Recently several folks have asked us questions about diet, hunger, weight gain, and nutrition. Certainly for many people with depression, gaining weight is an important issue, both as a cause and consequence of depression. Let’s begin by trying to make some sense of hunger. In other posts we will be talking about how stress and the hormone system relates to …
A Farewell from Emma Swayze
Hello all, I am sad to say that the time has come for me to say goodbye to creating new posts on the moodsurfing blog, for today is my last day interning for Dr. Forster. I will be studying abroad in Scotland for a semester and then returning to Boston College for my junior year. I am extremely grateful for …
Late Night TV Blues
Studies have tended to find that watching more TV is correlated with higher levels of depression, but is that just because TV is so boring? A recent review published in the New England Journal’s Journal Watch for Psychiatry suggests that the link might in part involve the fact that watching TV at night exposes you to blue and white light, …
A Healthy Lifestyle
Jan Graham, MFT, is a Life and Wellness Coach who encourages people to make the change from a sedentary lifestyle to an active one. Incorporating exercise into your daily routine will not only reap physical benefits, but will also have a positive effect on your brain. With more physical activity, comes a healthier, sharper mind. Many people have heard this …
“Normal” Sleep
One of the justifiable criticisms of psychiatry is that it has a tendency to define a relatively narrow range of behavior as normal. We often tell the psychiatry residents to watch out for this tendency, and try to avoid it. Certainly sleep medicine is at least as prone to this tendency as psychiatry, as we are reminded by a fascinating …
Cluelessness: Getting Stupid
Late on a Friday afternoon, I found myself with two patients (back to back) who were yawning and seemingly drifting off during the course of our conversation. Now, that could have meant that I was being particularly boring. But, in this case, it was the manifestation in the office of something that had been going on at home and causing …
Something Better Change
Occasionally, I realize that this business of helping people change their moods is a bit like the false pride that proceeds a fall. It’s easy to have an overweening sense of power. A woman who I’ve been seeing for a couple of years has been in an increasingly flat, depressed state. She has taken care of most of her obligations, …
Blood Flow Measures Predict Bipolar Disorder
To the delight of the medical community, there has been a surge of new methods and techniques for more effectively diagnosing bipolar disorder. One of these new methods is a blood-flow measure, where clinicians use different levels in blood flow activity to determine whether an individual is suffering from bipolar disorder or unipolar depression. In the British Journal of Psychiatry, …
Get Ready for Fall
As August winds itself up, it is time to start thinking about the fall and then winter coming up. A little bit like the squirrels, who are already putting away food for the winter, it may make sense to make sure that you have what you need to have a happy and energetic fall and winter. The first thing is …
Pay Attention
We need to be noticed and attended to. It is one of the most important psychological needs we have. For several years, I have been lecturing residents in psychiatry at UCSF on the management of people in crisis. One of the topics, is how to work with people who are potentially violent. On an inpatient psychiatric unit there are, from …
Ginseng
If you are a ginseng believer, then ginseng is the one supplement that all of us should be taking. Russian scientist Israel Brekhman coined the term “adoptegens” to refer to agents that helped individuals deal with stress. The prime example of this, in his view, was ginseng. [If you are interested in an example of the controversy that surrounds many …
Memory, Stress and Aging
Many older people are concerned about impaired memory, and the relationship between memory, stress, and aging can be difficult to untangle. Obviously worry about memory problems can be a source of anxiety and stress. But can stress and anxiety be a cause of memory problems? And if so what can be done about it? Elsewhere we will be talking about …
Emotion Regulation and Bipolar
Researchers from the University of Mannheim investigated brain activity in people at increased risk of bipolar disorder to see if there was something about how these people handled negative emotions that might them be at increased risk of mood cycles. They used a powerful brain imaging technique called functional magnetic resonance imaging that allows researchers to see which parts of the …
The Hunt for New Medications for Depression and Bipolar Disorder
Dr. Gerald Sanacora, Professor of Psychiatry and Director of Yale Depression Research at Yale School of Medicine, explains that when it comes to depression and bipolar medications, there are some serious limitations. Although in the short term, it seems like many people are doing better with current medications, as time goes on, these same people start showing signs of relapse. …
Proactivity
Proactive behavior refers to actions taken that are forward thinking, that anticipate future problems, and are aimed at avoiding those problems. They are focused on changing the environment for the better. Proactivity contrasts with reactivity as an approach to challenges. Reactive behavior is about dealing with the crisis that is present right now. Reactivity also often is associated with a wish …
Coming Home
In a different post, we talked about the frustrating problem of getting sick at the beginning of vacations. We said that this has to do with the difficultly that our bodies have switching from high stress to relaxation, and something called cortisol withdraw. A version of this same phenomenon may be happening in your home almost every evening. This week …
Life Energy
Freud came up with the term libido to describe the sum of all the human instincts related to love. In his view, there was a limited amount of this libidinal energy and it was important to use it wisely. Invest it in the wrong activities and you could end up with nothing to show for it. This notion of limits …
Postpartum Episodes
Summary and Comment Perinatal Mood Episodes Common in Women with Bipolar Disorder Women with bipolar I disorder had higher risk for episodes within 6 weeks of delivery than those with bipolar II disorder or recurrent major depression. All mood disorders tend to recur during pregnancy or the postpartum period, but does the frequency and timing of recurrences vary by …
Mood and the Brain’s Clock
As we slowly move from summer to fall, it may be timely that the issue of Biological Psychiatry that arrived in the mail today is devoted to how the brain’s clock affects mood. It points to growing evidence that part of what drives mood cycles are disruptions in the brain’s daily (circadian) rhythms. It appears that people who are vulnerable …
Recovery from Disability
Sometimes we are privileged to help someone who is disabled due to bipolar or depression to recover and resume a full and happy life. In the beginning we face many questions about the process. Family members may have become very skeptical about the value of treatment. Or they may wonder if the disabled person is exaggerating his or her symptoms …