Seasonal Mood Disorder 365

Correlation Between Gender Identity and Mood Disorders

2009-04-04T09:49:00.000-07:00

Gender identity disorder is an uncommon condition where the individual's self-perception is at variance with his/her gender of birth. Here we'll discuss the correlation between gender identity and mood disorders.

Gender identity issues are associated with a variety of mood disorders, the most common of which is bipolar II. The lifetime prevalence of mood disorders in people with gender identity issues is 45%.

Similarly, several studies have established an association between transsexualism and bipolar mania and depression. The severe mood swings typically heighten the desire for the sex change.

Experts usually attribute the prevalence of mood disorders in people with gender identity confusion to the societal stigma associated with ambiguous gender. People with gender identity disorders are often the subject of discrimination and other forms of persecution.

Simple Homeopathic Remedies, for ADHD, Mood Disorders

2009-03-29T10:52:00.000-07:00

Homeopathic Remedies, for ADHD, Mood Disorders - If you would like to treat your ADHD naturally, you have several homeopathic remedies from which to choose.

For one, ginko biloba can help improve memory and concentration. Additionally, those with ADHD should try to avoid caffeine, as it can exacerbate the symptoms of inattention and hyperactivity.

For mood disorders, you might try St. John's wort. This herb has been shown to improve mood as much as antidepressant medications in people with mild or moderate depression.

For both ADHD and mood disorders, omega-3 supplementation may help alleviate symptoms. A deficiency of omega 3s can lead to a number of physical and psychological effects, including depression and lethargy.

Types of Mood Disorders Defined by the DSM

2009-03-22T21:19:00.000-07:00

The Diagnostic and Statistical Manual (DSM) defines several types of mood disorders. Generally speaking, a mood disorder is a mental illness where a disturbance in affect, or emotional state, is the predominant feature.

The DSM lists two categories of mood disorders that are differentiated by the presence of absence of manic or hypomanic episodes. If these episodes are present, the mood disorder is classified as Bipolar I or Bipolar II.

Without manic episodes, the mood disorder may qualify as Major Depressive Disorder, a Major Depressive Episode, or Dysthymic Disorder. These disorders are defined by serious and sometimes recurrent episodes of sadness, lethargy, and various physical symptoms.

The DSM also specifies a category of substance-induced mood disorders. Both alcohol and sedatives can induce depression during the use of or withdrawal from the drug.

Definitions of Mood Disorders - Dysthymia

2009-03-13T10:18:00.000-07:00

Definitions of Mood Disorders - Dysthymia is a mental illness that is characterized by chronic feelings of depression and malaise.

To meet the DSM-IV criteria for dysthymia, a patient must present a depressed mood on most days for at least two consecutive years. For teens and children, patients must present a depressed or irritable mood for at least one year.

The patient must not be without depressive symptoms for more than two months to be diagnosed as dysthymic. Sufferers also cannot report any manic or mixed episodes over their lifetimes to meet criteria for dysthymia.

Symptoms of dysthymia include low self-image, changes in appetite (eating too much or too little), difficulty concentrating or making decisions, sleeping too much or too little, and persistent feelings of hopelessness.

Helping Anger Mood Disorder in Preschoolers

2009-03-02T12:03:00.000-08:00

Most parents don't know what to do about anger mood disorder in preschoolers. They are upset and confused by the child's angry outbursts and perhaps feel helpless at the same time.

To help with your child's anger disorder, you first might schedule twenty minutes of one-on-one time every day. Children ages 3-5 tend to get cranky when their needs aren't met, so simply sitting down to play with your child for 20 minutes each day can help.

Secondly, encourage your child to use his/her developing language skills to express his/her wants and emotions. For instance, instead of hitting during a fight over a toy, train your child to say, "I want the toy."

Finally, giving your child a choice between two options can alleviate anger. For example, you might say "You either share the toy or you put it away now."

The Importance of Mood Charts Bipolar Disorder

2009-02-25T15:22:00.000-08:00

Mood charts bipolar disorder can be helpful because they provide a visual medium for the patient to recognize mood patterns before they become more problematic.

