publisher] 3: Nord J Psychiatry. 2009 Feb 20:1-6. [Epub ahead of print] Risk of mental disorders in subjects with intellectual disability in the Lundby cohort 1947-97. Nettelbladt P, Goth M, Bogren M, Mattisson C. Department of Clinical Sciences, Division of Psychiatry, The Lundby Study, Lund University Hospital, Lund, Sweden. The Lundby Study is a prospective cohort study, which has followed a Swedish unselected community sample between 1 July 1947 and 1 July 1997. The aim was to study the risks of mental morbidity and different DSM-IV disorders in subjects with intellectual disability (ID) in the Lundby cohort between 1 July 1947 to 30 June 1997. The diagnosis of ID was re-evaluated according to DSM-IV in subjects who had been considered to have ID between 1947 and 1997. Multiple sources of information were used to obtain best estimate consensus diagnoses of mental disorders. The relative risk of mental disorder was 1.34 in subjects with ID as compared with the reference group. Dual diagnosis was more prevalent in mild ID than in moderate ID. No subject with severe ID was diagnosed with mental disorder. The cumulative incidence of any mental disorder in subjects with ID was 44%. The most common DSM-IV diagnoses were: Mood Disorders (11.5%), Anxiety Disorders (11.5%), Schizophrenia and Other Psychotic Disorders (8%), Mental Disorder NOS Due to a General Medical Condition (8%), Dementia (3.8%) and Alcohol Abuse (1.9%). Mental disorders were more common in subjects with ID than in the reference group. PMID: 19229734 [PubMed - as supplied by publisher] 4: Child Psychiatry Hum Dev. 2009 Feb 20. [Epub ahead of print] Anxiety, Mood, and Substance Use Disorders in Parents of Children With Anxiety Disorders. Hughes AA, Furr JM, Sood ED, Barmish AJ, Kendall PC. Temple University, Philadelphia, PA, USA, ahughe01@temple.edu. Examined the prevalence of anxiety, mood, and substance use disorders in the parents of anxiety disordered (AD) children relative to children with no psychological disorder (NPD). The specificity of relationships between child and parent anxiety disorders was also investigated. Results revealed higher prevalence rates of anxiety disorders in parents of AD children relative to NPD children. Specific child-mother relationships were found between child separation anxiety and panic disorder and maternal panic disorder, as were child and maternal social phobia, obsessive compulsive disorder, and specific phobias. Findings are discussed with reference to theory, clinical implications, and future research needs. PMID: 19229606 [PubMed - as supplied by publisher] 5: Nervenarzt. 2009 Feb 21. [Epub ahead of print] [Specific aspects of treatment for women with bipolar affliction.] [Article in German] Sasse J, Pilhatsch M, Forsthoff A, Grunze H, Neutze J, Pfennig A, Schmitz B, Schwenkhagen A, Bauer M. Klinik und Poliklinik für Psychiatrie und Psychotherapie, Universitätsklinikum Carl Gustav Carus, Technische Universität, Fetscherstrasse 74, 01307, Dresden, Deutschland. This manuscript summarizes specific issues in the disease course and pharmacological treatment of women with bipolar disorders. Gender differences relevant to the female biology manifest in symptoms, outcome, and course. The preponderance of depressive symptoms is typical, and the risk of rapid cycling is estimated to be eight times higher for women than for men. Comorbid anxiety and eating disorders occur more frequently in female patients. In planning treatment it is important to take fertility, contraception, and pregnancy into consideration and adjust the pharmacotherapy to harmonize with the patient's current phase of life. Little is known about potential sexual dysfunctions of bipolar women. Further research should include clinical and observational studies focusing on gender-specific differences in symptomatology, treatment, and long-term outcome of bipolar disorders.

