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Posts Tagged ‘major depression’
« Older Entries |Pregnancy & Depression
Wednesday, January 18th, 2012
This finding supports a warning issued by the FDA during 2006 that alerted women that those taking SSRIs wer six times more likely to deliver babies with PPHN.
PPHN is high blood pressure in the arteries of the lungs. It causes the right ventricle of the heart- which must pump blood through the lungs to pick up oxygen- to work harder, too hard. This can ultimately cause weakening of the heart and heart failure.
Pulmonary hypertension affects about 1 in 1,000 newborns, but more than double that number of newborns of mothers taking antidepressants in the second half of their pregnancies seem to be affected. And an increased risk-though lower- appears to be present in those babies born to mothers who take antidepressants in the first half of their pregnancies.
Antidepressants of one kind or another have been implicated in- but not proven to be absolutely responsible for- increasing the risk of low birth weight, premaurity, and low blood sugar.
So, women should stop antidepressants when they learn they are pregnant, right? Not exactly. There are reasons to stop and theire are reasons to continue.
So, my advice is this:
1) If you are a woman considering pregnancy, try to stop or not to start antidepressants- as long as your symptoms are relatively mild. If you require treatment for depression, try psychotherapy or Transcranial Magnetic Stimulation (TMS), which treats depression with magnetic pulses delivered to the head and which has no known contraindications in pregnancy. But, if you have serious symptoms of depression, use SSRIs, with the advice and under the care of your physician.
2) If you find out you are pregnant while you are already taking anti-depressants, talk to your doctor about very slowly stopping them, but only if you can do so safely, without severe symptoms of depression returning.
3) Never stop antidepressants all of a sudden. This can cause serious symptoms that affect you and your unborn child.
4) Do not stop antidepressants during pregnancy if you have been suicidal while depressed in the past and antidepressants have been necessary to ward off thoughts of harming yourself.
As a final note, while many obstetricians and many primary care doctors are comfortable treating depression, I believe it is best to be seen by a psychiatrist if you are taking antidepressants and want to have a baby.
Tags: antidepressants, depression, major depression, mothers, neuropsychiatry, paxil, pregnancy, pregnant, prozac, psychiatrist, psychiatry, SSRI, SSRIs, therapy, tms, transcranial magnetic stimulation, Zoloft
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Depression Sufferers Turn to TMS
Wednesday, December 7th, 2011
San Diego News-Transcranial magnetic stimulation (TMS) does not require anti-depressants, and patients only need to relax in a chair while magnetic pulses are sent to key neurons in the brain.
Sonja Tanner, who is currently using TMS to treat her depression, has battled it for 25 years. “It’s been the battle of my life,” Tanner said.
Tanner has been on and off medication, but she recently turned to the Botkiss Center for TMS Therapy in Del Mar. She receives treatment by sitting in a chair, five days a week for 40 minutes, while pulses stimulate the parts of her brain that controls mood.
In about three weeks, she said she saw dramatic changes. “My focus was better, my memory was better, my anxiety was better,” Tanner said.
Dr. Philip Botkiss understands why some who have never heard of this may be skeptical. “Anything that’s new and different is going to be scrutinized in the psychiatric community and even by patients,” Botkiss said.
Tanner admitted she did not believe it would work either.
“I was the biggest skeptic, I really was … I have 25 years of non-effective treatment,” Tanner said.
The treatment has been approved by the FDA, and the American Psychiatric Association recently included TMS in its depression treatment guidelines. ”It’s still relatively new so I think the challenge will be to find where it fits in our entire set of tools,” said Dr. Catherine Moore, a longtime psychiatrist and past president of the San Diego Psychiatric Society.
”TMS has been a lifesaver for me,” Tanner said.
Tags: antidepressants, Anxiety, depression, major depression, neuropsychiatry, neurotransmitters, psychiatrist, psychiatry, psychology, therapy, tms, transcranial magnetic stimulation
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TMS Research on Social Behavior May Have Therapeutic Applications
Wednesday, October 26th, 2011
If the front part of the cerebral cortex is less active then people have less control over their social behaviour and automatically follow their inclinations more. This emerged from a study by Inge Volman that will be published on 25 October in the Journal Current Biology. The research was the first to make use of magnetic stimulation (TMS) to suppress this part at the front of the prefrontal cortex. During TMS a changing magnetic field on the head temporarily influences the activity of the underlying part of the brain.