The act of recording how they feel may make patients more self-aware of mood changes and triggers. Identifying triggers can help patients better regulate their affect.

For bipolar patients who are in therapy, the mood chart can jog the memory of the ups and downs they experience between sessions. The therapist may also gain insights from reviewing the patient's mood log.

Finally, once the patient recognizes the patterns and triggers of mood swings, they can use the chart as an alarm of sorts. The chart can help the patients identify when they are most prone to mood instability.

Some Bipolar Mood Disorder Symptoms Tied to Medication-Induced Mood Swings

2009-02-16T15:07:00.000-08:00

People with bipolar depression who take antidepressant medication face an elevated risk of fast mood swings even if few manic mood disorder symptoms exist, scientists discovered.

Even patients with bipolar illness who report low symptoms of distractibility, racing thoughts, agitation, and rapid speech were substantially more likely to experience manic episodes when put on antidepressants. The findings were reported by Dr. Mark Frye of the Mayo Clinic.

Since medication-induced mania is "volatile and very destructive for the patient as well as their family," Dr. Frye explained that he is much more sensitive to the risks of using such medications now and will be more inclined to offer alternative remedies, like therapy or mood stabilizers.

The results are the first to corroborate an increased risk of rapid medication-induced mood cycling and contribute to growing evidence against the use of antidepressants for bipolar illness.

Mood Disorders in Young Children May Lead to Disruptive Behavior

2009-02-13T10:31:00.000-08:00

When people see disruptive behaviors in children, they often leap to the conclusion that ADHD is the culprit. However, ADHD is not the only disorder that can lead to disruptive behaviors; anxiety and mood disorders in young children also manifest very similar symptoms.

For one, a child may suffer from anxiety, causing him to feel tense, worried, or panicky for no real reason. The child may then act out to assuage some of these anxious feelings.

Mood disorders like depression and bipolar disorder can cause irritability, mood swings, and even anger in some children. Manic behavior in a bipolar child can easily be mistaken for ADHD.

Finally, a child may suffer from epilepsy, a seizure disorder that causes powerful jolts of neurological electrical activity. Some types of seizures may seem like symptoms of ADHD.

Magnets Used as Mood Disorder Treatments

2009-02-10T10:03:00.000-08:00

Depression impacts about fifteen million adult American annually. Compared to all other medical illnesses, depression is the number-one cause of disability in the U.S.

Multiple mood disorder treatments exist for depression. The three most popular conventional treatments are psychopharmacology, therapy, and shock therapy, or electroconvulsive therapy (ECT).

However, a new, unconventional treatment has recently emerged called transcranial magnetic stimulation (TMS). TMS is an experimental therapy that utilizes magnetic fields to stimulate a certain portion of the brain.

Researchers theorize that the stimulus restores malfunctioning brain circuitry and eventually ameliorates depressive symptoms. TMS therapy sessions usually take 20-30 minutes, and patients can undergo them several times each week. Doctors claim about 10-20 therapy sessions are necessary for positive results.

Bipolar Mood Disorder Connected to Risk of Premature Death from Natural Causes

2009-02-07T23:20:00.000-08:00

Bipolar mood disorder seems to elevate the risk of premature death from medical ailments, according to a study in the Psychiatric Services journal.

The evidence indicates that sufferers of bipolar disorder have increased mortality rates from natural causes compared to those of the same age and gender with no mental illness. The research estimated the risk to be between 35%-200% higher.

The most frequent illnesses causing premature death in bipolar patients were cardiovascular disease, respiratory illnesses, stroke, and diabetes. Previously, the elevated incidence of premature death in people with bipolar disorder was attributed to the population's high rate of accidents and suicide.

"The review of data gathered from large population studies suggests that having bipolar disorder is similar to being a smoker in terms of increasing a person's risk of early death," explained Dr. Wayne Katon, a psychiatry professor at the University of Washington.

Nicotine Exposure Elevates Risk of Mood Disorders

2009-02-06T17:00:00.000-08:00

According to a new study from Florida State University, exposure to nicotine in the teenage years might elevate the risk of mood disorders like dysthymia and depression.

