Mental Health

Staples SAD Light Station Staples Poor lighting often gets overlooked in the workplace, as we talk about mental health and well-being, and the focus is firmly on creating happier and healthier workplaces . But bad lighting is associated with a range of ill-health effects, both physical and mental, such as eye strain, headaches, fatigue and also stress and anxiety in more high-pressured work environments. As we spend much of the day in artificial lighting, there is evidence that the lack of natural sunlight has an adverse effect on the body and the mind, and can result in conditions such as seasonal affective disorder (SAD). As we navigate the darkest (and shortest days) of the year, 40% of office workers are struggling to work in poor lighting every day. This has a negative effect on their productivity and wellbeing -   according to a new research report, looking at the impact of lighting in the workplace. This is a recent research report by the UK company Staples , w...

The year that came to a close Monday threw the Big Apple’s mental-health crisis into stark relief. From addicts openly injecting at St. Mary’s Park in The Bronx ; to the shooting death in April of Saheed Vassell, a disturbed man who was menacing pedestrians in Brooklyn ; and finally to the homeless people now ubiquitous on streets and subway platforms — the thread that stitched all of these disparate stories was serious mental illness. Most New Yorkers come into daily contact with that last facet of the crisis: namely, the homeless mentally ill. Not all homeless people are mentally ill, to be sure, but as many as a third are. As the Manhattan Institute’s Stephen Eide noted in these pages ­recently, from 2015 to 2017, the ranks of the city’s homeless mentally ill swelled by 2,200, or more than 20 percent. And nowadays, drugs, including traditional street highs as well as opioids, cloud the already-fragile minds of many of these unfortunate souls. Their presence lends a Dickensian a...

CINCINNATI — The new year will bring a new push to create more help for Cincinnati police officers who struggle with depression, stress, emotional problems and perhaps even thoughts of suicide. The issue is top of mind for the Fraternal Order of Police and has taken on greater urgency and meaning in the past 10 days. Advertisement Sergeant Arthur Schultz, a highly regarded veteran officer, died of a self-inflicted gunshot in Eden Park just a few days before Christmas. And although the reasons for his suicide are unknown, the rank-and-file wants officers who are struggling emotionally and mentally to feel comfortable about getting the help they need. They see on ongoing problem that remains below the surface, hidden. They fear it will stay there unless individual officers feel more secure about opening up. The FOP has an idea about how to create a feeling of greater security and intends to raise the matter during contract negotiations in 2019. The union has heard from offic...

Suicide, and mental illness at large, belongs to no one demographic. The biggest common factor following such a death is the devastation—the heartbreak felt by families, friends and communities in the wake of such tragedies. The Brainerd lakes area in recent years had been no stranger to deaths by suicide. The victims are young children, teenagers, sons, daughters, husbands, fathers, neighbors. Following the Feb. 21 death of 16-year-old Brainerd High School student Jake Haapajoki, friends, family and the community banded together to offer support, share their stories and to begin the discussion on not only the stigma surrounding suicide and mental health issues, but what needs to be done to address the issues. Many of those stories were shared in the Brainerd Dispatch in a three-day series publishing in April. Tracy Chu felt like a lot of people who heard about her former high school classmate's son who took his own life, but she did something not everyone does—she started a G...

Jake Chapman Contributor More posts by this contributor Driving the new American century Specialization, Polymaths And The Pareto Principle In A Convergence Economy Colin Kroll was the co-founder of Vine and HQ Trivia, both consumer sensations that brought joy to millions; Anthony Bourdain had been a chef, journalist and philosopher who brought understanding and connectedness to millions of lives; Robin Williams built a career as a brilliant comedian and actor. What these three share in common is that they were all people at the pinnacle of their industry and they all died too soon. Their premature loss is a tragedy. The most brilliant and creative amongst us are sometimes the most troubled, and nowhere is that clearer than in the entrepreneurial ecosystem. With each passing unnecessary death, the importance of mental health comes briefly into focus… but that focus lasts no longer than a news cycle and nothing changes. The time for lip service came and went long ago. We ...