Study subjects in whom the activity of the prefrontal cortex was temporarily suppressed could control their emotional impulses less well than normal. Their amygdala deep in the brain that is responsible for emotional reactions then becomes extra active. This emerged from the study by Inge Volman and her colleagues from the Behavioural Science Institute and the Donders Institute of Radboud University Nijmegen. This study is important for a good understanding of the role played by various parts of the brain and could in the future contribute to the treatment of aggression and social anxiety disorders.
Approach versus avoidance
Volman allowed the study subjects to perform a so-called approach-avoidance task in which they were shown emotional faces. Normally we withdraw when we see an angry face and try to come closer if we see a happy person. The study subjects were asked to respond in exactly the opposite manner. Using a joystick study subjects had to approach angry faces and push away happy faces. They were significantly worse at doing this after disruption of the aPFC. The emotion area – the amygdala – of the study subjects became extra active.
‘This ties in with what we already knew from animal and patient studies. Instead of just measuring and observing behaviour we can also directly influence brain activity with the help of TMS. Furthermore, combining TMS with fMRI makes the design of this study extra special, as then we can observe the effects in both the behaviour and the brain,’ says Volman.
Therapeutic application
Even though we do not know exactly how it works, TMS is already used commercially for the treatment of depression. Based on this study are there possible therapeutic applications of TMS in people who have a disrupted control system?
‘The effect of TMS is temporary and that makes it difficult to apply therapeutically. A possible application could be helping people to overcome a certain behaviour. For example, people suffering from a social anxiety disorder have a strong urge to avoid social situations, such as a party. They are often stuck in a vicious circle: as a result of this avoidance they never learn that they can cope with the situation and so the anxiety increases. This avoidance tendency could possibly be reduced with the help of TMS. Then after a treatment the patient might dare go to a party and discover that it was quite an enjoyable experience. He or she might then dare to go to another party without the need for TMS first.’
Anterior Prefrontal Cortex Inhibition Impairs Control over Social Emotional Action. Current Biology, 25 October 2011
Inge Volman, Karin Roelofs, Saskia Koch, Lennart Verhagen, Ivan Toni
Tags: agression, Anxiety, depression, major depression, neuropsychiatry, psychiatrist, psychiatry, therapy, tms, transcranial magnetic stimulation
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TMS Increases Brain Activity to Battle Severe Depression
Friday, September 30th, 2011
Mlive.com, Sept. 26th- It wasn’t long ago that Phyllis Myers felt wrapped in a fog of confusion and despair.She read obituaries and envied the people who died in car accidents. She prayed to God to spare a child from having cancer by giving it to her.
She battled her depression with every tool she could find: She took two antidepressants, saw a psychotherapist, went for daily walks and used light therapy in winter. She forced herself out of bed every morning and stayed involved in social activities.
Still, she felt “totally debilitated.” She gave up her home-based quilting business because the cognitive effects of depression left her unable to recall how to use the software for her quilting machine. “It felt like I was spiritually abandoned,” said Myers, a petite 60-year-old Grand Rapids woman with three children and four grandchildren.
When she was offered the option of trying transcranial magnetic stimulation, a new therapy for severe depression, Myers didn’t hesitate: She said, “Sign me up.” Today, a year after receiving treatment, she finds it difficult to describe the changes in her life.
“Unbelievable,” she said. “I’m almost back to where I was before. I’m at 90 percent, maybe even 95.”
The treatment, called TMS, is a relatively new approach to treating severe depression. Approved in 2008 by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration, it is available locally only through Psychiatric Centers.
Dr. Henry Mulder said he and his partner, Dr. Phil Fox, were eager to provide the treatment after following its progress through clinical trials. Mulder said MRI brain scans show it causes an immediate increase in activity in the brain’s parietal cortex, which is transmitted to the amygdala, a structure deep in the brain that is involved with mood. “Those areas of the brain that are underactive in depression get stimulated back up to their normal activity level,” he said.
