Ivy Clinic

Depression is recognized as a mood disorder characterized by the prolonged feeling of sadness and loss of interest in otherwise regular activities. The symptoms include loss of sleep and appetite, loss of interest, persistent feeling of sadness and lowered self-esteem. These symptoms should last for a minimum of 4 weeks for the individual to be diagnosed with depression. Sometimes, at its later stages, depression can also be accompanied by suicidal tendencies.

How it can be treated?

1. Role of anti-depressants: Depression has become rather common in the present day scenario. The treatment varies from prescription drugs to therapy. People who have depression are usually given mood enhancers and anti-depressants. Antidepressants are medicines used to help people who have depression. With the help of these depression medications, most people can achieve significant recovery from depression. Most antidepressants are believed to work by slowing the removal of certain chemicals from the brain. These chemicals are called neurotransmitters (such as serotonin and norepinephrine). Neurotransmitters are needed for normal brain function and are involved in the control of mood and in other responses and functions, such as eating, sleep, pain, and thinking. Antidepressants help people with depression by making these natural chemicals more available to the brain. By restoring the brain’s chemical balance, antidepressants help relieve the symptoms of depression. Specifically, antidepressant drugs help reduce the extreme sadness, hopelessness, and lack of interest in life that are typical in people with depression. However, these are but short-term solutions to depression and don’t necessarily cure the individual completely. For the treatment to be effective, the drug intake must be combined with therapeutic techniques to solve the problem at the root level.
2. Therapy: Different therapeutic techniques are used to treat depression depending majorly on the individual, the cause of depression and general history and state of mind. Research suggests that client centered therapy and cognitive behavioral therapy are a good start with an average case of depression. The therapists usually incorporate several other methods based on the client’s need to get maximum effect. Adlerian techniques, where individuals are made to comprehend the thoughts and emotions which influence their lifestyles and adopt a more productive and positive way of life, are rather helpful with most clients who suffer from depression.

Note
Depression is a fairly common mental health disorder today, affecting a large population. Depression must be acknowledged as a proper mood disorder and not just a passing phase. It is completely curable with proper medicine and therapeutic sessions. The individual is able to move over the feelings of unhappiness and lack of interest with proper care and acceptance from loved ones in addition to therapy and the drugs, of course. If you wish to discuss any specific problem, you can consult a psychiatrist.

The pressing urge to do loads in a short span of time, to plan life in a day, to see dreams unfurl into reality at the slightest of efforts inundates millions across the world. It is neither about the goals one sets before oneself nor about rational expectations arising from the awareness of one's capabilities. The problem runs deeper. Happiness and health are two elemental factors discerning the quality of your life. Happiness is directly proportional to your personal health. Neglecting one will affect the other. The best way to cope in the given situation is to take a detour from the overriding rat race. While others are in a hurry, you must slow down and care to nurture your mind and body.

Take a look at the benefits of slowing down:

1. It will give you ample time to interact: Moving out of your comfort zone in order to exchange ideas with colleagues or friends plays an eminent role in shaping your personality. Interaction provides a person with food for thought. Therefore slowing down a little will encourage a free flow of countless ideas.
2. It will encourage you to pursue a hobby: Hobbies keep you alive. You should take out time to pursue an interest. This is a tried and tested way of rekindling happiness in one's life.
3. It will make you attentive towards others: A fast life shelters you within its clutches. You fail to take note of the changes in and around you. Going slow will let you take care of your loved ones.
4. It will enable you to see your inimitability: Once you slow down, you'll find time to introspect and retrospect as well. A person can come to realize how unique he or she is in this vast scope of things.
5. It will improve your sex life: Dopamine is the chief chemical that regulates a person's sexual desires. Increased levels of stress can hamper the production of dopamine making you lax about sex. Taking an easy pace can add zing to your sex life.
6. It will keep your heart healthy: Being overly hyper about delay subjects you to the risk of heart diseases. You should never be frantic about plans; this can lead to high blood pressure or can even cause severe harm to your heart health. If you wish to discuss about any specific problem, you can consult a Psychiatrist.

Depression is one of the complex physical and psychological disorders. The disease is characterized by loss of pleasure or interest, sadness, feelings of guilt, low self worth, disturbed sleep and appetite, poor concentration and feelings of tiredness. The common effect of this condition is leads to the decreased activity level in some parts of the brain. The disease is a mild one that causes little annoyance in daily life. But the extreme stages may lead to severe effects where the affected person may fail to participate in their social life. In rare cases severity of suicide is even possible.

Depression is diagnosed by these symptoms:

1. Lack of interest or joy in activities
2. Sadness or low mood levels
3. Feel of guilt without any reason
4. Pessimism
5. Inferiority thoughts
6. Slow thought process
7. Irritability
8. Slow in interpreting sensorial stimuli
9. Slow physical reactions
10. Slow physical processes or digestion.

Types of depression
It can be either be a single disease or the effect of other diseases. It can also be due to two or more factors. Based on the cause the disease, it has been divided into six types, which are

1. Reactive depression: Caused due to psychological struggle and stress.
2. Endogenous depression: Caused due to strain or lack of rest.
3. Depression by physical disease: This is caused due to any physical disease such as Parkinson’s disease, stroke, hypertension, heart disease, cushing’s syndrome, mononucleosis, hypothyroidism neurotransmitters in the brain etc.
4. Depressive consequence of unsound lifestyle: This is caused due to less exercise, too much alcohol, coffee or tea consumption, least intake of necessary nutrients, too much sugar intake and fat.
5. Postnatal depression: This happens mostly in women after pregnancy and child birth.
6. Seasonal affective disorder: This happen due to cold and dark seasons of the year. The lack of light is the factor for causing depression as well.

