Anxiety Treatment With Drugs

By: Jamie Snodgrass

Anxiety
Do you often find yourself stressed out because of certain misfortunes of the past or uncertainty of future? How frequently do you feel a pang of an unpleasant emotion in anticipation of some ill- defined calamity? If very often it is time for you to realize that you are suffering from some anxiety disorder that causes innumerable psychological and physical tribulations. 

How to get help?
Once diagnosed, anxiety can be treated fairly fast. There are many ways of treating anxiety. 
Since anxiety a psychologically originated disease, at the primary stage it can be treated through counseling provided by, psychologists, social workers, and counselors. However these counselors should have specialized in behavior therapy or cognitive development or in any such related area.

Anxiety can be cured by cured by prescribed medications. Psychiatrists or physicians usually prescribe anti depressants or anti anxiety drugs that help during the advanced stages of anxiety.

Other ways of treatment are group therapies or combination of all the above. This would mean psychologists and counselors work closely with the physicians and psychiatrists and help the patients.

Anxiety drugs:
While focusing on the second method of treatment, namely intake of prescribed drugs, we must realize certain important facts about drugs prescription. 
The physician begins by giving low dose of the drug at first however gradually increases it.

These drugs have side effects; however the body gets accustomed to them over the passage of time.

The dosage is tapered slowly once the doctor feels that the patient is nearing normal state.

Some anxiety drugs:
Some of the anxiety drugs are given below. 
Doxepin : is a common drug with regular side effect incase of over dosage. Common side effects like nausea and vomiting

Clomipramine: over dosage can toxicity to the individual.

Amoxipine: it comes along with the general instructions of how to use the drugs and the common side effects.

Ziprasidone: is another kind to monitor anxious behavior.

Moclobemide: this is taken to regulate the mental functioning.

Anxiety Pills
Severe anxiety is unfortunately one item among the unwanted stuff. The more one tries to forget an experience that caused fear or severe discomfort, the stronger the memory of it becomes. When people suffer from recurring panic attacks or from a specific phobia such as that of height, bridges or highways, they usually don't think of a specific memory or thought as the real culprit behind their predicament, but there often is one

Anxiety and pills:
Anxiety is more of a mental and psychological condition which many people feel cannot be cured (like physical ailments) using medicines. But the reality is the fact that anxiety can be controlled using drugs called "tranquilizers" whose basic aim is to relive stress and make the patient feel better and more positive about life. Also known as "chill pills" some drugs can really help the patients a lot. Anticonvulsants like Neurontin and Gabitril for anxiety. Seroquel, which works on schizophrenia and manic depression, also seems to control anxiety and stabilize sleep patterns in low doses. There was a study in which one group of dental-phobic patients was given Geodon, an anti-psychotic, and another group was given Valium before a dental visit. Geodon was just as effective as Valium, but without the sedative effect.

The most popular of these tranquilizers is Valium, which doctors have long prescribed to relieve symptoms of anxiety. The drug is also used to lessen the anxiety, agitation and tremors that occur during alcohol withdrawal. 

The results of one study conducted in 1993 showed that valerian and hops are calming to the central nervous system and reduce depression and anxiety. In fact, the herbs were reported to work faster than the prescription drugs. Hops and valerian worked in only two weeks, as opposed to a longer period required for conventional drugs. The herbs also caused far fewer side effects. 

Anxiety pills and their future:
The chemical cousin to Neurontin, Pregabalin, is an anticonvulsant that's in trials. It's also being looked at for social-phobia anxiety disorders. There's another type of drug in development that works on regulating the pathway of the stress hormone cortisol directly. But that's down the line. 

Anxiety and non-prescribed remedies:
Too many people self-medicate their anxiety with alcohol or marijuana. While those options might bring acute relief, later on they can lead to a worsening of anxiety symptoms. So, unfortunately, they represent a bad pharmacological choice.

Why take drugs?
Drugs help a great deal to overcome that problems arising out of anxiety. Following are some of the reasons why drugs are advisable. 
They help to reduce extreme sadness.
They reduce lack of interest in life.
They help to treat obsessive-compulsive disorder.
They also cure the pain arising out of problems like approaching menopause etc
Thus, prescription drugs are advisable; however one must be aware of its side effects, the most vital of which is addiction. 