A patient usually receives 30 to 36 daily treatments, each lasting 39 minutes. Treatment continues until no more progress is seen. However, some patients report improvement continues for a month or two afterward.
“It works well with people who have failed many drug trials,” he said. “We’ve treated a lot of people who have failed three, four medication trials, or more than that.”
Finding better treatments for severe depression is crucial, Mulder said. Despite the development of new of anti-depressants and growing acceptance of medications, many patients still are debilitated by the disease.
Mulder’s office has treated nearly 30 patients since acquiring the machine 15 months ago. Only one has come back for a refresher treatment. Mulder said his statistics are better because he keeps patients on medication while undergoing treatment, so they benefit from the combined effect. “TMS stimulates the activity of the cells, and the medication improves the transmission of impulses between nerve cells, so you’re kind of hitting the same problem in two places,” Mulder said. “It definitely works better when used in combination.”
When Myers underwent daily treatments, she felt a tapping sensation on her scalp. It was uncomfortable, she said, but not painful. The results were evident almost immediately, however. Within days, she felt better. Within a couple of weeks, she launched a home-based business with her daughter making and selling granola bars. She has not yet achieved her goal to live without medications. She still takes Cymbalta and Lexapro — although she has reduced the dose of Cymbalta.
“My psychologist recommended I stay on it through the winter, because winters are really, really hard for me,” she said.
Still, she said she is far ahead of where she was before treatment.
“I’m thrilled,” she said. “I’m just thrilled.”
Tags: depression, major depression, neuropsychiatry, neurotransmitters, psychiatrist, psychiatry, psychology, tms, transcranial magnetic stimulation
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TMS Boosts Neurotransmitter Effectiveness
Wednesday, August 10th, 2011
PITTSBURGH (Aug 8th, 2011) — A local mother tells Channel 4 Action News that she tried everything to combat her depression for 30 years, but eventually became drug resistant. It wasn’t until she tried an FDA-approved device that uses magnetic impulses that she said she started seeing an improvement.
The woman allowed Channel 4 Action News cameras to follow her through a transcranial magnetic stimulation treatment.
”It’s uncomfortable in the beginning, but as the treatment goes on, you become accustomed to it,” she said.
Dr. Jasbir Kang, of Crossroads Counseling in McMurray, explained that in patients with depression, neurotransmitters in the brain associated with mood don’t work properly. Kang said the magnetic therapy helps to boost their effectiveness.
”The primary advantage is that it is noninvasive and the safety is excellent and there are virtually no side effects,” said Kang.
The FDA approved the device in 2008, and Kang was the first in the region to get one.
The procedure is not covered by insurance, with most patients needing 25 treatments. But Kang is hopeful that insurance companies will eventually be able to lend support. “As a matter of fact, I think there is a good amount of movement going on right now with respect to getting approval,” said Kang.
The local mother interviewed by Wright said she thinks the treatment is working.
“Is my depression cured? No, but I do have significant relief from my depression,” she said.
Tags: depression, major depression, neuropsychiatry, neurotransmitters, psychiatrist, psychiatry, tms, transcranial magnetic stimulation
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TMS: A “Lifesaver” for Those With Treatment Resistant Depression
Monday, August 8th, 2011
BostonHerald.com (Aug 3, 2011)- The crushing depression started 14 years ago, just after Sian Hastewell’s son was born.
“It came out of nowhere and it took over my life,” a still-spooked Hastewell told the Pulse last week. “I tried every medication on the market. None of them worked. I tried electric shock treatment, and that just made me feel worse.”
She had lost hope by the time she arrived at Dr. Rebecca Cohen’s Newton office last summer for repetitive Transcranial Magnetic Stimulation therapy.
For six weeks, she spent 30 minutes a day in Cohen’s office, with pulsating magnets on her scalp.
“It completely changed my life,” Hastewell recalled. “I’m on no medication, I’m enjoying my life, and my son, who is 15, is getting to know his mom for the first time.”
Hastewell is among the growing number of Americans turning to rTMS to combat depression.
The treatment hinges on the idea that every cell in the body has an electromagnetic field, and when this field is out of alignment, problems develop. RTMS then uses the highly focused magnets to realign a depressed person’s brain, and get it functioning properly again.
