Recovery Michigan

http://goo.gl/7wpoSr

However, in their extensive review, the Johns Hopkins researchers found that statins do not affect short-term memory or cognition. In contrast, they say that when the drugs are taken for more than one year, the risk of dementia is reduced by 29 percent. Their findings are published in an online article in the Mayo Clinic Proceedings.

"All medications, including statins, may cause side effects, and many patients take multiple medicines that could theoretically interact with each other and cause cognitive problems," says Kristopher Swiger, M.D., a primary author of the study. "However, our systematic review and meta-analysis of existing data found no connection between short-term statin use and memory loss or other types of cognitive dysfunction. In fact, longer-term statin use was associated with protection from dementia."

http://goo.gl/37YmoG

The primary shock waves that emanate from explosions also can kill a person if they are intense enough. However, most blast survivors experience less powerful shock waves that cause less severe immediate symptoms, such as temporary disorientation orheadaches, but on the surface leave victims apparently unscathed. Scientists are especially concerned when these mild blast exposures happen repeatedly--likening them to the repetitive hits endured by boxers and other athletes.

http://goo.gl/JmR3Su

A simple measurement of the sweat gland activity of a depressed person can determine if he or she is suicidal - with 97 per cent accuracy. Now another large clinical study confirms the correlation.

Blood pressure, blood circulation and activity in the sweat glands of the fingers can reveal if a person is suicidal.

"The results are so strong that I'm astonished", says Lars-Håkan Thorell, associate professor in experimental psychiatry at Linköping University, one of the researchers behind the study. "We can determine very accurately whether a person risks committing suicide, which can revolutionise suicide prevention."

http://goo.gl/qHKxfP

"The review showed there are strong and consistent relationships between racial discrimination and a range of detrimental health outcomes such as low self-esteem, reduced resilience, increased behaviour problems and lower levels of wellbeing."

http://goo.gl/IHwsoq

Problems ranging from autoimmune disease to clinical depression and simple obesitymay in fact be linked to immune dysfunction that begins with a "failure to communicate" in the human gut, the scientists say. Health care of the future may include personalized diagnosis of an individual's "microbiome" to determine what prebiotics or probiotics are needed to provide balance.

http://goo.gl/MajBjA

(F)our papers in a special issue of Depression and Anxiety aim to settle the controversy by demonstrating that anxiety posed a greater suicide risk than depression.

Second Edition

http://goo.gl/foCWBb

The Icarus Project and Freedom Center’s 52-page guide gathers the best information we’ve come across and the most valuable lessons we’ve learned about reducing and coming off psychiatric medication. Includes info on mood stabilizers, anti-psychotics, anti-depressants, anti-anxiety drugs, risks, benefits, wellness tools, psychiatric drug withdrawal, information for people staying on their medications, detailed Resource section, and much more.

Nice to have and alternative to antipsychotic medication.

http://http//goo.gl/68C2cb 

The researchers recommend that this specific form of cognitive behavior therapy (CBT) - exposure and ritual prevention - be offered to OCD patients who don't respond adequately to treatment with an antidepressant alone, which is often the case. Current guidelines favor augmentation with antipsychotics. 

A reasonable summary of easily usable techniques

http://goo.gl/qZF3hG

When you’re feeling anxious, you might feel stuck and unsure of how to feel better. You might even do things that unwittingly fuel youranxiety. You might hyperfocus on the future, and get carried away by a slew of what-ifs.

What if I start to feel worse? What if they hate my presentation? What if she sees me sweating? What if I bomb the exam? What if I don’t get the house?

You might judge and bash yourself for your anxiety. You might believe your negative, worst-case scenario thoughts are indisputable facts.

Thankfully, there are many tools and techniques you can use to manage anxiety effectively. Below, experts shared healthy ways to cope with anxiety right here, right now.

Why the quotes?

http://goo.gl/HjrQgd

Twenty-five years later, Achord is helping others with mental illness as a “certified peer specialist” licensed by the state of Georgia. Armed with non-clinical training from the state, Achord helps people with mental illness stay on their medications, find jobs and housing and build social support networks.

Peer programs such as Georgia’s could become especially important once the Affordable Care Act takes effect early next year.

The federal health law will require Medicaid and all other health plans to cover mental health services on par with insurance coverage of physical illnesses. It also will add an estimated 8 million people to the Medicaid rolls in the first year, many of whom will have untreated mental illnesses. Another 7 million people are expected to get federal tax subsidies to purchase health insurance, many for the first time.