In the study, scientists gave adolescent rats shots of either nicotine or saline twice per day for fifteen days. In later tests, the researchers placed the rats in pleasant and stressful situations.

The rats that had received nicotine injections displayed behaviors indicative of depression and anxiety, like obsessive grooming, attenuated reward consumption, and remaining still in stressful circumstances instead of attempting to escape. These behaviors were ameliorated when the rats were administered additional doses of nicotine or antidepressant medications.

Mature, or adult, rats given identical levels of nicotine did not display the depressed and anxious traits that the nicotine-exposed adolescent rats did. According to the researchers, the study's results may also be applicable to human behavior.

How SAD and the Thyroid Gland are Connected

2009-01-10T11:33:00.000-08:00

Not many people know that SAD and the thyroid gland are interconnected. Well, first off, it is better to explain that SAD is Seasonal Affective Disorder. It is basically getting depressed during the winter time due to a lack of sun. From there, we can look at what happens to the body when this happens. The thyroid gland produces certain hormones that we need as human beings to function. If we do not get enough or too much of these hormones, then we begin to act a little bit strange. This is where the winter depression comes in. So, now you know.

Seasonal Affective Disorder in Children is Very Uncommon

2009-01-06T22:46:00.000-08:00

Seasonal affective disorder in children does not happen a lot, but when it does, it can be very extreme. Usually, what happens to adults that get hit with SAD is that they give you some pills to counteract the chemical imbalance. It is very easy to get treated. But, for children, this is not the case. Children are continually growing and their bodies are changing too. This means that their hormone levels are never stable and the right pills cannot be prescribed. If they can figure out the right pills, then the dosage is never correct. As you can see, it is very hard.

Seasonal and Affective and Disorder combine to make SAD

2009-01-01T19:58:00.000-08:00

Seasonal and affective and disorder are three separate words, but if you add them together then it spells seasonal affective disorder. This is more commonly known as SAD and has affected many Americans in the U.S. In this day and age where everything that one does seems to cause problems, SAD is a very pertinent disorder. You know how sometimes you feel down when the weather outside is frightful? Well, that is exactly what SAD is. It is called winter depression and usually comes around when there is a lack of sunlight. All you need to do is just go to the doctor and you will be fine.

A Look at Seasonal Mood Disorder Studies

2008-12-30T22:46:00.000-08:00

Seasonal mood disorder studies are becoming more frequent now as more people become aware of its existence. In the past, people would just write off SAD as some other disease and wait for it to pass. Now, it seems that everyone has SAD and needs to go to the doctor to get it checked out. From there, people are doing more studies to see what happens in certain situations. The good thing is that there is more awareness and we are learning a lot about this disorder. The bad thing is that we are no learning the info fast enough and not helping enough people.

What are the Winter Blues?

2008-12-26T22:17:00.000-08:00

The winter blues has happened to everyone at least once in his or her lifetime. Basically, it is known by a bunch of different names. You know how sometimes you wake up in the winter and do not feel like doing anything at all? But, on top of that, you feel kind of sad and lonely. That is the winter blues. For some, this type of feeling happens everyday throughout winter, not just one day. That is an extreme case of winter blues and should get checked out with a doctor. But, with some medication, anyone can be cured of this.

The Real Seasonal Mood Disorder Rate

2008-12-23T22:05:00.000-08:00

Seasonal mood disorder is more commonly known as seasonal affective disorder or SAD. People that have this are rarely diagnosed correctly. That is why in this blog we will take a look at the seasonal mood disorder rate in the United States. Many of these folks become depressed in the wintertime because of the seasonal change. Instead of diagnosing it as SAD many doctors see it as manic depression and prescribe the wrong medicine. From there, it is all downhill because the medication does not help at all. If you are feeling sad in the winter but happy at other seasons, then maybe you have this disorder.

What is Negative Air Ionization?