Abi Rimmer The BMJ UK general practitioners think that mental health services for children and young people are inadequate, a survey has found. The survey of 1000 UK GPs found that 99% feared that young people may come to harm while waiting for specialist mental health treatment from Child and Adolescent Mental Health Services (CAMHS). The survey, conducted on behalf of mental health charity stem4, found … http://bit.ly/2AnnKav

1. In this systematic review and meta-analysis, there were significantly lower cognitive functioning scores for those who were first-degree relatives of patients with a history of major depressive disorder (MDD). 2. The lower scores for cognitive testing were demonstrated across multiple domains of cognition including IQ, verbal intelligence, perceptual intelligence, and memory. Evidence Rating Level: 2 (Good)            Study Rundown: Cognitive impairment has been observed in those with Major Depressive Disorder (MDD) and cognitive effects can persist despite resolution of the acute episodes of depression. Possible explanations for the connection between cognitive impairment and MDD include direct consequence of the psychopathology, side effects of pharmacotherapy, or underlying shared genetic and socioeconomic risk factors. The current study sought to better evaluate the connection between MDD and cognitive impairment by eval...

Source: Andriy Popov/123RF Is It Depression or Bipolar Disorder? This is one of the most challenging questions psychiatrists face in daily practice, and getting the answer wrong can have serious consequences. Both major depressive disorder and bipolar disorder can involve bouts of severe depression that interfere with one’s ability to function, but manic episodes only occur in bipolar disorder. While most people think of manic episodes as periods of extreme excitement, euphoria and hyperactivity, mania can take other forms, such as irritability, rage , intense anxiety , prolonged panic, or extreme obsessive-compulsive symptoms. It can be surprisingly difficult sometimes even for experienced clinicians to tell the difference between major depression and bipolar disorder because most people seek care during a depressive episode, and depression symptoms can look similar in both cases. Mood patterns over time and family history of bipolar symptoms can offer clues that help...

Abi Rimmer The BMJ UK general practitioners think that mental health services for children and young people are inadequate, a survey has found. The survey of 1000 UK GPs found that 99% feared that young people may come to harm while waiting for specialist mental health treatment from Child and Adolescent Mental Health Services (CAMHS). The survey, conducted on behalf of mental health charity stem4, found … http://bit.ly/2AnnKav

December 30, 2018 Share this content: Valacyclovir failed to significantly improve any of the cognitive indices, symptom or functioning measures. According to a study recently published in  Schizophrenia Research , valacyclovir failed to improve working and visuospatial memory in individuals with herpes simplex virus-type 1 (HSV-1) and schizophrenia. Researchers further suggested that the presence of HSV-1 might be a clinical indicator of a more acute case of schizophrenia. 1 Structural and functional brain changes are associated with HSV-1 infections in schizophrenia making for a strong case for considering antiviral medication trials in schizophrenia. Valacyclovir is a highly effective and relatively safe treatment for HSV-1 infection. However, it is only effective during the activated stage of viral replication, not for dormant infections. Continue Reading Below In a study by Prasad et al, valacyclovir was associated with improvement in visual learning, and working ...

[embedded content] John M. Kane, MD, considers potential approaches in the schizophrenia treatment landscape to mitigate the impact of patient nonadherence to oral agents. John M. Kane, MD: We have seen some advances in medication development. We now have the so-called second-generation, or atypical, medicines, which are better tolerated in general. I think in some cases, patients are more likely to be adherent with those medicines, but it’s not enough. I think we have to find additional ways to assure that patients are getting the benefit of the medication. I believe there’s a big difference between administering a medication via a long-acting injectable formulation versus administering it via oral medication. There’s really a big difference in terms of preventing relapse, but also in giving the clinical team the knowledge that they need to make rational clinical decisions. For example, we consider some patients to be treatment resistant. We might use a drug like clozapine, which ...

