What's the Cure for the Blues?

Written by Susan Dunn, MA, cEQc, The EQ Coach™


It’s good to knowrepparttar cure forrepparttar 115457 blues this time of year, and alsorepparttar 115458 cure for stress. Often they become one andrepparttar 115459 same and if there’s one time of year they rear their ugly head, it’srepparttar 115460 holidays.

“Water” and “air” appear to be two ofrepparttar 115461 solutions. We are spirits inrepparttar 115462 corporeal world, we mustn’t forget, andrepparttar 115463 solution to our “problems” involving nourishing that vessel.

WATER

Ko Ko Taylor is singin’repparttar 115464 blues. It seems her man has done her wrong.

Some other woman Is making love Some other woman makin’ love to you Somebody bring me some water I’m burning up alive My baby got another lover Don’t know how I’ll survive Somebody bring me some water!

So water isrepparttar 115465 cure forrepparttar 115466 blues.

AIR

Subscribers to my eZine were recently polled as to what helped them get throughrepparttar 115467 frenzy of Christmas. They were given many choices, including “Using my Emotional Intelligence skills,” whichrepparttar 115468 first person chose. I think that wasrepparttar 115469 student who knew whatrepparttar 115470 teacher wanted to hear.

The results ofrepparttar 115471 poll however have been a neck-and-neck race involving another basic element: air. Tied for first-place are “Laughing at least 3x a day” and “Breathing. Deeply.”

Depression Series (Part 2): My Antidepressant Doesn’t Work. What Can My Psychiatrist Do?

Written by Michael G. Rayel, MD


Maria has been increasingly depressed forrepparttar past few years. She has tried at least four newer antidepressants but so far, she doesn’t seem to respond. Unable to work, she’s now feeling helpless and hopeless. Likewise, her family is discouraged. Frustrated and baffled by Maria’s lack of progress,repparttar 115456 family doctor refers her to a psychiatrist.

What canrepparttar 115457 psychiatrist do to help Maria?

The psychiatrist has several options in dealing with a treatment-resistant or refractory depression. First, Maria’s psychiatrist can optimizerepparttar 115458 dose of her antidepressant. Maria has been taking low doses of antidepressants. In spite of her lack of response,repparttar 115459 medication dosage has not been increased. To obtain a clinical response, her psychiatrist should increaserepparttar 115460 dose every two to three weeks. The antidepressant can be adjusted up torepparttar 115461 maximum allowable dose if no or only partial response is observed.

Second, her psychiatrist can choose to augmentrepparttar 115462 effect of her antidepressant with another medication such as lithium, triiodothyronine (T3), or buspirone. Among augmenters, lithium and triiodothyronine haverepparttar 115463 best support fromrepparttar 115464 literature. Despite lithium’s efficacy, some doctors avoid this drug because it requires regular blood monitoring and has unfavorable side effect profile such as acne, tremors, and thyroid and renal dysfunction.

Recently, studies have shown atypical neuroleptics such as olanzapine and risperidone to be good augmenters. In my opinion, further studies are necessary to establish these two drugs as standard augmenter. Indeed, research studies and clinical experience have found augmentation strategy to be effective.

Third, combination strategy is worthwhile to try. Maria’s psychiatrist can add another antidepressant to boostrepparttar 115465 effect of her current antidepressant. For instance, trazodone can be added to an SSRI (serotonin reuptake inhibitor e.g. citalopram). Literature suggests that combining two drugs with different mechanisms of action and drugs that involve several brain chemicals has resulted in clinical improvement. In this scenario, one antidepressant plus another antidepressant is equal to three, or four or even ten, not two.

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