Strep and Anxiety in Kids

Anxiety comes from many things and one of them appears to be streptococcal infections in children.  Sometimes, unexpected findings can be seen in a hospital setting and, if the researcher in the physician is peeked, it leads to an increase of our knowledge about things like anxiety.

The July 2004 issue of Archives of Disease in Children details just such a finding where they looked at cases of post-strep infection and the occurrence of either movement disorders and/or psychiatric disorders.  Sixty-two and one-half percent of the children with movement disorders also had a psychiatric diagnosis after having had strep infections.  The disorders included OCD, GAD and depressive episodes.  There were also conduct and hyperactivity disorders in addition.  

The disorders found weren't short-lived, either.  At an almost three-year follow-up, 72.5% of the kids still had movement and psychiatric disorders.  The researchers conclude that strep-related movement disorders and "disabling psychiatric" co-morbidity may be accounted for by such factors as genetics, developmental status, and the patient's sex.  Boys had a slightly higher incidence of the disorders than girls (69% to 65%).  Post-strep disorders were also found in family members.

Related Topics: Strep Linked to Neurological Conditions, When to Keep Junior Home from Daycare

Technorati Tags: strep, anxiety, OCD, ADHD

The therapeutic goose

Science can't always explain why things happen, like why a wild goose would suddenly decide that he would allow himself to be petted by a man with terminal cancer. We know that animals are capable of providing more than just companionship, it appears they may have senses beyond what we'd believed.

Yes, this is a different blog item today, but I think it's one where we can all see one of life's miracles; the belief in life brought about by the friendship of a goose. The goose, a wild and feisty 30 pounder, attacks anyone who comes near it, but not Bill Lytle, who has terminal pancreatic cancer. Mr. Lytle took up daily walking around a lake near his home in Idaho and the goose suddenly decided he was a special person. The goose comes out to have his head and neck rubbed by Mr. Lytle, but if anyone else approaches, the goose attacks.

Walking along with Mr. Lytle or circling around him, the goose comes out to meet the walker each day and it is this unexplainable gesture that has provided the belief that life can go on a bit longer than the doctors predicted.

Do you have a pet? I've seen them in nursing homes where they are brought for visits and in psychiatric hospitals where they are a part of the ward. In each place, whether it's a dog, a rabbit, a cat or a bird, it has brought smiles and words of affection from the mouths of people who had ceased to interact with anyone. Eyes brighten, loving gestures are expressed toward the animal and we know that blood pressure goes down as joy goes up.

Consider our animal "therapists" when you think about alternative means of fighting the doom and gloom of the day or facing the anxiety that awaits you at work.

Related Topics: Finding Joy: A Mind-Body-Spirit Guide, WebMD Video: Can Your Furry Friends Help You Avoid Allergies?

Who says you're sick?

Illness should be a pretty straight forward proposition to my way of thinking. Either you have signs and symptoms of an illness or you don't. But when it comes to the world of psychiatry and psychology the lines become blurred, and it's even more so when the book used to make a determination of illness has authors who appear to have vested interests in proclaiming your illness. At least, that's what a recent article in The Washington Post indicated.

The standard guide for determining mental disorders is The Diagnostic and Statistical Manual (DSM or dizme, as most people say), and every few years it comes out with a newer version where some disorders may be added and some dropped. The interesting fact, however, is that, unlike physical illnesses where blood work or other biological tests or imaging techniques may be used, there is virtually nothing but conversation to act as the tool here. You can imagine how thorny an issue that can be, especially in cases of inexperienced personnel, or with patients who come from different cultures or who aren't sufficiently conversant in English.

A psychologist from the University of Boston, Lisa Cosgrove, decided to do an analysis to see just how many people involved in deciding what is a mental disorder and what gets into DSM had ties to pharmaceutical companies. Five of the six panel members assigned to look at PMS (premenstrual syndrome) had ties to a major drug company. In fact, of the 170 experts who worked on DSM, 50% had ties to these companies and 100% of the experts in the various work groups on mood and psychotic disorders had such ties.

While I understand that the connection between the decision-makers and the drug companies may appear eye opening, the reality of medical research is that it has to be funded by outside sources and those sources are primarily drug companies. The US does not have government funding for much medical research in the order of that found in such countries as Japan where they also allow drug companies to work together on research projects.

One expert suggested that these panels should be staffed by individuals without ties to the drug companies, but that flies in the face of reason. I believe, from personal experience, that it is very difficult to climb the ladder of professional success in medicine without outside research funding. Keeping the funding sources means keeping research alive, and that's a fact of life.

Related Topics: Americans Want More Medical Research, WebMD Mental Health Center

Technorati Tags: mental disorders, mental illness, DSM

Can gossip be a good thing?

Can gossip be a good thing?

How many times have you told yourself that gossip is one of those things you'd rather not do or have others engage in, but you find yourself drawn in anyway? If you're like the rest of us, gossip appears to have an irritable pull and before you know it, you're involved.

New research on the topic, however, may offer some insights into why we engage in gossip and how it can actually be beneficial for us. One prior study that appears in the literature in Human Nature in 1997 indicated that up to 65% of what we talk about each day is gossip. It would seem that it fills quite a bit of our time and researchers suggest you make a distinction between gossip and rumor. Gossip, theoretically, is based on facts while rumor is mere speculation.

The latest belief in the psychological community is that gossip serves as a means of bonding with others and here's where gossip and the water cooler go together. Getting a cold drink may also mean an opportunity to interact with our fellow employees and do a bit of de-stressing through breaking out of our work mindset for a few brief moments. Just like the coffee break helps us to renew our energy level and cut the stress that may have been building up, a few minutes of levity around the water cooler may be just what the doctor ordered.

Gossip can also help us to understand the rules of the business in which we find ourselves and the mores of the corporate culture. So, it's bonding and learning how to fit in. The bonding occurs by helping us establish trust because of this sharing of information, however frivolous it seems. One psychologist at the University of Liverpool, believes that gossip is like social grooming in the animal kingdom which helps them form social alliances.

So, when a day is particularly stressful, you may have the urge to reach out and gossip to someone as a means of shedding some of that stress, if only for 15 minutes.

Related Topics: A New Age of Celebrity Worship, Fear of Public Speaking Hardwired

Technorati Tags: gossip, stress relief

Banishing Gray Hair

Where has all the gray hair gone? I never really thought about it, but there doesn't seem to be very many people, outside the current President and one past President, who have gray hair these days. Not even the President's wife has gray hair. I wouldn't have thought about it, in fact, if I hadn't witnessed something that pulled me up short and opened my eyes to this trend.

I was waiting for an elevator and a woman with gray hair stood nearby. A school group of five-year-old girls came by and one stopped, looked at the woman and blurted out, "You have funny hair!" Once this was offered up like some tasty little tidbit, the rest of the group chirped in and repeated the same comment, except for one little girl who just looked on. What was she thinking? Did she know a woman with gray hair and would it be disloyal to her to make fun of another woman with gray hair? Maybe she had been taught that nice little girls don't say things to make people feel uncomfortable.

But, think about it; where have all the gray-haired people gone? This country has undergone a quiet revolution that I never noticed. Now that I'm aware, I look, mostly in vain, for people with gray hair. Men in their 80s no longer have gray hair. Women, with the exception of the late author, Susan Sontag, rarely have gray hair these days. I guess most of them got tired of being called "blue-haired ladies" or some other derogatory term. They have been shamed into hiding the fact that they are the living historians of our time, those who can tell us what it was like to live through the Depression or WWII or even WWI. What have we done to them by making them hide their mark of wisdom? In Japan, these people would be eligible to be designated National Treasures. How would that designation go over here in the US?

Does this have something to do with the fact that we are now seeing many older women who have developed panic disorder? Have we eroded their sense of dignity by this incredibly youth-worshipping culture we now endure? Has this hair-colored related stress have a negative effect on their emotions and their immune system?

I can remember when there was a saying in the '60s, "Don't trust anyone over 30." When I first heard it, I smiled to myself because I knew that these same people would be 30 one day and how would they feel then? Start a revolution and suffer the consequences, especially if it's something that dismisses the fact that there is much to be said for people over 30 or 40 or 50 or 80. Let's hear it for late Grandma Moses, the American primitives artist, and Maggie Kuhn, the founder of The Grey Panthers, who died at the age of 89, still fighting the good fight.

How many gray heads have you seen in the supermarket lately?