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- drugs or alcohol misuse
- medication stoppage
- starting depression medicines or herbal products
- having medical conditions like thyroid problems
- seasonal changes
- illnesses
- holidays
- disagreements between family/friends
- work problems
- death of family member, friend, or loved one
- marital problems
- starting college or a new line of work
If youre diagnosed with bipolar affective disorder, you should be able to identify the triggers. You can do this by having your very own mood chart. You have to record all your emotions and the corresponding events that took place. After a while, you may now notice certain patterns.
Making your own mood chart is a tough job. It would be best to have a helpful speak with your family and trusted friends. You must also try to consult your therapist or healthcare provider. They may be able to help you more since they are not part of your life. You can superior see things through their professional help.
After figuring out all the possible mood swing triggers, you have to learn to evade them. This involves action and would require you to avoid some of your bad habits. Your friends and family members should also be made aware of the triggers so that they have the ability to assist you in your struggle.
Bipolar affective disorder is not easily detected. In fact, many people might go for many years without being diagnosed. Unlike other illnesses and disorders, bipolar does not entail any laboratory test. The medical provider will simply use the MDQ. This is a questionnaire utilized for bipolar disorder; and the person conducting such questionnaire fills up the checklist based on the symptoms exhibited by the person. However, the checklist can only be used and given the right diagnosis by a medical provider.
There are several medications that can be used for treating bipolar affective disorder, including the following:
1. Mood Stabilizers this medicine can relieve or delay depression and mania episodes.
2. Antidepressants people having a depressive episode can use a mood stabilizer together with an antidepressant. If this medicine is used alone, the chance of switching into a mania episode is increased.
3. Antipsychotic persons having mania episodes can use this medication; severe mania or depressive episodes can lead to psychosis, and this can be treated with antipsychotic. You can use the medication alone or your provider can also use it together with other medications especially if the patient feels nervous or is unable to sleep.
4. Electroconvulsive therapy or ECT this is not actually a medication but rather a treatment to help people suffering from severe depression or mania episodes. Those individuals who dont respond to medications can also undergo this therapy.
The ECT is a therapy and it aims to control acute depressive and manic symptoms. It can effectively reduce mood instability and cycling and at the same time minimizing bipolar symptoms and treatment side effects. Through a management plan, the bipolar patient can return to his normal life.
Even though the medications are not guaranteed to remove such condition, your mood swings can be stabilized. You can effectively control symptoms and easily cope with certain problems.
Not only is the individual affected but also their families. But with proper medications and treatment, bipolar affective disorder can be stabilized and controlled. Consult your medical provider now.

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I think i have some kind of anxiety disorder because for the past year i randomly have this aweful aweful feeling.. it feels like right before you have to speak in public or something and youre so nervous you feel sick.. except times that feeling by 10 and also theres no cause.. i just have that feeling and i have no idea why. there isnt anything that should have caused it. and sometimes when there is a reason i have WAY too much anxiety usually about something most people wouldnt think twice about.
its not quite as frequent or intense now.. for a while it would happen almost every day, sometimes lasting for hours or days. i think 2 weeks was the longest that i didnt really have more than a half hour or hour at a time of relief in between. now its less frequent, but its still a weekly thing it just doesnt last really long, maybe a few hours. ive tried to research it does anyone have any idea whats wrong? im so tired of feeling like this. it hurts and its distracting.

Anxiety affects people for different reasons, just because its normal to some, to others they get all upset, uptight, nervous and the attack starts. It could be anything. The first day of school each year was me. Oh yea and I have a vacation from work for a week then go back on that following Monday Im all stressed out. Why ? who knows but I learned something when I get like that: you have 2 choices see a shrink (waste of $$) or as strange as this sounds: pretend youre in a play (when this time happens) and pretend in your mind that you dont care about what other people think you have no worries youre someone else and keep telling yourself that until your body mind actually feel it lose the anxiety. It may seem weird but I kept doing it and it works. I dont let my control me anymore, I take myself of that mode and pretend Im ok then I am! Try it it works. Practice makes Perfect!
Good Luck!.