“It’s a lifesaver for people who don’t tolerate antidepressants,” said Cohen, a psychiatrist who directs the rTMS program at Newton-Wellesley Psychiatry.
Tags: depression, major depression, neuropsychiatry, psychiatrist, psychiatry, tms, transcranial magnetic stimulation
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Magnetic therapy helping depression patients
Friday, June 3rd, 2011
SOUTH PORTLAND, Maine (NEWS CENTER)- Depressions a disease that affects an estimated 19 million Americans. But for many people suffering from it, medication just dosen’t work. Now there is a new FDA approved treatment available in that is giving new hope to patients.
Melanie Wright first experienced symptoms of depression and anxiety when she was 18 years old. A condition that has gotten worse for this mother of two boys.
“I had issues with eating, not eating enough or not wanting to eat things, not having a present relationship with my kids or my husband,’ said Wright.
Wright doses of medication gave her some relief, but she didn’t like the side effects. Now thanks to a new one of it’s kind treatment wright is getting her life back. It’s called Transcranial Magnetic Stimulation TMS. A technician places a magnet about the size of a hockey puck over the left front part of Wright’s brain. Electricity is then pulsed through the magnet to the brain.
That pulse is charging up neurons which then get the neurotransmitters changing and that change the system of the brain. The foundational system of the brain if you will is healing and restructuring, said Dr. Carole Orem-Hough a psychologist, who runs TMS Centers of Maine.
Dr. Orem-Hough invested nearly 90-thousand dollars to bring the magnetic therapy to Maine. Patients must undergo more than 30 minutes of treatment five times a week for six weeks. wright says after a couple of weeks — her anxiety decreased.
‘I see life as so hopeful, I see it so differently. It’s hard to describe,’ said Wright.
Tags: Anxiety, depression, major depression, neuropsychiatry, psychiatrist, psychiatry, tms, transcranial magnetic stimulation
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Long Term Benefits of TMS Therapy
Tuesday, October 26th, 2010
Magnetic Stimulation Benefits Depressive Patients Long Term
Reported from HealthDay.com
Transcranial magnetic stimulation, a noninvasive, non-drug therapy that has been shown to be successful for acute relief of depressive symptoms, appears to have durable long-term benefits as well, according to research published in the October issue of Brain Stimulation.
WEDNESDAY, Oct. 20 (HealthDay News) — Transcranial magnetic stimulation (TMS), a noninvasive, non-drug therapy that has been shown to be successful for acute relief of depressive symptoms, appears to have durable long-term benefits as well, according to research published in the October issue of Brain Stimulation.
Philip G. Janicak, M.D., of the Rush University Medical Center in Chicago, and colleagues shifted 142 patients who had responded to six weeks of acute TMS therapy to three weeks of tapering and initiation of maintenance antidepressant therapy to determine if TMS has long-term benefits for the treatment of major depressive disorder.
The researchers found that, after a three-week tapering of TMS, 99 patients underwent a subsequent 24-week period, during which, relapse occurred in only 10 patients. Reintroduction of TMS treatments appeared to prevent relapse in 32 of 38 patients who experienced a worsening of symptoms.
“These initial data suggest that the therapeutic effects of TMS are durable and that TMS may be successfully used as an intermittent rescue strategy to preclude impending relapse,” the authors write.
The research was supported by a grant from Neuronetics Inc.; one author is an employee of Eli Lilly. Several authors disclosed financial relationships with Neuronetics, Eli Lilly, and other pharmaceutical companies.
Tags: depression, major depression, psychiatry, tms, transcranial magnetic stimulation
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New Depression Guidelines Favor Tailored Treatment
Friday, October 8th, 2010
Reported in CHICAGO (Reuters) – New depression treatments favor a tailored approach and include recommendations for the use of shock therapy and other alternatives, including exercise when people fail to get relief from drugs.
The guidelines, issued on Friday by the American Psychiatric Association, are the first update on depression treatment in more than a decade.
“The five-year process of intense review, discussion and thoughtful revision-making has led us to today’s release of new guidelines that we believe will improve patient care,” Dr. Alan Gelenberg, an Arizona-based psychiatrist who led the group that drafted the guidelines, said in a statement.
