Recovery Michigan

New research could help reverse deadly side effects caused by excessive doses of the drug acetaminophen, the major ingredient in Tylenol and many other over-the-counter and prescription medicines.

Researchers at Duke University have developed a mathematical model of acetaminophen metabolism based on data from lab rats. The findings suggest that giving patients glutamine -- a common amino acid in the body -- alongside the standard antidote for acetaminophen overdose could prevent liver damage and boost the body's ability to recover.

The results appear online and are scheduled to be published in the July 2015 issue of the Journal of Theoretical Biology.

Known for relieving minor aches and pains without upsetting the stomach like some other pain medicines, acetaminophen is a major ingredient in Tylenol and more than 600 other store brand pain relievers, fever reducers, cold remedies and allergy medicines, as well as prescription painkillers like Percocet and Vicodin.

One in four people in the U.S. take at least one acetaminophen-containing product a week. More than 27 billion doses of acetaminophen-containing products were sold in the U.S. in 2009 alone, making it the most widely-used over-the-counter or prescription drug in the country.

Available without a prescription for more than 50 years, the drug is safe when used as directed. But taking more than the maximum recommended dose of four grams per day can damage the liver. In extreme cases patients die unless they get a liver transplant.

For wakeups between 2-4 am, accompanied by a feeling of excess adrenaline circulating through your system (adrenaline peaks at this time), salt and sugar under the tongue is the only way to go. You don’t want to be chewing anything, wandering around the house looking for food, opening the fridge and looking at bright lights when hoping to fall back asleep, and so forth. You want to remain as unstimulated as possible. Keep the sugar/salt mixture by the bedside for easy and thoughtless access until you stop having middle-of-the-night wakeups.” 

I have always had an intense craving for fermented foods-maybe to combat social anxiety?

W&M Psychology Professors Matthew Hilimire and Catherine Forestell recently joined with University of Maryland School of Social Work Assistant Professor Jordan DeVylder to investigate a possible connection between fermented foods, which contain probiotics, and social anxiety. The researchers found that young adults who eat more fermented foods have fewer social anxiety symptoms, with the effect being greatest among those at genetic risk for social anxiety disorder as measured by neuroticism.

The journal Psychiatry Research accepted the study in April for publication in August.

"It is likely that the probiotics in the fermented foods are favorably changing the environment in the gut, and changes in the gut in turn influence social anxiety," said Hilimire. "I think that it is absolutely fascinating that the microorganisms in your gut can influence your mind."

Using journaling to cope with and express your thoughts and feelings (also calledexpressive writing) can be a good way of coping with the impact of a traumatic event. Expressive writing has been found to improve physical and psychological health. In regard to PTSD in particular, expressive writing has been found to have a number of benefits including improved coping and posttraumatic growth (or the ability to find meaning in and have positive life changes following a traumatic event), as well as reduced PTSD symptoms, tension, and anger.

The findings have important implications for the persistence of memory in coping with stress and depression. The interaction of positive and negative experiences and their corresponding memories is poorly understood, but the findings open a path to new approaches in mood disorder therapy that might be helpful for patients in the future. The authors say it is too early to conclude whether positive memories in general can mitigate the effects of stressful depression. However, it is clear that DG cells are promising targets for therapeutic approaches to maladaptive mood states.

"Overdose is a major public health crisis, and recently there has been a rapid uptake in programs that train police in how to recognize and reverse these potentially deadly events," noted Beletsky, an associate professor who holds joint appointments in the School of Law and Bouvé College of Health Sciences. "When police show up to the scene of an overdose, there is a potential for them to take on a life-saving role in addition to being there to provide protection and security. More and more, they are stepping up to embrace this new tool."

Researchers at Binghamton University recruited 160 women -- 60 with a past history of depression, 100 with no history of depression. They showed each woman a series of two faces, one with a neutral expression and the other with either an angry, sad or happy expression. Using eye-tracking, they found that women with a past history of depression paid more attention to the angry faces. More importantly, among women with a history of prior depression, those who tended to look the most at the angry faces were at greatest risk for developing depression again over the next two years.

"If you're walking around day to day, your attention will just be drawn to certain things and you'll tend to look at some things more than others. What we showed is if your attention is drawn to people who appear to be angry with you or critical of you, then you're at risk for depression," said Brandon Gibb, professor of psychology at Binghamton University and director of the Mood Disorders Institute and Center for Affective Science.

Antidepressant use was associated with lower BMD only in lower-weight men and varied across the bone sites. For example, the use of antidepressants was associated with reduced bone density in the hip in men weighing less than 110 kilograms. In the forearm, however, the association of anti-depressants with reduced bone density was not observed in men until their body weight was under 75 kilograms.

According to the study, recurrent major depression may increase the risk of osteoporosis in men. Furthermore, the use of antidepressants should be taken into account as a potential risk factor of osteoporosis especially in men with a low body weight.

Trauma can be simply described as an experience that overwhelms our capacity to cope, so it is no surprise that much of trauma work involves calling in supports that increase one’s capacity to cope with the stress of the trauma. Whether or not we have these aspects of life in place prior to trauma, they can help us to recover, make meaning, and create positive experiences that, while not changing the traumatic situation, give a sense of meaning and purpose to life as it continues on.

Here are five aspects of posttraumatic growth to reflect on:

Getting out of the house and meeting new people is hard. For a long time, I let inertia limit me to the same neighborhood and daily routine—until I started playing a mobile, augmented-reality game from Google called Ingress. In just a few months, I’ve explored places I’d never seen before, met tons of new and interesting people, and walked hundreds of cumulative miles—all because of a simple video game on my phone.

Ingress is a story-driven, real-world augmented reality game—which is short for “you install a game on your phone, and the game takes place in the real world so you have to get out of the house to play.” The video above gives you a quick primer to the story of the game, complete with the whole “you’re a secret agent” vibe it has. Here’s the breakdown: