Posted by Lao Tzu on January 14, 2011, at 15:47:39
In reply to Online Support Group for Anxiety?, posted by Melanie-00 on January 12, 2011, at 23:36:08
This is from Daniel Amen's webpage. He has a website, clinics, and has written many books on anxiety disorders and depression. Maybe this might give you a few ideas:
How Brain SPECT Imaging Can Help with Anxiety and Depression
Help determine your type of anxiety and depression to direct treatmentCan be performed after you are on treatment to see if it is working correctly
Can help see if there are other co-occurring conditions that need to be treated
Helps to decrease the pain of stigma and increase compliance
Helps families see the biological nature of anxiety and depression to better understand the illness.
Anxiety and depression are major public health problems that are reaching epidemic levels in the United States. According to the National Institutes of Health they affect 38 million Americans each year. Additionally, twice that number (75 million) will suffer from an anxiety or depressive illness during some point in their lives. The loss to our society from these illnesses is staggering in terms of individual pain, family strife, school and relationship failure, lost work productivity, and death.
Our work and the research of many others have demonstrated that anxiety and depression are brain illnesses, not the result of a weak will or character problem. Common symptoms include anxiousness, fearfulness, tension, headaches, stomach aches, panic attacks, negativity, obsession, sadness, low energy, feelings of hopelessness, helplessness and worthlessness, suicidal ideas, mood swings, sleep and appetite problems and irritability.
Having untreated anxiety or depression affects nearly every aspect of a persons life and has been associated with school underachievement, family conflict, drug abuse, legal difficulties and poor work performance. Anxiety and depression are involved with low self-esteem, chronic stress, failure and even suicide.
The standard treatment for anxiety and depression are either anti-anxiety medications such as Xanax or antidepressant medications, such as Prozac or Lexapro. These medications are helpful for many people, but they also make many others much worse. Sometimes negative reactions to these medications can be extreme, such as hallucinations, violent outbursts, volatile temperaments, psychosis and suicidal behavior.
Shortly after I began the brain SPECT imaging work began in 1991, I realized that anxiety and depression were not single or simple disorders. Just as there are many different causes of chest pain, there were different brain SPECT patterns in my anxious and depressed patients. Over the subsequent 9 years, I described 7 different types of anxiety and depression that required individual treatments. One treatment did not fit everyone. The 7 different types are described below and in greater detail in my book Healing Anxiety and Depression.
Example:
Mark was a 37 year old male attorney who came to the Amen Clinic with his wife. She complained that he was rigid, worried, held grudges and tended to be a perfectionist. He was often anxious and depressed. He had tried SSRI medications but did not like the sexual side effects. His SPECT scan showed increased anterior cingulate activity and deep limbic activity. On St. Johns Wort and NeurOmega fish oil he felt calmer and happier.
Marked increased cingulate
and deep limbic activity
Types of Anxiety and Depression
Type 1. Pure Anxiety
Symptoms: Sufferers with this type feel stirred up, anxious, or nervous. They often feel uncomfortable in their own skin. They report feeling as though they could climb the walls or that they are crawling out of their skin. They are plagued by feelings of panic, fear and self-doubt, and suffer the physical feelings of anxiety as well, such as muscle tension, nail biting, headaches, abdominal pain, heart palpitations, shortness of breath, and sore muscles. It is as if they have an overload of tension and emotion. The symptoms may be a consistently disruptive presence or may come in unexpected waves. Irrational fears or phobias may also be a burden. People with pure anxiety tend to avoid anything that makes them anxious or uncomfortable, such as places or people that might trigger panic attacks or interpersonal conflict. People with this type tend to predict the worst and look to the future with fear. They may be excessively shy or startle easily, or they may freeze in emotionally charged situations.SPECT: increased activity in the basal ganglia, seen on both the concentration and baseline studies.
Supplements: multiple vitamin, NeurOmega fish oil, GABA, kava kava, valerian
Medications: Buspar, short term use of benzodiazepines
Type 2. Pure Depression
Symptoms: This type is associated with primary depressive symptoms that range from chronic mild sadness (termed dysthymia) to the devastating illness of major depression. The hallmark symptoms of pure depression include: a persistent sad or negative mood, a loss of interest in usually pleasurable activities, periods of crying, frequent feelings of guilt, helplessness, hopelessness, or worthlessness, sleep and appetite changes (too much or too little), low energy levels, suicidal thoughts or attempts, and low self-esteem.SPECT: markedly increased activity in the deep limbic area at rest and during concentration and decreased prefrontal cortex activity both at rest that improves with concentration. Deactivation of the prefrontal cortex at rest and improvement with concentration is a finding that is very commonly, but not always present.
Supplements: multiple vitamin, NeurOmega fish oil, SAMe or DL-phenylalanine
Medications: Stimulating antidepressants, such as Wellbutrin.
Type 3. Mixed Anxiety and Depression
Symptoms: Sufferers of this type have a combination of both pure anxiety symptoms and pure depressive symptoms.SPECT: Excessive activity in the brains basal ganglia and deep limbic system. One type may predominate at any point in time, but both symptom clusters are present on a regular basis.