“We are hopeful these guidelines will lead to improved lives for many patients.”
The panel searched more than 13,000 scientific articles published between 1999 and 2006 to craft the new guidelines.
Among the changes, the researchers recommend:
* Doctors should use rating scales to assess their patients’ conditions and tailor treatment according to the severity of symptoms. They can adjust various strategies such as medication, healthy behaviors, exercise and therapy.
* For people who repeatedly fail to benefit from drugs, the guidelines recommend use of electro-convulsive or so-called shock therapy, which has the most scientific data supporting its use.
* The recommendations also added newer treatments, including transcranial magnetic stimulation, which uses highly focused, pulsed magnetic fields to restore function to stimulate brain regions linked with depression.
Privately held Neurotonics Inc’s NeuroStar device was approved for this use by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration in 2008.
* Researchers also recommend use of vagus nerve stimulation, such as a device made by Cyberonics Inc, which delivers electrical stimulation to the vagus nerve, a major nerve linking the brain to internal organs.
* The guidelines also recommend regular exercise, which studies have shown can reduce depressive symptoms, especially in older adults or those with chronic medical problems.
* They recommend more frequent use of maintenance drug treatment, especially for people whose depression is likely to recur. This is especially important for people who have had three prior episodes of depression or chronic illness.
In a separate report, the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said on Thursday that about 9 percent of U.S. adults surveyed in 2006 and 2008 had current symptoms of depression, including 3.4 percent who had symptoms of major depression, in which a person reports having five or more depressive symptoms for at least two weeks.
The survey included more than 235,000 people in 45 states, the District of Columbia and two U.S. territories.
Of these, only 4.8 percent of North Dakota residents were depressed, compared with 14.8 percent of those in Mississippi.
Overall, depression affects more than 13 million U.S. adults each year and costs billions of dollars to treat in costs for treatment, loss of productivity, workers compensation and death.
By Julie Steenhuysen Julie Steenhuysen – Fri Oct 1, 10:24 am ET
Given to you by www.southshoretms.com
Tags: depression, major depression, psychiatry, transcranial magnetic stimulation
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TMS Offers More Hope To Patients with Depression
Monday, September 27th, 2010
New treatment offers more hope
Hartford, Conn. (WTNH) – Martha Rhodes has lived with depression since she was a teenager. Anti-drepressants and therapy were her prescribed treatment.
“It’s a dark feeling,” Rhodes said. “It’s when you wake up every morning and you think I wish I wasn’t here. It’s where you don’t care about your life.”
Despite a loving husband, two children and in otherwise good health, Martha still could not connect the dots day to day.
“I was cautious but I was also down to no more cards,” Rhodes said. “I was desperate.”
Desperation brought her to the Institute of Living at Hartford Hospital. The first to offer in Connecticut, Transcranial Magnetic Stimulation, recently approved by the Food and Drug Administration.
“It’s the first major new treatment for depression in decades,” psychiatrist John Goethe said. “The magnet goes on and off, very, very rapidly.”
TMS sends magnetic pulses to the brain, stimulating nerve cells in the area linked to depression.
“When you pass a magnetic current in a certain way over living tissue, it creates an electrical current and you locate it in a precise position, you can stimulate an electrical current in a particular brain circuit,” Dr. Goethe said
Patients undergo daily stimulations across four to six weeks.
“You feel a very intense tapping on this part of your scalp,” Rhodes said. “You get used to it. It’s intense but you do get used to it. The trick to this whole thing is trusting that you are going to be better.”
Signs of improvement were slow but steady.
“I noticed that the music I was listening to was more upbeat,” Rhodes said. “I noticed that I started singing to the music. Some people prefer this to medication. Some people would come to TMS even if they hadn’t had a long history of depression. Life is easy now, its not the struggle that it was and believe me, when you have depression its like climbing a mountain every day of your life.”
Dr. Goethe says the majority of patients do respond, but not all will have a full recovery.
published by www.southshoretms.com
Tags: depression, major depression, psychiatry, therapy, transcranial magnetic stimulation
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