Recovery Michigan

Auditory hallucinations are often related to mental health disorders such as schizophrenia, but that is not always the case. People with no mental health complaints can sometimes also hear voices.

It was found that the participants' reactions to the voices were an important factor in whether the voices interfered with or allowed them to pursue their life goals.

"Most voice-hearers with mental health difficulties in our study experienced their voices as a hindrance to achieving their goals, and viewed their voices as distressing and problematic. But other voice-hearers find that voices facilitate their valued goals, and are therefore a pleasant and constructive part of their lives," says Dr. Varese.

This study is based on previous research undertaken with the same participants. In that research, the findings suggested that patients who were striving to ignore the voices, or who reacted negatively to them, had a lower quality of life.

The researchers advised that cognitive behavioral therapy targeting the patients' negative reactions would relieve the distress they experienced as a result.

Individual signs don't mean much. The more the more likely.....

https://goo.gl/mK3z77

There are many signs that might indicate you have an autoimmune disease. Autoimmune diseases are being increasingly diagnosed, and those who are affected may experience a wide range of uncomfortable symptoms depending upon which type of condition they develop.  

Although there are many types of autoimmune diseases, they are all caused when a flaw in a person’s immune system causes their body to begin attacking itself. Unfortunately, no one is certain as to exactly what causes this to happen, however it is believed that leaky gut, environmental toxins and genetics all play a role.

According to the U.S. Department of Health, women are more likely to be diagnosed with an autoimmune disorder than men.

The process of getting diagnosed with an autoimmune disorder is often frustrating since many of the symptoms are similar to other conditions. In fact, many patients report that their doctors initially dismiss their symptoms as being due to stress or an emotional disorder. At first, patients are oftentimes given an antidepressant and sent on their way.

As you peruse this list of signs that indicate you may have an autoimmune disease, remember that you are your best advocate.

The researchers describe ‘salami slicing’ as the practice of “publishing separate, yet similar pieces of a dataset in multiple papers.” They explain that this type of duplicate publication “can distort the medical literature by making a drug appear strongly supported based on the sheer volume of publications analyzing clinical trial data.” Pharmaceutical companies often pay “key opinion leaders” to author these publications in order to lend credibility to the article and market their drugs.

Many have critiqued the practice of salami slicing when it involves multiple publications from a single study. However, less attention has been paid to salami slicing that involves pooled analyses, where researchers combine results from multiple clinical trials into one large analysis. To address this, the researchers analyzed pooled analyses for clinical trials studying the efficacy of second-generation antipsychotics for depression.

The researchers identified 43 articles, 38 of which were funded by the pharmaceutical industry. Almost 90% of the authors of these articles had financial conflicts of interest, such as being an employee of the company that manufactures the drug being studied or receiving financial support from the pharmaceutical industry. Only two articles were independent of industry funding and had no authors with conflicts of interest. Thirty-four of the articles that were industry sponsored reported using a medical writer, who are often paid by industry and used to speed up the publication process.

According to the latest data from the National Institutes of Health (NIH), over 25 million Americans are currently living with chronic pain.

More and more studies have shown that cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT) helps people cope with the condition. But, as some have pointed out, it is not entirely clear which aspects of the therapy are helpful for people with chronic pain, or how the treatment could be improved in order to achieve better results.

This is why a team of researchers from King's College London (KCL) in the United Kingdom set out to examine the benefits of a particular form of CBT - called "acceptance and commitment therapy" (ACT) - on the functioning and well-being of patients with chronic pain.

The first author of the new study is Lin Yu, of the Institute of Psychiatry, Psychology, and Neuroscience at KCL, and the findings were published in the Journal of Pain.

ACT is a new form of CBT, which is currently used to treat a variety of psychological problems ranging from addiction to helping people cope with disabilities.

The ongoing opioid crisis is at the intersection of 2 substantial public health challenges: improving the treatment of pain and minimizing the harms that can arise from use of opioid medications. Recent Viewpoints in JAMA highlighted this tension. In one article, the authors emphasized that “there is no evidence that opioids are effective in chronic pain conditions and significant evidence that they cause harm,” and urged that they be used only as a “last resort.”¹ In another article, the authors expressed dismay that federal policy has “disproportionately focused on reducing opioid use rather than increasing pain relief,” and that “excessive concerns” about opioids could “virtually eliminate” opioids as an option for chronic pain and could even deter physicians from prescribing small amounts for acute pain.²

Pain Management and the Opioid Epidemic,³ a report by a committee of the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine, envisions a path leading to reduced reliance on opioids for chronic pain while counseling against arbitrary regulatory restriction of responsible prescribing for patients whose pain has not been alleviated by alternative treatments. This report updates Relieving Pain in America,⁴ the 2011 report by the Institute of Medicine, and summarizes the state of the science on the harms associated with opioid misuse and the effects of strategies aiming to reduce those harms. One of the key aims of the current report is to advise the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA), the study sponsor, regarding actions it could undertake “to balance the needs of pain patients and the need to address opioid misuse.”