Related Topics: Aging Well May Mean 'Mind Over Matter', WebMD Daily Video: Getting Glamour No Matter What Your Age

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Off-shift work and its effects

Our 24/7 economy and the resulting effects it can have on our health, our relationships and our stress level was studied in terms of how it affects family life. The study of over 4,000 dual-earner households with children between the ages of 2 and 11 came to surprising conclusions and brings into question prior assumptions.

Mental health problems, the study points out, are directly related to what they term "unsociable work times", in other words work times that occur on evenings, weekends or nights. Previously, it had been thought such flexible work schedules would provide more free time for families to interact and for children to have their parents available during their school days.

The results of these shift changes were that parents were "more hostile and ineffective" as parents, there was higher parental distress and depression and a direct, negative impact on family closeness and the effects were more detrimental when there were pre-school children in the family. Children had problems in concentration and hostility toward their parents.

When both parents worked these non-standard hours, the effects were most dramatic, but even if one parent worked non-standard hours, there were negative effects. Whether it was the mother or the father who worked these off-shift hours, it still had a negative impact on the family environment and the mental health of those in the household.

The researchers concluded that "work in the evenings, nights, and on weekends can make it harder to maintain family ritual, routines, and social activities that are important for closeness."

The study is published in the May 2006 issue of the Journal of Marriage and Family.

Related Links: Workplace Wellness, Sleep Problems in the Workplace

Technorati Tags: Shift work, family stress, mental health, children

Change Isn't Always Good

Change can be a good thing if we look at it from a positive perspective, but for some change can be extremely upsetting. The individuals who fit in the latter category are those with neurologic disorders such as Alzheimer's Disease and, as any family member will tell you, it can be upsetting to the point of terror.

I worked with Alzheimer's patients in a national medication study and I met SDAT (Senile Dementia of the Alzheimer's Type) patients from all over the country. Some of them were homemakers in the South or the Midwest, others were extremely powerful executives or former major military men or prestigious surgeons. They all had one thing in common; change was intolerable for them.

We take change as a part of life, but when SDAT strikes, change becomes frightening to the point that patients will fight to avoid it. For that reason, we know that keeping both the environment and the people in it as stable as possible helps ease this inability to accept change.

I can remember one young man who didn't have SDAT, but he did have a form of autism and he had been on one unit of the hospital for probably eight years or so. The staff decided it was time for him to become part of the larger hospital community and he was moved to another building. Day after day, he came back to his former building and threw pebbles at the windows to attract attention. He had few words he could say, but he knew that throwing pebbles would attract attention and, possibly, give "voice" to his dilemma. Finally, after two weeks, he was returned to his former building and things settled down.

For those families who are struggling with the stress of loved ones who have these illnesses, it is very difficult to understand. One thing to remember is that the patients have little control over what happens to them, but in imposing stability in their lives you can help. Keeping familiar items of furniture, photos or other mementoes with them, no matter where they may be, can be very comforting.

Related Topics: Alzheimer's: A Simple Guide for Families, Guide to Caregiving

Technorati Tags: alzheimers, dementia, aging

The Roots of OCD?

Obsessive-compulsive Disorder is a distressing anxiety disorder, to put it mildly. These individuals with the disorder face repeated routines and thought patterns that put much of their life in a tailspin. Now, research out of a laboratory at the University of Michigan may have provided a key to understanding how OCD gets its power.

One portion of the brain, the rostral anterior cingulated cortex (rACC), appears to be tracking what are called "costly mistakes" and basing behavior and thought processes on those mistakes. This portion of the brain appeared to have heightened activity when there was a penalty associated with costly test mistakes. The research in the Journal of Neuroscience looked at brains of 12 healthy adults on which they had run functional MRIs as subjects took a series of tests.

Whether the test questions carried a reward or a penalty determined the firing of the brain's sensitive rACC area. Researchers referred to this as an exaggerated error response. According to the researchers, this activity may be directly related to the role of emotional reaction to errors in OCD. The lead researcher, William Gehring, Ph.D., had believed this to be true, but it was only when the fMRI was used did he receive confirmation of his proposed relationship between emotion and OCD. Not only did the imaging validate his belief, it outlined the area of the brain specifically involved.

The next phase of the research will be to explore the impact of cognitive therapy on OCD patients and track any changes in this portion of the brain's activity after the therapy. The hope is that more specifically tailored treatments for OCD will result.