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Everybody at digit saucer experiences anxiousness when visaged with a disagreeable or bedevilment situation. Anxiety is the opinion of fear, dread and worry, attended by nausea, palpitations, dresser pain, and breathlessness. Sometimes this crapper interact with your connatural life. Excessive anxiousness crapper be linked with another medicine conditions, much as depression.
Anxiety crapper be in some forms. It haw be a emotion of snakes, a emotion of spot or initiate fright, or it could also be uninterrupted vexation most your parenting skills or unceasing fretting most success at work, etc.
Components:
Anxiety is said to hit quaternary components:
Cognitive components: This imposes emotion of doubtful danger.
Somatic components: When visaged with a frightening status your murder push and hunch evaluate are increased, you run to sweat, and murder line to the field hooligan groups is increased. The somatic signs of anxiousness strength allow discolour skin, sweating, trembling, and enrollee dilation.
Emotional components: The emotive components of anxiousness drive a significance of dread or panic, nausea, and chills.
Behavioral components: This would advance to both intentional and reflex behaviors, and you maybe directed at avoiding the maker of anxiousness which is quite common.
Types of Anxiety and the symptoms:
There are assorted types of anxiousness - Generalized Anxiety Disorder, Panic Disorder and Agoraphobia, Obsessive Compulsive Disorder, Post harmful Stress Disorder, Social Anxiety and limited phobias. Anxiety Disorder is rattling ordinary throughout the world. It is a chronically continual housing of anxiousness that crapper earnestly change your life. People with this modify see afeard of something but are unable to eloquent the limited fear. If you are constantly worrying, and hit a hornlike instance controlling your worries then you strength be pain from anxiousness disorder.
Some of the ordinary symptoms of anxiousness modify are:
Muscle tension
Heart palpitations
Dizziness
Fatigue
Shortness of respite
Sweating
Nausea
Cold hands
Jumpiness
Difficulty dropping insensible
Hot flashes or chills
Diarrhea and peeved viscus syndrome
Anxiety crapper attain you nettlesome and irritable. You haw intend bushed easily and ofttimes undergo from insomnia. It is rattling essential that you essay professed scrutiny help. For the initial identification of this problem, a beatific categorization is required by attractive a standard discourse or questionnaire machine with proficient evaluation. There should be a complete communicating to encounter discover the drive that could hit triggered this condition. If the enduring has a kinsfolk story of anxiousness disorders then this could be a possibility.
Treatment:
You crapper intend support and embellish discover of your fear. There are quaternary types of therapy that hit evidenced to be adjuvant and they hit been utilised successfully to come the symptoms of anxiousness disorders.
Behavior Therapy: Here you are prefabricated to grappling your emotion in a designed environment, and using assorted slackening techniques, you are prefabricated to accept and overcome your anxiousness and panic. This helps you to embellish more overconfident most managing emotion and anxiousness and also prepares you to grappling some category of causation situations.
Cognitive-behavioral therapy: This is the most favourite and trenchant identify of psychopathology to overcome your anxiety. The content is to see your intellection impact and support you to amend brick skills before your anxiousness takes over. This helps you:
Challenge simulated or self-defeating beliefs
Think positive
Psychodynamic psychotherapy: This therapy helps those who hit emotion because of comatose noetic conflict. You are prefabricated to show the offend as a effectuation to kibosh the fear-causing anxiousness and panic.
Alternative therapies: Different therapies hit been matured for treating anxiety, same EMDR - a therapy that utilizes fast receptor movement, continual sounds and tapping to reintegrate an out of sync brain. Even treatment is existence utilised to impact anxiety.
All these therapies depend on assorted prejudiced factors, much as expert competence. It is best to go to exclusive a substantially famous and old psychotherapist. Self support and slackening techniques also endeavor an essential persona in relieving anxiousness symptoms. Improving your intake habits and change in alkaloid and dulcify intake also helps. Exercise and a slackening framework much as yoga, is also rattling helpful. Try to accomplish discover to your friends and kinsfolk and deal your troubles; do not permit it intend assembled before it hits you hard. Anxiety is rattling ordinary and you are not the exclusive one, so dont waffle to essay help.

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Take a look at the rightmost sidebar of this blog, and you will see the HONcode badge.
I am honored and excited that Anxiety, Panic Health was accredited by the Health on the Net Foundation in October, 2008. It means that this site complies with the Health on the Net Code of Conduct and can display the HONcode badge.
The award-winning Health On the Net Foundation developed the HONcode in 1996 as a means to standardize requirements to establish the reliability and credibility of health information. It certifies websites through a stringent application and review process, then polices the site to make sure it continues to comply with its eight Principles. It has certified over 6,500 websites worldwide in 32 languages, and has partnerships with the European Union, the World Health Organization, the National Library of Medicine, and Google.
This article is the first in a two-part series. Todays post will introduce you to the Health On the Net Foundation. Tomorrows post lists the HONcode principles and how Anxiety, Panic Health complies with them.

