Eeyore - Major depressive disorder

Eeyore is a favourite amongst most admirers of Winnie the Pooh characters and he is an unbelievably lovable donkey who is dismally gloomy for almost eternity. Depression may be described as feeling sad, blue, unhappy, miserable, or down in the dumps. Most of us feel this way at one time or another for short periods. True clinical depression is a mood disorder in which feelings of sadness, loss, anger, or frustration interfere with everyday life for weeks or longer.


Researchers believe it is caused by chemical changes in the brain due to a problem with the genes, or triggered by stressful events. Symptoms include...

• Agitation, restlessness, and irritability
• Dramatic change in appetite, often with weight gain or loss
• Very difficult to concentrate
• Fatigue and lack of energy
• Feelings of hopelessness and helplessness
• Feelings of worthlessness, self-hate, and guilt
• Becoming withdrawn or isolated
• Loss of interest or pleasure in activities that were once enjoyed
• Thoughts of death or suicide
• Trouble sleeping or excessive sleeping

Treatments

• Wait and see
• Exercise
• Self help groups
• Talking therapy
• Antidepressants
• Mental health teams

Tigger - ADHD

Attention deficit hyperactivity disorder, the most common behavioral disorder in the UK, affecting around 3~9% of young people, and 2% of adults.

Symptoms - Children/Teens

Inattentiveness- The main symptoms of inattentiveness are:

• a very short attention span
• being very easily distracted
• making careless mistakes, for example in schoolwork 
• appearing forgetful or losing things 
• being unable to stick at tasks that are tedious or time consuming
• being unable to listen to or carry out instructions
• being unable to concentrate
• constantly changing activity or task
• having difficulty organising tasks

Hyperactivity - The main symptoms of hyperactivity are:

• being unable to sit still, especially in calm or quiet surroundings
• constantly fidgeting
• being unable to settle to tasks
• excessive physical movement
• excessive talking

Impulsiveness - The main symptoms of impulsiveness are:

• being unable to wait for a turn
• acting without thinking
• interrupting conversations
• breaking any set rules
• little or no sense of danger

Symptoms - Adults

• carelessness and lack of attention to detail
• continually starting new tasks before finishing old ones
• poor organisational skills
• inability to focus or prioritise
• continually losing or misplacing things
• forgetfulness
• restlessness and edginess
• difficulty keeping quiet and speaking out of turn
• blurting responses, and poor social timing when talking to others
• often interrupting others
• mood swings
• irritability and a quick temper
• inability to deal with stress
• extreme impatience
• taking risks in activities, often with little or no regard for personal safety or the safety of others

As with ADHD in children and teenagers, ADHD in adults can appear alongside many related problems or conditions. One of the most common conditions is depression. Other conditions that adults may have alongside ADHD include:

• personality disorders
• bipolar disorder, a condition that affects your moods, which can swing from one extreme to another
• obsessive-compulsive disorder, a condition that causes obsessive thoughts and compulsive behaviour, such as cleaning constantly 

Treatment

• Methylphenidate - stimulates a part of the brain that changes mental and behavioral reactions
• Dexamfetamine - psycho/CNS stimulant
• Atomoxetine - selective nor-adrenaline uptake inhibitor
• Psychotherapy
• Behaviour therapy
• Social skills training
• Cognitive behavioral therapy

Piglet - Anxiety disorder

Anxiety disorder is a pattern of frequent, constant worry and anxiety over many different activities and events. Surveys have found that as many as 18% of Americans may be affected. Anyone can develop this disorder, kids through to adults, however, it is often more often seen in women than in men. The main risk factors are genes and stress levels.

Symptoms

Constant presence of worry or tension, even with little/ no cause. Worry 'floating' from one problem onto another. Unable to control worries and fears, face difficulties concentrating, often feel fatigued, irritated, problems with sleep and restlessness.

Treatment

The goal of treatment is to help you function well during day-to-day life. A combination of medicine and cognitive-behavioral therapy (CBT) works best.

Medications are an important part of treatment. Once you start them, do not suddenly stop without talking with your health care provider. Medications that may be used include:

• Selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors (SSRIs) are usually the first choice in medications. Serotonin-norepinephrine reuptake inhibitors (SNRIs) are another choice.
• Other antidepressants and some antiseizure drugs may be used for severe cases.
• Benzodiazepines such as alprazolam (Xanax), clonazepam (Klonopin), and lorazepamAtivan) may be used if antidepressants don't help enough with symptoms. Long-term dependence on these drugs is a concern.
• A medication called buspirone may also be used.