Related Topics: Clue to Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder?, Best Ways to Ease Anxiety Disorders

Technorati Tags: obsessive-compulsivedisorder, OCD, functionalMRI

OCD and Its Many Uses

Anxiety is involved in concentration, memory and even test-taking behavior. OCD, obsessive-compulsive disorder, is an extremely difficult and complex anxiety disorder to manage for both the patient and the healthcare provider. Not being able to stop thinking about something or to stop doing something prevents those with the disorder from doing the things in life which appeal to them. Fun seems to vanish as the anxiety takes over evermore aspects of their lives.

It's similar in some ways to a very famous 20-year study by the famous Russian psychologist, Alexander Luria. The individual about whom Luria wrote was known simply as "S" and he was the subject of Luria's book, "The Mind of a Mnemonist." While most of us are anxious about our memory, S was a man who couldn't forget.

Luria, who was studying the question of forgetting at the time, had S remember pages from the phone book and then, many years later, would ask him to recall a specific page. S always produced the correct information. Since we know that anxiety is involved in both memory and forgetting, it would have been interesting if Luria would have given S some form of anxiety testing. Did he have any specific genetic inheritance that made this possible? We don't know because the technology wasn't available during his lifetime.

Did S obsess? We don't know, but it almost seems to indicate that he must have been doing something to keep that information in his memory all that time. For most people, we call it rehearsal and you do it each time you keep repeating something like a phone number until you can write it down. This repetition keeps it from slipping out of our short-term memory bank.

Anxiety and memory was also found in "The Zeigarnik Effect" where another psychologist (Bluma Zeigarnik) showed that a waitress would not forget the orders of all her customers, even though she hadn't written them down, until they paid. Anxiety kept the information in place until the paying of the check released it.

So, did the waitress keep repeating something to herself to hold on to that check information? Did she obsess? Bluma, after leaving the restaurant, went back and asked the waitress to repeat the orders for which she had just been paid. Somewhat surprised, the waitress told her she couldn't do it because the bills had been paid.

A new study published in European Neuropsychopharmacology may have found another relationship of great interest in OCD anxiety. Some women who had both an eating disorder and OCD had a specific genotype that appears to affect their eating behavior. The researchers believe that two specific sections of genes were working together to inhibit eating or promote OCD.

The genetic connection may, the researchers think, be a promising route to producing medications that can normalize cell functioning. The researchers also indicated that there is a known relationship between bulimia and a variant of a serotonin gene portion.

Related Topics: WebMD Video: Success Over Stress, Brain Chemical May be Key in Eating Disorders

Technorati Tags: OCD, anxiety, eatingdisorders, bulimia, serootonin

Taxes and Anxiety

April may bring May flowers, but it also bring tax time to Americans and that is often reason for anxiety--even for those who pay every penny of their taxes. Taxes, by their very nature, are anxiety-evoking, so it might be a good time to consider what we can do to relieve some of this tension and anxiety.

Sleep, even though you have trouble getting enough sleep, is one of the essentials in fighting anxiety, be it from taxes or anything else. It allows our body that period of recuperation and rebuilding from that the day's stresses and it's vital. If you don't have enough sleep, one of the resultant effects is that you are more irritable, become depressed and have problems concentrating. How can you do your best on figuring out your taxes or anything else if you don't have your brain functioning to best capacity? This, then, starts a spiral that builds anxiety in the process and, in the end, you will have gained nothing. So sleep is a mandate.

Take a break for fun or any pleasurable activity. Breaking away from a tedious or demanding task is often one of the best ways to return to it with a fresh perspective, one that can help you see solutions you missed before.

Laugh whenever the opportunity presents itself. If nothing funny is happening, turn on the TV to something you find amusing and give yourself a leg up on the tax process through the benefits of laughing. We know that it helps not only with our mood, but our immune system as well. Who said you have to get finished with your taxes and then come down with the flu or a cold because of stress and how it had a negative impact on your immune system. Laughter is truly a medicine.

Sit back and smell the coffee, the roses or whatever else suits your mood. Yes, there is benefit from just sitting and vegging out a bit. Every waking moment does not have to be spent in meaningful activity or worrying about something.

