Medicaid Study Author Emphasizes ‘Astounding’ Mental Health Benefits

http://goo.gl/4u82s

Among Medicaid beneficiaries examined by the New England Journal of Medicine study in Oregon, depression rates dropped by one-third — from 30 percent to 21 percent.

“This is an astounding finding — that is a huge improvement in mental health,” said Gruber, who is also an architect of Obamacare, which expands Medicaid. He said the Oregon study “suggests that the major accomplishment of insurance is to have an outsize impact on the quality of life. The most important thing the Affordable Care Act will accomplish is end the daily stress and uncertainty that face individuals who are uninsured.”

Single Session Of Relaxation Response Practice Alters Gene Expression Involved In Inflammation, Energy Metabolism, Insulin Secretion

http://goo.gl/ZfqBc

A new study from investigators at the Benson-Henry Institute for Mind/Body Medicine at Massachusetts General Hospital (MGH) and Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center (BIDMC) finds that elicitation of the relaxation response - a physiologic state of deep rest induced by practices such as meditation, yoga, deep breathing and prayer - produces immediate changes in the expression of genes involved in immune function, energy metabolism and insulin secretion. Published in the open-access journal PLOS ONE, the study combined advanced expression profiling and systems biology analysis to both identify genes affected by relaxation response practice and determine the potential biological relevance of those changes. 

If you are interested in the actual research article, go to http://goo.gl/j7YpB

If you want to try the relaxation response, here is a pdf that talks about two easy ways from UM hospital: http://goo.gl/Ufbhu

The Problem With How We Treat Bipolar Disorder

http://goo.gl/lgcrc

How much insult to the self is done by the symptoms of the disorder and how much by the drugs used to treat it? Paradoxically, psychotropic drugs can induce anxiety, nervousness, impaired judgment, mania, hypomania, hallucinations, feelings of depersonalization, psychosis and suicidal thoughts, while being used to treat the same symptoms. Before getting to the hospital, my daily moods ranged from bad to worse, each state accompanied by a profound depth of feeling. The first drug I was given was amitriptyline (Elavil), which, in the process of reducing my despair, blunted all my other emotions. I no longer felt anything. It was like going from satellite TV to one lousy channel.

PTSD Or Hypopituitarism? Nearly Half Of Veterans Found With Blast Concussions Might Have Hormone Deficiencies

This is an incredibly important study, and the information from it needs to be spread throughout the primary care and VA medical communities.  Diagnostic tests for this condition would never normally be done on adult veterans.

http://goo.gl/y7Mhc

Up to 20 percent of veterans returning from Afghanistan and Iraq have experienced at least one blast concussion....

Many conditions associated with hypopituitarism mimic other common problems that veterans can suffer, includingpost-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) and depression, explains study leader Wilkinson. However, unlike those other conditions, those under the banner head of hypopituitarism can be can often be well-controlled by replacing the deficient hormones. "This could be a largely missed opportunity for successful treatment," Wilkinson says.....

The researchers found that about 42 percent of these veterans showed abnormally low levels of at least one of these hormones. The most common low hormone was human growth hormone, which can cause behavioral and cognitive symptoms similar to PTSD and depression, along with increases in blood lipids and changes in metabolism and blood pressure that can increase the risk of heart attack and stroke...

Wilkinson adds that many veterans who suffer blast injuries may never see an endocrinologist - and a neurologist or a psychiatrist, whom they're more likely to see for post-concussion follow-up, is unlikely to screen for hormonal deficiencies. Because low hormone levels can often be successfully treated, he says, it's a missed opportunity to help veterans.  

VA Effort to hire peers hits supply snag

http://goo.gl/QonVR

The Department of Veterans Affairs, trying to cope with a surge in psychological needs of veterans, has vowed to hire 1,600 additional mental health care professionals by the end of June, but some experts say the pool of qualified candidates is too small and the federal effort could jeopardize already-understaffed community health organizations.

Use Of Adjunctive Antipsychotic Medications In Depression

The four medications showed statistically significant small or small-to-moderate beneficial effects on depression symptoms. However, on measures of functioning and quality of life, these medications generally produced either no benefit or small benefits. In addition, treatment was linked to several adverse events, such as akathisia, sedation, abnormal metabolic laboratory results, and weight gain. The authors also comment that shortcomings in study design and reporting may have over-emphasized the apparent benefits of treatment and reduced the apparent incidence of adverse events.

The authors say: "Taken together, our meta-analysis found evidence of (1) some improvement in clinician-assessed depressive symptoms, (2) little evidence of substantial benefit in overall well-being, and (3) abundant evidence of potential treatment-related harm."

via medicalnewstoday.com