Specific Mental Health Disorders: Depressive and Anxiety Disorders

Abstract There is increasing evidence for the role of the microbiome in various mental health disorders. Moreover, there has been a growing understanding of the importance of the microbiome in mediating both the efficacy and side effects of various medications, including psychotropics. In this issue, Tomizawa and colleagues report on the effect of psychotropic drugs on the gut microbiome of 40 patients with depression and/or anxiety disorders. In their longitudinal cohort, the authors find that antipsychotics, but not anxiolytics, decrease microbiome alpha diversity. They further find that antipsychotics dosage was negatively correlated with alpha diversity in these patients. The health consequences of these microbiome alterations remain to be fully understood. In this commentary, we will discuss such findings through the lens of several recent studies on the microbiota-gut-brain axis. We also use the paper as a backdrop to discuss directionality and, by extension, causality in relation to microbiota-gut-brain-brain signaling.

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Prevalence of Mental Health Disorders among Individuals Enrolled in an Emergency Response Program for Treatment of Opioid Use Disorder

Substance Abuse Research and Treatment ◽

10.1177/1178221820981998 ◽

2020 ◽

Vol 14 ◽

pp. 117822182098199

Author(s):

Christine Bakos-Block ◽

James R Langabeer ◽

Andrea Yatsco ◽

Marylou Cardenas-Turanzas ◽

Tiffany Champagne-Langabeer

Keyword(s):

Mental Health ◽

Substance Use ◽

Anxiety Disorders ◽

Emergency Response ◽

Mental Health Disorders ◽

Opioid Use Disorder ◽

Emergency Setting ◽

Opioid Use ◽

Mood And Anxiety Disorders ◽

Health Disorders

Background: Psychiatric co-occurring disorders among individuals with opioid use disorder has primarily focused on epidemiological surveys of patients in continuous or long-term treatment, yet little is known about the socio-economically vulnerable who are non-treatment seeking prior to an emergency response. Methods: We retrospectively analyzed data from patients who had enrolled in a study involving home outreach to patients referred from police, emergency medical services (EMS), or hospital emergency departments following an emergency response. The sample is largely socio-economically vulnerable with high rates of unemployment and uninsured. Eligible consenting patients received an intervention consisting of medication (buprenorphine), behavioral counseling, and peer support. Participants completed semi-structured, psychological instruments to assess current and prior history for both substance use and mental health disorders. We used descriptive statistics to evaluate rates of co-occurring mental health comorbidity. Results: Among 102 patients (average age = 36.5 years old), approximately 61 (59.8%) reported a prior mental health diagnosis, with 31 (30.3%) currently on medications for their diagnoses. Mood and anxiety disorders were most frequently recorded. Just over half (51%) had received any prior treatment for their substance use. Of those with dual disorders, 67.2% had experienced prior suicidal thoughts, and 63.7% reported polysubstance use of 5 or more substances. Conclusion: Co-occurring psychiatric disorders, and specifically mood and anxiety disorders, appear to be prevalent in vulnerable populations at an increased rate. Mental health assessments should routinely be performed in the emergency setting and in early stages of treatment.

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The effect of relaxation techniques and trigger points therapy on stress reduction of patients with mental health disorders in a Greek hospital

European Psychiatry ◽

10.1016/j.eurpsy.2016.01.2301 ◽

2016 ◽

Vol 33 (S1) ◽

pp. S615-S615

Author(s):

G. Lyrakos ◽

D. Menti ◽

I. Spyropoulos ◽

V. Spinaris

Keyword(s):

Mental Health ◽

Anxiety Disorders ◽

Stress Reduction ◽

Chronic Condition ◽

Trigger Points ◽

Mental Health Disorders ◽

Relaxation Techniques ◽

Compulsive Disorder ◽

Stress Levels ◽

Health Disorders

BackgroundPatients with mental health disorders usually suffer from high stress levels. Trigger points therapy has been shown to be very effective in providing prompt relief from stress in these patients.AimTo investigate the effect of the combined use of relaxation techniques and trigger points therapy on stress levels of patients with mental health disorders.MethodThirty-one patients participated in this study, 14 (45.2%) males and 17 (54.8%) females, with a mean age of 39. Out of them, 10 (32.3%) suffered from anxiety disorders, 6 (19.4%) from obsessive compulsive disorder, 10 (32.3%) from depression and 5 (16.1%) from chronic condition stress. Data analysis was conducted with t-test analysis and ANOVA, using the SPSS software.ResultsThe findings revealed significant differences on stress levels before and after the use of relaxation techniques and trigger points therapy as t(30) = 18.316, P < 0.0001. Before the use of relaxation techniques and trigger points therapy, individuals reported higher stress levels (M = 6.129, SD = 1.087) compared to after the therapy (M = 1.741, SD = .889). Moreover, significant differences were found in stress reduction with regard to psychiatric illnesses (F(3,27) = 5.027, P = 0.007). More specifically, individuals with depression reported lower reductions in their stress levels after the therapy compared to both those with chronic condition stress (M = –2.1, SD = 0.61, P = 0.013) and anxiety disorders (M = –1.4, SD = 0.503, P = 0.05).ConclusionThe findings of this study highlight the importance of using trigger points therapy, combined with relaxation techniques, to reduce stress levels of patients with mental health disorders.Disclosure of interestThe authors have not supplied their declaration of competing interest.

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Specific Mental Health Disorders: Depressive and Anxiety Disorders

International Encyclopedia of Public Health ◽

10.1016/b978-012373960-5.00048-4 ◽

2008 ◽

pp. 154-169 ◽

Cited By ~ 1

Author(s):

I.B. Hickie

Keyword(s):

Mental Health ◽

Anxiety Disorders ◽

Mental Health Disorders ◽

Health Disorders

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Hypothesis: Initiating new paths to study mechanisms of anxiety disorders and chronic pain for novel treatment development.