Author Bio
Author is marketer for sites such as :
Anxiety Help
www.healtharticledirectory.info/Category/Anxiety/62

Types of Depression and Anxiety Disorders

 By Pattrick Johnson  An estimated 6 percent of Americans suffer from seasonal affective disorder (SAD), a type of depression, and an additional 14 percent experience a milder form of the disorder known as the winter blues. SAD strikes during the winter months and is associated with reduced exposure to sunlight. People with SAD suffer from irritability, apathy, carbohydrate craving and weight gain, increases in sleep time, and general sadness. Researchers believe that SAD is caused by a malfunction in the hypothalamus, the gland responsible for regulating responses to external stimuli. Stress may also playa role in SAD. Certain factors seem to put people at risk for SAD. Women are four times more likely to suffer from SAD than are men. Although SAD occurs in people of all ages, those between 20 and 40 appear to be most vulnerable. Certain families appear to be at risk. And people living in northern states in the United States are more at risk than are those living in southern states. During the winter, there are fewer hours of sunlight in northern regions than in southern areas. An estimated 10 percent of the population in northern states such as Maine, Minnesota, and Wisconsin experience SAD, whereas fewer than 2 percent of those living in southern states such as Florida and New Mexico suffer from the disorder.

There are some simple but effective therapies for SAD. The most beneficial appears to be light therapy, in which a patient is exposed to lamps that mimic sunlight. After being exposed to this lighting each day, 80 percent of patients experience relief from their symptoms within four days. Other forms of treatment for SAD are diet change(eating more foods high in complex carbohydrates), increased exercise, stress management techniques, sleep restriction(limiting the number of hours slept in a 24-hour period), psychotherapy, and antidepressants.

Obsessive-Compulsive Disorders

Approximately 5 million Americans suffer from obsessive-compulsive disorders. An obsessive-compulsive disorder(OCD) is an illness in which people have obsessive thoughts or perform habitual behaviors that they cannot control. People with obsessions have recurring ideas or thoughts that they cannot control. People with compulsions feel forced to engage in a repetitive behavior, almost as if the behavior controls them. Feeling an obsessive need for cleanliness and washing one’s hands 20 times before eating, counting to a certain number while using the toilet, and checking and rechecking all the light switches in the house before leaving or going to bed are examples of compulsive behaviors. OCD may be considered one type of depression.

School Based Mental Health Services Reduce School Violence

By Kathryn Seifert 

In a time when resources are scarce and problems are many, professionals are choosing evidence-based practices to improve outcomes related to services. Evidence is emerging that school-based mental health services are an effective and cost efficient way to improve school performance and mental health and reduce behavioral problems. 

To assess the effectiveness of school based mental health (SBMH) services to provide these outcomes in students from Pre-K - 12th grades, Robert Schmidt, M.Ed. and Kathryn Seifert, Ph.D. collaborated on the evaluation of outcomes for a SBMH program for a mid-Atlantic rural school district. 

The project began in 1999 after a Federal grant was awarded to the school district. The children's scores on the Devereaux, BASC, CARE and several school measures such as absenteeism, disciplinary referrals, and suspensions were measured from the beginning of services and at the beginning and end of each school year. 

Youth were referred to the project from teachers, guidance counselors, parents, student self-referrals and other agencies such as the Departments of Social Services and Juvenile Services of which resulted in 1,247 SBMH referrals during a five-year period.

From 1999 to 2004, 36% of these students were referred because of symptoms of depression, 26% because of family problems, and 24% because of behavior problems. There were 84 referrals to the program in 1999, compared to 437 students in 2002 and 239 students in 2003. Peak referral times were consistently observed during the months of October and February. Youth in the transition years of sixth and ninth grades were referred to the program most often. More Caucasian females participated in the project than any other ethnic/gender group. In 2000, 2,132 mental health sessions were provided, in contrast to an amazing 15,763 sessions during the 2003/04 school year. 

A group of one hundred thirty-two students who participated in the program showed significantly improved attitudes toward teachers and school, decreased mental health symptoms, and increased self-esteem after one year of services. From the 2001 to the 2002 school year, students participating in SBMH had significantly improved school attendance (from approximately 4600 to 4200 days absent). One hundred seventy-eight students had a significant (49%) decrease in disciplinary referrals and violence related disciplinary referrals from the 2001 to the 2002 school year. One hundred thirty-four participants had a significant decrease (54%) in suspensions from school. Parents of 103 students reported that their children were having significantly fewer problems after receiving services. Ninety-nine youth self-reported significantly improved commitment to school, interpersonal relationships and self-esteem, as well as fewer stress related problems. Two hundred fifty students reported significantly reduced school maladjustment and clinical maladjustment and improved attitudes toward parents and emotional well-being. 

This project demonstrated that school based mental health services improved student well-being, behavior and school success, while showing a significant decrease in the initial presenting mental health symptoms, violence and other behavior problems at home and at school. Although these services and study enter into it's sixth year and is on-going, other school-based mental health services must be provided, expanded, and studied. This project provides a framework for improved student health/success and decreased school violence while positively enhancing the community of which we live, work and play.