It’s bowl season for college football, and Robert Hilliard wants to remind you of something while you’re regarding the slog to that sport’s national championship. Maybe you peaked in the Pop Warner League. Maybe you never got past touch-football in the backyard. No matter, the WVU researcher said. He wants to remind you that  football players in the rarified air of Division I … aren’t all that different from you. Yes, really. Even if they can knock you flat in the backfield and beat you by two or three lengths in the 40-yard dash. Nine years ago, Hilliard, now a doctoral student in the College of Physical Activity and Sport Sciences, was a two-sport man in Michigan. Hilliard lettered in football and baseball at  tiny Kalamazoo College. He roamed the defensive backfield for the football Hornets and held down pitching and second base duties in the spring, when Mr. Doubleday’s slower, less chaotic sport took over. At 5-foot-7 and 150 pounds, he knew he wa...

Source: Zarina Situmorang at DeviantArt, Creative Commons When university student Kinga (name changed) was young, she struggled with symptoms she couldn’t identify. She had shortness of breath and would suddenly get anxious . Her mother took her to a doctor, and Kinga was diagnosed with asthma. Despite asthma treatment, her inability to catch her breath persisted, and she had feelings of panic. In retrospect, Kinga isn’t so sure she had asthma at all, believing she was misdiagnosed. In an interview with the Trauma and Mental Health Report, she explains: “The doctors never knew what was wrong with me, probably because I didn’t have the right words to explain what was happening, and maybe because I wasn’t failing in school.” Some mental illnesses, even those that are familiar, such as anxiety and depression , can be hard to identify. For youth with subtle to moderate symptoms, diagnosis can be especially difficult. Psychiatrist Peter Jenson and colleagues emphasize that diag...

Mental aberra­tion is someth­ing as normal as physic­al illnes­s and that can be cured, if diagno­sed timely­ SUKKUR:  Besides physical health, mental health plays a vital role in one’s life. If a patient falls ill by some physical illness, it would consult the concerned doctor. However, mental illness is not treated as physical illness; thereby a patient hides his trauma because of peer-pressure. Moreover, the fear of being treated as an abnormal restricts a patient to be normal. Being the so-called sane individuals of society, it is our prime responsibility to deconstruct the negative connation that is associated with mental illness. Mental aberration is something normal as physical illness and that can be cured, if diagnosed timely. In our society, almost every individual is grappling with anxiety and depression. A recent study by the American Psychological Association shows that the bipolar disorder has increased across the world in the past 20 years. Therefore, it is o...

Elizabeth Tilley, with residents Demetrius, left, and David. (Chuck Crow/The Plain Dealer) These men each have long lists of health problems: high blood pressure, diabetes, incontinence and dementia due to stroke, visual impairment, bipolar disease and personality disorders. Some have burned bridges with family members who, fed up with their erratic behavior, asked Tilley to take them in. All probably would be homeless, or in jail, if it weren’t for Royal Haven or another one of the nearly 1,000 adult facilities in Ohio that shelter people with a range of mental health issues.  Tilley loves her residents, even when they curse at her or act like stubborn children. They refuse to bathe, get angry when their feces-smeared clothes are thrown away, and steal one another’s  dessert just to be ornery.  “After they do it, you know they’re sorry,” she said. Bad behavior is grounds for eviction, but she said she could never actually do it.  http://bit.ly/2ETtpIq

If you’re a human who uses social media , you’ve likely seen flocks of folks commenting on Netflix’s recently released psychological thriller, Bird Box . Based on the post-apocalyptic novel by Josh Malerman, the adaptation has spiked in recent popularity as Netflix claims it has been watched by over 45 million viewers in just one week. Source: Netflix's Twitter Account Bird Box has become a light-hearted meme-sensation , but has also evoked serious food for thought in viewers pondering the deeper meaning of the movie. Some are starting to wonder about hidden messages linking topics such as racism and social media . Many viewers versed in mental health awareness have called for trigger warnings and have also critiqued the popular movie for further perpetuating villainized stereotypes of mental illnesses . While I will not claim to know the true underlying meaning, I will confess that I do recognize that there are mental health lessons to be learned through...