Supplements: multiple vitamin, NeurOmega fish oil, SAMe or DL-phenylalanine plus GABA or valerian
Medications: Antidepressants with anti-anxiety qualities, such as desipramine
Type 4. Overfocused Anxiety and Depression
Symptoms: Trouble shifting attention and tend to get locked into negative thoughts or behaviors. When this is combined with excessive basal ganglia activity people get stuck on anxious thoughts. When it is combined with excessive deep limbic activity people get stuck on negative, depressing thoughts. Many people get stuck on both anxiety provoking and depressive thoughts. Obsessive-compulsive disorder (stuck on negative thoughts or actions), phobias (stuck on a fear), eating disorders (stuck on negative eating behavior), and post traumatic stress disorder (PTSD, stuck on a past traumatic event) fit into this type. This type is also associated with people who worry, tend to hold grudges, and have problems with oppositional or argumentative behavior. We have also noticed that this type tends to occur more frequently in children or grandchildren of alcoholics.SPECT: increased anterior cingulate gyrus activity and increased basal ganglia and/or deep limbic activity at rest and during concentration.
Supplements: multiple vitamin, NeurOmega fish oil, 5HTP, L-tryptophan or St. Johns Wort
Medications: SSRI antidepressants
Type 5. Temporal Lobe Anxiety and Depression
Symptoms: This type results from too much or too little activity in the brains temporal lobes, in addition to too much activity in the basal ganglia and/or deep limbic system. The temporal lobes are very important to memory, moods, and emotions. When there are problems in this part of the brain people struggle with temper outbursts, memory problems, mood instability, visual or auditory illusions, and dark, frightening or evil thoughts. People with this type tend misinterpret comments as negative when they are not, have trouble reading social situations, and appear to have mild paranoia. They may also have episodes of panic or fear for no specific reason, experience frequent periods of déjà vu, and be preoccupied with religious thoughts. People with this type may exhibit aggressive behaviors toward others or themselves. There may be a family history of these problems or they can be triggered by a brain injury.SPECT: increased or decreased activity in the temporal lobes and increased basal ganglia and/or deep limbic activity at rest and during concentration. When the temporal lobes become less active with concentration often people struggle with learning problems. When they are less active on the left side there is a tendency toward reading problems and irritability, when they are less active on the right side there is a tendency to have trouble reading social situations. It is possible to have decreased activity on both sides.
Supplements: multiple vitamin, NeurOmega fish oil, GABA or taurine for irritability, or Brain Vitale or NeuroMemory for memory issues.
Medications: Antiseizure medications
Type 6. Cyclic Anxiety and Depression
Symptoms: Results from too much activity in the brains basal ganglia and/or deep limbic system. These hot areas in the brain act like emotional seizures as the emotional centers hijack the brain for periods of time. Like typical seizures, patients have little or no control over these episodes. Cyclic disorders, such as bipolar disorder, cyclothymia, and premenstrual tension syndrome, along with panic attacks, fit in this category, because they are episodic and unpredictable. The hallmark of this type is its cyclic nature.SPECT: Not surprisingly, SPECT scan findings vary with the phase of the illness, or point in the patients cycle. For example, when someone is in a manic phase of a bipolar illness there is focal increased deep limbic activity and patchy increased uptake (multiple focal hot spots) throughout the brain; when this same person is in a depressed state there is increased focal deep limbic activity but it is often associated with overall decreased activity (no patchy increased uptake). Similarly, a woman with premenstrual tension syndrome may show only increased focal deep limbic activity during the unaffected time of her cycle, but show increased focal deep limbic activity, decreased prefrontal cortex and increased anterior cingulate activity during the worst time of her cycle. Like the other types, Cyclic Anxiety/Depression is a spectrum disorder, which means that one can have a very mild form or a very severe form, or anything in between. One may have mild PMS, or a mild cyclic mood disorder, or the problems can be so severe as to be life threatening. Cyclic Anxiety/Depression must be closely and skillfully monitored especially at critical times in the course of the disorder, for instance, when medications are first started because antidepressants may trigger mania, at hormonal transition times, when a patient is experiencing additional intense stressors, and in the case of a medically fragile individual. If the problem interferes with your life, you need professional treatment.
Supplements: multiple vitamin, NeurOmega fish oil, GABA or taurine
Medications: Antiseizure medications or Lithium for bipolar disorder, full spectrum lights for Seasonal Affective Disorder
Type 7. Lights Are Low Anxiety and Depression
Symptoms: This type results from too little activity in the brains prefrontal cortex, in addition to excessive activity in the basal ganglia and/or deep limbic system. The prefrontal cortex acts as the brains supervisor. It helps with executive functions, such as attention span, forethought, impulse control, organization, motivation, and planning. When the prefrontal cortex is underactive people complain of being inattentive, distracted, bored, off task, and impulsive. This type may also be the result of some form of toxic exposure, brain infection, such as chronic fatigue syndrome, near drowning accident, or other insults to the brain.SPECT: decreased activity in the prefrontal cortex at rest and during concentration along with increased basal ganglia and/or deep limbic activity. Sometimes overall decreased activity.
Supplements: multiple vitamin, NeuroEPA fish oil, L-tyrosine or DL-phenylalanine
Medications: Wellbutrin, Provigil, stimulant medications (such as Adderall, Concerta, Ritalin, or Dexedrine)
Knowing your type is essential to getting the right help for yourself.
Lao
poster:Lao Tzu
thread:976661
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/alter/20101202/msgs/976797.html