10.31234/osf.io/mxc6q ◽

2019 ◽

Author(s):

Catarina Cunha

Keyword(s):

Mental Health ◽

Chronic Pain ◽

Anxiety Disorders ◽

Fear Memory ◽

Mental Health Disorders ◽

Adequate Model ◽

Treatment Development ◽

Treatment Research ◽

Health Disorders ◽

Effective Treatments

Prominent scientists classified mental health drugs and its research as a disappointment or even a failure, which lead to the decision of some drug companies to draw away their money from psychiatric drug treatment research, while mental health disorders now claim more lives than automobile accidents each year. Furthermore, because of the expeditious rise in mental health disorders worldwide, the economic health of developing and developed nations will depend on controlling the growth and the costs of mental illnesses.There have been many attempts to explain how we ended up in this situation. Many of these theories boil down to the hypothesis that the lack of the concept of a “self” in research animals means that they can’t consciously experience fear, and are therefore not an adequate model to investigate mental health drugs. We hypothesize that the lack of consciousness in animals is not a hurdle to study anxiety and chronic pain mechanisms for effective treatment development, because it is not exclusive to humans. Based on evolutionary data we theorize, that the first step to generate a multicellular organism was introspection and self-awareness. The first multicellular organisms were Ediacara. They lived in a time when no competition or predators existed, and based on research they show no evidence of interactions with each other, or engagement with their environment. Their challenge was the organization and compartmentalization of different cell functions in order to become a functioning whole organism, which requires inner awareness to perform intentional self-monitoring. Excluding consciousness as an obstacle for effective treatments, we propose that two main problems are not addressed correctly in current research: 1) accurate dissection of acute vs chronic states of disorders, 2) specific to anxiety we need to examine pain free fear memory in more detail. We propose experiments and mechanisms that should be examined in order to develop novel effective treatments. Addressing the first point we suggest alternative fear-inducing stimuli to examine anxiety disorders mechanisms in rats with and without pain receptor knockdown (Nav1.7 knockout) after the chronic state of anxiety is established. To addresses chronicpain under exclusion of acute pain, we propose to first induce chronic pain and after its establishment, one needs to knock down pain receptors such as Nav1.7 to examine mechanisms that became independent of an acute painful input. Additionally, one should examine if pain-free knock out mice have different or no fear memory induced by other anxiety generating stimuli than pain. We propose that one should examine epimutations and identify epigenetic biomarkers for these chronic disorders in which biotechnologies analyzing genome-wide detection of disorder related patterns of DNA methylation and histone modifications should be used. Novel research using epigenetic drugs for mental health disorder treatments are showing promising results. Therefore, designing accurate strategies with novel approaches will enable us to develop more chronic specific, and effective treatments, that will hopefully regain hope, trust and funding for our important undertaking.

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The role of the endogenous oxytocin system under psychosocial stress conditions in adolescents suffering from anxiety disorder: study protocol for a parallel group controlled trial

BMC Psychology ◽

10.1186/s40359-021-00564-z ◽

2021 ◽

Vol 9 (1) ◽

Author(s):

Leonie Goetz ◽

Irina Jarvers ◽

Daniel Schleicher ◽

Kathrin Mikan ◽

Romuald Brunner ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Mental Health ◽

Anxiety Disorder ◽

Anxiety Disorders ◽

Children And Adolescents ◽

Psychosocial Stress ◽

Mental Health Problems ◽

Mental Health Disorders ◽

Stress Exposure ◽

Psychosocial Stressor ◽

Health Disorders

Abstract Background In social neuroscience, the linkage between the endocrinological system and the etiology and symptomatology of mental health problems has received increasing attention. A particular focus is given to the neuropeptide oxytocin with its anxiolytic and stress-buffering effect and the resulting therapeutic potential for anxiety disorders. Even though anxiety disorders are the most prevalent mental health disorders in childhood and adolescence worldwide, the reactivity of the endogenous oxytocin system to an acute stressor (Trier Social Stress Test, TSST) has so far only been investigated in healthy children. It has been shown that peripheral oxytocin levels increased under psychosocial stress conditions. In the present study, it is hypothesized that the endogenous oxytocin system in children and adolescents suffering from a clinically diagnosed anxiety disorder is dysregulated. Three primary outcome parameters will be analyzed: significant differences between participants with anxiety disorders compared to healthy controls in basal oxytocin levels, varying salivary oxytocin release after stress exposure and the correlation between the cortisol peak/-decrease and oxytocin level over time. Secondary outcome criteria are significant differences in physiological (heart rate) and psychological (perceived stress, anxiety, insecurity, tension) responses. Methods The present study is a single-center experimental observation study to investigate the reactivity of the endocrinological system to a psychosocial stressor (TSST). 32 children and adolescents (11–18 years) suffering from anxiety disorder will be compared to a matched healthy control group. After a detailed psychological assessment, saliva samples will be taken to measure oxytocin levels before and after psychosocial stress exposure at eight different time points. Additionally, the stress hormone cortisol will be analyzed according to the same procedure. Discussion Due to the high prevalence and comorbidity rate with numerous other psychiatric disorders and mental health problems, there is an urgent need to strengthen research in possible neurobiological underpinnings of anxiety disorders. To our knowledge, the proposed experiment is the first study to examine the endocrinological oxytocin and cortisol reaction to an acute psychosocial stressor in children and adolescents with mental health disorders. Trial registration The study is registered in the German Clinical Trials Register since 11 September 2019, DRKS00017793, https://www.drks.de/drks_web/navigate.do?navigationId=trial.HTML&TRIAL_ID=DRKS00017793.

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