Talk to yourself. A friend's grandmother always said, When you talk to yourself, you talk to a wise person. Good thought and nice affirmation of your worth. So, bolster your self-esteem with positive self-talk and be that coach you always wanted to be--only this time you're the one getting and giving the coaching.

Lastly, remember that for everything there is an answer. You can find it in yourself or through the help of others. Reach out when you need to.

Related Topics: WebMD Video: Killer Stress,Wake Up About Sleep Problems

Technorati Tags: IRS, taxes, April 15th, stress

Survivor: PTSD

Although it is safe to say that most clinicians believe that traumas which result in disorders such as PTSD (Post Traumatic Stress Disorder) result in major difficulties both mentally and physically, not everyone is looking at it this way. An article published in Psychiatric Times in April 2004 came to a decidedly different perspective, albeit not one of either a positive or negative nature, but a combination of the two.

For anyone with PTSD, the positive perspective of those like Maslow and Yalom, can offer a breath of fresh air. They contend that personal life crises are opportunities for important change while others see the trauma as not only leading to positive change, but to growth. Life is never without stressors but it is the way we meet these challenges that helps us to improve our lives and enhance our skills.

The new body of literature which is developing out of these theorists' work is in the area of posttraumatic growth. The cases being described range from contending with crippling or life-threatening illness, to the loss of one's home, sexual assault and combat or refugee experiences. One thing which the authors note was that survivors begin to appreciate and recognize the importance of everyday events in their lives. New goals may be recognized and still-newer paths to them which may not have presented themselves before are seen. How the individual relates to these goals and sets their course is all-important.

I've seen instances of trauma victims who have literally turned their focus around and made their life's work reflect this. Gloria Allred, a famous California discrimination attorney, recently revealed in her autobiography that she had been raped as a young woman and she used this painful experience as a life-changing one. She decided to help women who had been victimized by employers, partners or any system and she decided that she would do much of it on a pro bono basis. Her triumphs have been many.

Most of us know of the courage and incredible strength of Ryan White, the boy who contracted AIDS from a transfusion necessitated by his hemophilia. Ryan was taunted by classmates, his school tried to refuse him permission to continue his attendance and his family finally moved to another state. There the story changed and Ryan became a hero and a spokesperson until his death on April 8, 1990.

His legacy, however, lives on in the healthcare bills passed because of him and the new understanding he raised about this devastating illness.

Christopher Reeve, once literally "Superman" in the movies, suffered a catastrophic spinal cord injury which left him paralyzed. He fought back in every way he knew and, thanks to that fight, we now have new research initiatives for spinal cord patients.

Each day we make a decision regarding that day's struggles and activities. Make yours count, if only for yourself, and you will be a survivor, not a victim.

Related Topics: Got a Phobia? Hormone May Help, Best Ways to Ease Anxiety Disorders

Technorati Tags: PTSD, survivor, positive living

Out of the plane

How stressful is it for you when you're sitting in heavy traffic and you can't move your car or taking a plane and you have a fear of flying? Is it stressful when you know you're going to take a plane ride?

I had an opportunity recently to talk to a young woman who was anticipating a plane trip for a holiday and, if I said she wasn't looking forward to it, that would be putting it mildly. It brought back the memory of a psychology experiment I recalled and an expression I often use, as a result.

The experiment was on anticipatory anxiety and it involved a group of volunteers who were going to go sky diving for the first time. They measured the anxiety levels of all the people prior to the day of the jump, while getting into the plane and when they were sitting waiting for the jump and while they were in the jump. Know what they found? Their anxiety actually went down as they prepared for their jump because they felt there was nothing they could do now except jump and they were resigned to it.

So, whenever I've had something that might be anxiety-provoking for myself, I've said to myself, "Out of the plane," meaning it's in the works and I can't do much about it, so why get anxious.

When you're sitting in the car, worrying about the fact that you might be late, or getting upset because you can't even get off the freeway, or in a plane, let yourself relax and put your mind to something creative. The time can be spent in something other than getting upset or anxious. Take along an MP3 player for music or a book on tape (not tape anymore, but small MP3-like players) or muse about things you'd like to do. It's a great way to help yourself through something that could have been a drain on your energy and a stress on your mind and body.

Related Topics: Got a Phobia? Hormone May Help, The Fear Factor: Phobias

Technorati Tags: travel, fearofflying, anxiety