2008-12-20T01:38:00.000-08:00

Negative air ionization has been discussed before on this blog, but it has not been covered enough. Doctors use this as a form of therapy to cure winter depression. The theory behind this is that instead of the sunlight affecting a person; it is the air that they breathe. There are too many negative air particles that get breathed into the body. So, to cure this condition, an ionizer was created that changes negative air particles into positive ones. It seems kind of silly because there is no way to prove that is works. But, studies have shown that it at least acts as a placebo effect.

Here is a Treatment for Seasonal Affective Disorder

2008-12-16T03:06:00.000-08:00

Treatment for seasonal affective disorder can be categorized into a few categories. The first being a medicinal one, where the patient takes pills until the disorder goes away. The other one is a more natural approach where the patient is exposed to lots of sunlight. This is called light therapy and it has proven to be successful. The reason behind SAD is that people do not get enough sun and this causes a chemical imbalance within the body. The lack of hormones causes people to get depressed. At the first sign on this, concerned family members need to take the afflicted to the doctor.

A Look at some Seasonal Affective Disorders

2008-12-12T20:23:00.000-08:00

A summary of seasonal affective disorders can actually be just shortened down to winter depression or winter blues. There does not seem to be a disorder for the summer. Although one would think that people would go hyper during the summer and get depressed in the winter. With this disorder though, some people mistake it for bipolarism. When this mistake happens, they get a different batch of pills and it does not help to alleviate the situation at all. So, if you feel like you have SAD or any kind of winter depression; make sure to go to the doctor for a full evaluation.

What is Circadian Rhythm Sleep Disorde?

2008-12-09T16:18:00.000-08:00

Circadian rhythm sleep disorder is a disorder that many associate with insomnia. Basically, what happens is that people are unable to sleep and wake up at regular times required for normal work, school, and social needs. When it comes down to it, their biological clocks are completely different from the average human. Now, there are two kinds of disorder, one is extrinsic and the other is intrinsic. Obviously, there are sleeping pills that can help to change this around, but sometimes it is also a psychological problem. The disorder affects body temperature, alertness, hormones, appetite, as well as sleep timing. Go see a doctor if you have this.

Going through Light Therapy for Seasonal Affective Disorder

2008-12-05T01:11:00.000-08:00

Going through light therapy for seasonal affective disorder (SAD) is a painless process and can be done in as quickly as two weeks. The only thing you need to keep in mind is that you have to continually go in for the treatments. After the treatments are done though, you do need to do some minor therapy on your own. This is nothing major and will not cost you much. So, if you do get SAD, make sure to try light therapy as one of the first options. It should work quickly. If you are having further problems, then consult your doctor.

The Question: Who Discovered Seasonal Affective Disorder?

2008-12-02T17:47:00.000-08:00

Many people always ask, Who Discovered Seasonal Affective Disorder? They usually voice this question after they have been diagnosed with SAD. Well, SAD has actually been around for hundreds of years and only recently have scientists begin to really look at it. Doctors used to write it off as some kind of psychological problem, but it is really an imbalance of chemicals in the body. The disorder can be easily treated with meds, but it will reoccur every year. So, when we ask for the founder of this disorder there really is not one. If you know anyone with SAD, please refer them to a doctor immediately.

What is Negative Air Ionization?

2008-11-29T02:29:00.000-08:00

Negative air ionization is actually one of the main causes of winter depression. Scientists have been trying to figure out the cause of SAD over the years and this seems to be the most logical answer. After all of the research done, it is shown that negative air ionization really causes most cases of SAD. This process causes the light particles in the air to lose their luster and in turn, causes chemical reactions in the body. The body releases these negative chemicals from the brain and thyroid. This release leads to depression, hallucinations, and other weird maladies. But, it can all be cured now.

What is Bright Light Therapy?

2008-11-24T17:22:00.000-08:00

People use bright light therapy to counteract the effects of SAD. Seasonal affective disorder usually occurs during the winter time when there is a lack of sunlight and activity. To take care of this, doctors have come up with this therapy that simulates the sun within your home. Basically, what you do is put up a bunch of lamps throughout the house. Whenever you are doing something, make sure all of these lamps are on and at full power. This gives the person a feeling of being outside and in the sun. It has been proven to work and cure the disorder.