Treatment of depression
Best way to treat depression is through Psychotherapy, also anti - depression medicines are usually prescribed to treat the effects of depression. But the intake of these types of medicines result in nervous disorder. However, the best way to treat is through environmental changes and positive and happy surrounds to the affected person along with psychological counseling. If you wish to discuss about any specific problem, you can consult a psychiatrist.

Schizophrenia is a psychiatric disorder in which a person’s mood, knowledge, thought and several other characteristics gets disturbed. We can notice most of the adults and old people with few symptoms of schizophrenia, which are most commonly left unidentified. The exact cause of schizophrenia is not yet known. The person feels that they are being constantly watched, they feel the presence of someone or something, which is not actually there. They are always suspicious and think that other people are gossiping and thinking about them.

Possible causes of Schizophrenia
Though the exact cause of schizophrenia is not known there are few factors, which contribute to the cause of schizophrenia.

1. Genetic factors: People with a family history of schizophrenia are at higher risk of getting schizophrenia.
2. Environmental factors: Environmental factors include excessive stress during pregnancy or later stages of life. Several other factors during pregnancy and childhood are responsible for causing schizophrenia. These factors are:
   1. Decreased oxygen level during delivery due to premature birth or prolonged labour
   2. Parental loss or separation in early stages of life
   3. Parental exposure to virus or during infancy
   4. Childhood physical or sexual abuse
   5. Abnormal brain structures and brain chemistry

Sings and symptoms of schizophrenia

1. Hallucination: To see, feel or hear anything that really does not exist is known as hallucination.
2. Delusion: A thought or belief of a person, which is either false or impossible in reality is known as delusion.
3. Thought and speech disturbances: The thought process and speech of a schizophrenic will be disorganized, due to which he or she  will fumble or is distracted as they are unable to align their thoughts.
4. Difficulty in concentrating: It is difficult for people suffering from schizophrenia to concentrate on the task at hand.
5. Erratic behaviour: People suffering from schizophrenia tend to behave erratically, either they will be too jumpy or will be perfectly still for hours at a stretch. Most people belief that those who are suffering from schizophrenia are often violent in nature, which actually is not the case.

Treatment for schizophrenia
Schizophrenia can be treated, if identified at an early stage. It is best advised to consult a psychiatrist the moment you spot the symptoms. Anti psychotic drugs, self help behaviour change, counselling and rehabilitation are few treatment modalities available for schizophrenia.

Psychiatry is not just a form of medicine to identify and treat the psychiatric illness, but it also helps in improving attention, cognition, memory and concentration. Psychiatry has its role in different fields and working in the field of memory improvement is quite interesting. Memory is basically the process through which a person stores information for days, months and years.

Human brain is a dynamic entity and has wonderful capacity to store information and recall it as and when required. However, our memory is affected by a number of reasons, such as aging, accidents, negligence and certain diseases, which involves our brain and nervous system. Further, the memory of an event will improve, based on the frequency at which it has been recalled.

Apart from the frequency of recall, psychiatry can also help a person to improve the capacity of brain and sharpen their memory to store incidents or events for a prolonged period of time.

How along with psychiatric therapy you can improve your memory

1. Improving your concentration while doing any work will naturally improve your memory. Doing things with concentration will help us in storing information for a longer period of time.
2. Relieving your mind from stress or anxiety is also a great way to improve your memory as stress has the ability to hamper your memory.
3. Eating a balanced and nutritious diet is essential for a better memory. For increasing the memory power, psychiatrists insist on a diet which is anti inflammatory, rich in protein and Omega-3 fatty acids.
4. A simple 20 minute exercise routine will not just help you to stay fit physically, but mentally as well.
5. It also important to sleep properly, as sleep helps your mind and body to prepare for the next day. It is also advised to have a short nap in the afternoon to improve your brain functioning during the day time.
6. Smoking and frequent consumption of caffeine also hampers your memory, thus, it is advised that one should quit smoking and reduce the consumption of caffeine. If you wish to discuss about any specific problem, you can consult a specilized psychiatrist and ask a free question.

Stay happy because a sad soul can kill you quicker than a germ.

Nature is the best medicine to decrease thoughts of worthlessness and boost confidence.

Closer proximity to green space reduces symptoms of anxiety and depression.

Sleep is the normal physiological process of our body which is as important as respiration and digestion. Sleep is vital for maintaining our physical and mental health. Normal adults require 8 hours of sleep every day, whereas it 14 to 15 hours of sleep is recommended for for infants and toddlers.

What are the different stages of Sleep

Every human has a natural circadian clock in their body, which is responsible for maintaining our sleep - wake homeostasis. The different stages of sleep include REM and NREM that is rapid eye movement sleep and non rapid eye movement sleep respectively. REM is the deep sleep stage in which it is very difficult to wake up the person as this stage includes the sensory inhibition and all voluntary muscles along with almost all interactions with the surroundings are inhibited. Therefore, a person’s physical stress and tiredness also gets relieved during this stage of sleep. NREM sleep is the stage between REM and awakening and here the person may have sensory connection with his or her surroundings, but may not respond.

Sleep and its benefits
Sleep and stress have a very strong connection with each other. The best way to relieve stress and any other mental disturbance is sleep. It is essential to have knowledge about sleep psychiatry for almost all physicians as they face many sleep deprived patients in their day to day practice.

1. Sleep is not only responsible for relieving mental stress and depression, but has other benefits as well
2. Sleep is also essential for the normal physiological growth in early infancy and it is vital for development of normal alertness, attention and knowledge
3. It also relaxes our voluntary muscles and thereby, relieves us from physical stress
4. Sleep disturbance may also aggravate diseases in our body. Sleep is also the state of recovery and healing.

Sleep psychiatry also insist on meditation and ensures that people have normal pattern of sleep, in order to maintain the mental health of the person in a normal state.