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Take a look at the rightmost sidebar of this blog, and you will see the HONcode badge.
I am honored and excited that Anxiety, Panic Health was accredited by the Health on the Net Foundation in October, 2008. It means that this site complies with the Health on the Net Code of Conduct and can display the HONcode badge.
The award-winning Health On the Net Foundation developed the HONcode in 1996 as a means to standardize requirements to establish the reliability and credibility of health information. It certifies websites through a stringent application and review process, then polices the site to make sure it continues to comply with its eight Principles. It has certified over 6,500 websites worldwide in 32 languages, and has partnerships with the European Union, the World Health Organization, the National Library of Medicine, and Google.
This article is the first in a two-part series. Todays post will introduce you to the Health On the Net Foundation. Tomorrows post lists the HONcode principles and how Anxiety, Panic Health complies with them.

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cortisol in children in full-day child care.
Cortisol, the primary stress hormone in humans, tends to be at its highest levels in the early morning and gradually declines over the course of the day. But recent research has found that many preschoolers in full-day child care have increases in cortisol from morning to afternoon.
This study found that children in classrooms with closer to 10 children were more likely to show cortisol decreases from morning to afternoon, while children in classrooms with closer to 20 children tended to show greater increases in cortisol across the day. Children with more clingy relationships with their teachers showed greater rises in cortisol from morning to afternoon, and children with more conflicted relationships with their teachers showed greater cortisol boosts during a one-on-one session with their teachers. Conflicted relationships were said to occur when teachers tried to control resistant children, when children perceived their teachers as unfriendly, or when teachers or children reported that the teachers found the interaction frustrating.
This unusual increase of cortisol levels is of potential concern because long-term or frequent elevations in cortisol can have negative health consequences. Research with animals and human children suggests that secure relationships with parents protect children from rises in cortisol in stressful situations.
The study, by researchers at Washington State University, Auburn University, the Washington State Department of Early Learning, and the Pennsylvania State University, appears in the November/December 2008 issue of Child Development.
The researchers looked at 191 preschoolers attending 12 child care centers in a small southeastern U.S. community to determine if the quality of teacher-child relationships could predict increases in cortisol in the children. Teachers described their relationships with the children in their care on a questionnaire and children talked about their relationships with their teachers in interviews. Researchers also collected saliva samples from the children in classrooms to determine changes in their cortisol levels from morning to afternoon. They also collected saliva outside of class before and after a series of mildly difficult tasks designed to look like challenges the children might experience in the classroom and before and after a non-challenging interaction with the teacher.
"This study sheds additional light on an as yet incompletely understood phenomenon among many young children attending full-day child care," according to Jared A. Lisonbee, assistant professor of human development at Washington State University and lead author of the study. "Additionally, the study begins to situate child care-cortisol research in the context of a broader literature on the role of relationships in shaping how children function and how they react to stress."
The study was funded, in part, by the National Science Foundation.

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Depression Anxiety Disorder is defined as a state of uneasiness and apprehension, as about future uncertainties. Dealing with severe anxiety disorder is different for each person, and what works for some may not work for others.
Some of the things that I use to deal with my depressio anxiety disorder are:
Meditation: Mediation can be very relaxing for both mind and body. By focusing on ones inner-self and letting the problems, uncertainties and fears slip out of focus you can allow for a clearer solution to be found. Sometimes simply stepping away from your problems and calming down can help you see solutions from a different angle.
Exercise: Exercise can be very very invigorating. Anxiety depression can leave you feeling depressed and run-down. Exercise boosts endorphins in your body, leaving you feeling refreshed, happier and less anxious.
Yoga: Yoga is a form of exercise that does not involve severe impact. Yoga is more a series of fluid movements and stretches than vigorous exercise. The fluidity of yoga is very invigorating, yet it is relaxing and calming while still producing endorphins in your system.
Talking: Sometimes talking about the things that are making you feel anxious can really help lighten the burden of the inner anxiety. Find someone that you trust to talk to. By vocalizing your anxiety, you may find that you are less anxious.
Relaxing: By indulging in whatever relaxes you the most - a bubble bath, a walk in the park, watching a movie - you can allow your anxiety panic feeling to pass by not focusing on it and instead enjoying your relaxing time. Detaching yourself from your problems and fears, even briefly, can help you cope with anxiety.

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