Patti's Blog - Advocate for Elders, People with Disabilities and Their Families

Antibiotic May Improve Behavior, Anxiety, Study Finds

Excerpt from: Disability Scoop

 

New research suggests that a readily-available antibiotic can bring about improvements in behavior and anxiety for those with the most common cause of inherited intellectual disability.

In a small study published this week, researchers found “modest” but meaningful gains in those with fragile X syndrome taking the drug minocycline as compared to a placebo.

The finding is significant, researchers say, because the medication — which is commonly used to treat severe acne — is currently available by prescription.

For the study, 66 children with fragile X ages 3 to 16 were divided into two groups, one receiving minocycline and the other group given a placebo. After three months, the groups switched treatments. All the while, both parents and doctors were not aware who was receiving the real drug versus the placebo.

Stressed Out? Connecting Stress to Mental Illness!

Excerpt from: Healthy Place (click for full article)

 

Receiving the diagnosis of mental illness is frightening and the process we take to recover can feel impossible. Add in a little–or a lot–of stress and what feels impossible can become impossible. This is why it`s important to recognize the difference between stress and possible relapse.

Self-care is an invaluable tool when it comes to understanding and relieving stress. The simple things like exercising, eating well, and working to adhere to a schedule allow us to work through the tough parts in life.

When you do experience a life change or symptoms of stress, even if they are not intruding upon your life, it’s worth it to visit your psychiatrist. This is part of self-care.

Try to remember that stress can be healthy; stress is a symptom of change and change is normal. Without change, the world would be a boring place—without change we would not grow as individuals. Work to embrace change, change makes us human, and it makes life interesting.

New Study Links Childhood Bullying to Adult Psychological Disorders, Surprising Even the Study's Authors

Excerpt from: Slate (click for full article)

 

A significant study from Duke, out today, provides the best evidence we’ve had thus far that bullying in childhood is linked to a higher risk of psychological disorders in adulthood. The results came as a surprise to the research team. “I was a skeptic going into this,” lead author and Duke psychiatry professor William E. Copeland told me over the phone, about the claim that bullying does measurable long-term psychological harm. “To be honest, I was completely surprised by the strength of the findings. It has certainly given me pause. This is something that stays with people.”

Based on the findings, Copeland and his team divided their subjects into three groups: People who were victims as children, people who were bullies, and people who were both. The third group is known as bully-victims. These are the people who tend to have the most serious psychological problems as kids, and in the Duke study, they also showed up with higher levels of anxiety, depressive disorders, and suicidal thinking as adults. The people who had only experienced being victims were also at heightened risk for depression and anxiety. And the bullies were more likely to have an antisocial personality disorder.

A Fun-Loving, Carefree Spirit Becomes the Face of Anxiety

Excerpt from: The New York Times (click for full article)

 

With paramedics shadowing him in a cart, Beljan staggered between shots and sometimes had to sit down on the fairways because of symptoms he associated with a heart attack. After signing for one of his lowest scores of the year, Beljan left the course in an ambulance, suffering from what turned out to be a panic attack.

By hanging on to win the tournament, Beljan became an instant hero to the perpetually anxious, someone who shed light on a disorder that feeds off darkness. In the two months since, Beljan has taken a lunch in Hollywood to discuss a possible film based on his life and started on a low daily dosage of the antidepressant Zoloft. During breakfast, he whipped out his smartphone and called up a photograph of a 45-foot motor home he recently bought for tournament travel.

He cannot wait to take his home on the road, creating a nest that insulates him from the maze of airport security scans and restaurant meals while making it easier to entertain his friends, many of whom are flummoxed by the turn Beljan’s life has taken. They wonder, how in the world did Beljan, whose carefree spirit makes him a people magnet, become the public face of anxiety?

“I think that moving forward the issue of anxiety will fade out and people will start to get back to associating me with a fun-living, free-spirited guy,” Beljan said.