Cognitive-behavioral therapy helps you understand your behaviors and how to gain control of them. You will have 10 to 20 visits over a number of weeks. During therapy you will learn how to:

• Understand and gain control of your distorted views of life stressors, such as other people's behavior or life events.
• Recognize and replace panic-causing thoughts, decreasing the sense of helplessness.
• Manage stress and relax when symptoms occur.
• Avoid thinking that minor worries will develop into very bad problems.

Avoiding caffeine, illicit drugs, and even some cold medicines may also help reduce symptoms.

A healthy lifestyle that includes exercise, enough rest, and good nutrition can help reduce the impact of anxiety.

Pooh - Eating disorders

Eating disorders are responsible for the highest number of deaths from psychiatric illness. It is estimated that around 165,000 people in the UK have eating disorders, with around 10% dying as a result. They are characterised by an abnormal attitude towards food that causes someone to change their eating habits and behavior.

Types

• anorexia nervosa - starving themselves or exercising excessively in order to keep their weight as low as possible.
• bulimia - 'binge eating' and deliberately throwing up, or using laxatives to empty their bowels.
• binge eating - when someone feels compelled to overeat.

Often, eating disorders are often blamed on social pressures to be thin, young people in particular feel they should look a certain way by the influence of the media and fashion.

There may be some biological or predisposing (influencing) factors, combined with an experience that may provoke the disorder, plus other factors that encourage the condition to continue. 

Risk factors that can make someone more likely to have an eating disorder include:

• having a family history of eating disorders, depression or substance misuse
• being criticised for their eating habits, body shape or weight
• being overly concerned with being slim, particularly if combined with pressure to be slim from society or for a job (for example ballet dancers, models or athletes)
• certain characteristics, for example, having an obsessive personality, an anxiety disorder, low self-esteem or being a perfectionist
• particular experiences, such as sexual or emotional abuse or the death of someone special
• difficult relationships with family members or friends
• stressful situations, for example problems at work, school or university

Treatment

The physical problems caused by eating disorders can be fatal. Treatments are available, although can take a long time, and it is important for the affected individual to want to get better.

• cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT): therapy that focuses on changing how someone thinks about a situation, which in turn will affect how they act
• interpersonal psychotherapy: a talking therapy that focuses on relationship-based issues
• dietary counselling: a talking therapy to help people maintain a healthy diet
• psychodynamic therapy: counselling that focuses on how a person’s personality and life experiences influence their current thoughts, feelings, relationships and behavior

Winnie-the-Pooh Week

Winnie the Pooh, Christopher Robin and their friends living in the hundred acre wood are famous for their demonstration of mental disorders. Christopher Robin, based off the Author A.A. Milne's son Christopher Robin Milne, created all of the characters in his mind, which represent the feelings he is experiencing in his internal world as he grows up. This week, I will be sharing with you each of these mental disorders seen from a medical point of view, and how they are "treated".

Weird and wonderful health stories from 2011

Many medical researches are sensationalised by the media to attract the reader's attention... read the full list here (sorry for the short post, modules coming up!)

Experimental hepatitis C vaccine shows promising results

Hepatitis C is an infection of the liver caused by the hepatitis C virus. It causes an inflammation and fibrosis of liver tissues. A working vaccine for hepatitis C does not exist yet for the following reasons:

• Hepatitis C has at least six genotypes, several different vaccines would be needed to protect against each genotype.
• The hepatitis C virus mutates very easily and therefore change its antigens. This would mean memory cells would not recognise the virus and cannot divide rapidly to produce plasma and more memory cells.
• No effective small animal model or cell culture system.

However, recently, a clinical trial was carried out by researchers from the Universities of Oxford and Birmingham, and from institutions throughout Italy to test a newly developed hep C vaccine. This phase 1 clinical trial tested the safety and tolerability of the new vaccine. The vaccine was created by inserting small pieces of DNA from the hepatitis C virus into a rare form of the virus that causes the common cold. First, the dosage required to produce an optimal immune response was studied using a 'dose-escalation' test where volunteers were divided into groups of four or five people, with each group being given a different dose of the vaccine. They also tested whether the immune response would hold against different strains of the hepatitis C virus, by taking a blood sample from the participants, challenging the blood cell with proteins found in the different strains of the virus and analysed the immune response.

The results found that there were no serious side effects and any side effects due to high dosage were short lived.