Depression is fairly common, affecting more than 15 million adults in the United States. Depression is also the leading cause of disability among U.S. individuals aged 15 to 44 years.

Many organizations offer support groups, counseling, and other resources that may help with depression. It is important that you try to participate in social activities to avoid becoming isolated.

In Washington, D.C., a Medicare beneficiary filled prescriptions for 2,330 pills of oxycodone, hydromorphone and morphine in a single month last year — written by just one of the 42 health providers who prescribed the person such drugs.

In Illinois, a different Medicare enrollee received 73 prescriptions for opioid drugs from 11 prescribers and filled them at 20 different pharmacies. He sometimes filled prescriptions at multiple pharmacies on the same day.

These are among the examples cited in a sobering new report released today by the inspector general of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. The IG found that heavy painkiller use and abuse remains a serious problem in Medicare’s prescription drug program, known as Part D, which serves more than 43 million seniors and disabled people. Among the findings:

• Of the one-third of Medicare beneficiaries in Part D (or roughly 14.4 million people) who filled at least one prescription for an opioid in 2016, some 3.6 million received the painkillers for at least six months.

• Consistent with data released last week by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, there were wide geographic differences in prescribing patterns. Alabama and Mississippi had the highest proportions of patients taking prescription painkillers — more than 45 percent each — while Hawaii and New York had the lowest — 22 percent or less.

• More than half a million beneficiaries received high doses of opioids for at least three months, meaning they took the equivalent of 12 tablets a day of 10-milligram Vicodin. The figure does not include patients who have cancer or those who are in hospice care, for whom such doses may be appropriate.

• Almost 70,000 beneficiaries received what the inspector general labeled as extreme amounts of the drugs — an average daily consumption for the year that was more than 2 1/2 times the level the CDC recommends avoiding. Such doses put patients at an increased risk of overdose death. Extreme prescribing could also indicate that a patient’s identity has been stolen, or that the patient is diverting medications for resale.

• Some 22,000 beneficiaries seem to be doctor shopping — obtaining large amounts of the drugs prescribed by four or more doctors and filled at four or more pharmacies. All states except for Missouri operate Prescription Drug Monitoring Program databases that allow doctors to check whether their patients have received drugs from other doctors before writing their own prescriptions.

• More than 400 doctors, nurse practitioners and physician assistants had questionable prescribing patterns for the beneficiaries most at risk (meaning those that took extreme doses of the drugs or showed signs of doctor shopping). One Missouri prescriber wrote an average of 31 opioid prescriptions each for 112 patients on Medicare. And four doctors in the same Texas practice ordered opioids for more than 56 beneficiaries who seemed to be doctor shopping. “The patterns of these 401 prescribers are far outside the norm and warrant further scrutiny,” the inspector general said.

To be sure, many seniors suffer from an array of painful conditions, and some opioids are seen as more harmful and addictive than others. Tramadol, often used to treat chronic osteoarthritis pain, was the most frequently prescribed opioid and carries a lower risk of addiction than other opioids, according to the Drug Enforcement Administration.

Moreover, last week’s report from CDC shows that painkiller use is ticking downward after years of explosive growth.

Cheap, too.......

https://goo.gl/j4RJns

An antibiotic used mostly to treat acne has been found to improve the quality of life for people with major depression, in a world-first clinical trial from Deakin University.

The trial added a daily dose of minocycline - a broad-spectrum antibiotic that has been prescribed since 1971 - to the usual treatment of 71 people experiencing major depression.

The research team, led by Deakin's Centre for Innovation in Mental and Physical Health and Clinical Treatment within the School of Medicine, then compared the effects to a control group taking aplacebo.

The results - recently published in the Australian & New Zealand Journal of Psychiatry - showed that those taking minocycline reported improved functioning and quality of life.

Lead researcher Dr Olivia Dean said the research took a unique "biological" approach to treating depressive symptoms, which could inform future therapies.

"There is evidence to suggest that people with major depressive disorder have increased levels ofinflammation in their body," Dr Dean said.

"Specifically, minocycline reduces brain inflammation in cell models, and thus we wanted to see if it was useful for people."

Having just finished the second year of her Computer Animation Arts degree, UCA student Deanna Crisbacher is already getting worldwide recognition for her work. With four official selections for her short film about mental illness, Dysmorphia, she gives a frank and personal account of the project that was as cathartic as it is compelling.

Since I was a teenager had an impulsive need to use artwork to try and cope with my negative emotions, especially when I began struggling with mental illness. I suppose in a way, I am continuing that artwork from when I was younger to see how I’ve changed and how I view my illnesses now. Saying that, theories about Abjection, The Uncanny, and Existentialism helped me figure out the methodology behind the project.

NEW: Psychiatric drug withdrawal: preparation for before you begin