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Post by Admin on Feb 28, 2017 15:47:37 GMT -4
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Post by Eli Saleeby AUIS on Mar 1, 2017 22:12:14 GMT -4
The field of psychiatry has always been at a disadvantage when attempting to cure a patient in comparison to a surgeon that can identify and remove an invasive tumor. Without a tangible ailment to diagnose and cure, diseases like depression have been hard to identify and proper treatment options are often sampled till a proper management tool can be identified. With the advances in brain imaging, physicians can more precisely diagnose their patients and determine whether a medication, counseling, or electroconvulsive therapy option is best for their patient based on the cutting edge technology becoming available to the psychiatrist. This is a new age for treatment of mental disturbances, and although the future is bright we are far from having a cure to depression.
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Post by Omose O on Mar 2, 2017 1:01:48 GMT -4
Brain imaging techniques have certainly aided the diagnosis of psychiatric conditions against the traditional method . It is amazing how the PET imaging and functional MRI can actually measure the activity of the brain either at rest or at exercise and by the patterns suggest certain psychiatric conditions. With depression, there are many types and as much as there is no one approach fits all, the innovation of TMS has been a cutting edge. There is more work to be done looking ahead considering the cons associated with TMS coupled with the fact that there is still no one cure to depression.
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Post by gkittrell on Mar 2, 2017 10:47:21 GMT -4
The possibilities for the future of treating depression implicated by this article are exciting. The current method of trial-and-error when it comes to prescribing antidepressants can be very difficult for patients. Since each drug takes weeks or months to take maximal effect, it could be a while before some people notice alleviation of symptoms. For patients like Dalton who are having suicidal thoughts, this prolonged time of hopelessness can prove to be deadly. The DSM-V criteria is clearly helpful, but like this article states, it is very subjective and does not allow us to differentiate between types of depression. However, this article neglects to mention the expenses of brain imaging and TMS. These methods of diagnosis and treatment will likely be last-line for a number of years due to their costliness.
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Osvaldo Friger UMHS
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Post by Osvaldo Friger UMHS on Mar 2, 2017 14:51:20 GMT -4
Medicine is constantly improving in every field for better diagnostic factors but its important to note that time and efficiency is vital. The article embraced fMRI’s as a diagnostic tool to view different subdivisions of depression with particular symptoms and TMS as a possible treatment for patients who were not able to improve with pharmaceutical medication. As exciting as this method might sound, it is important to be cautious due to the low number of patients who went through this process. More research and collective data needs to be implemented before we progress with this type of treatment and I am hopeful that the medical community is taking the correct steps.
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Post by tanishajerrick on Mar 2, 2017 23:10:52 GMT -4
How exciting and encouraging that news is. TMS being developed to treat various subtypes of depression, talk about medical going to another level. My first take on TMS was that it's not for everyone and that psychological block of it working can actually deter a patient from attempting this treatment. However, if this upcoming research is successful mental health will have a better face and patients will be more hopeful. Yes I do agree that patients are diagnosed with depression too easily. I understand that it can be generic in origin but the reality is, we all face challenges and everyone responds differently. If we train our minds to be positive and accept defeats but always look for a resolution our perspective of life will be approachable. We need to get away from the dependence of pills. Stop being pill poppers and practice medicine not just pharmacy. Mental health illness needs to be combined with complementary medicine. Change how we manage certain diagnoses and encourage the patient to take control of their health.
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Post by K Little on Mar 4, 2017 9:57:21 GMT -4
This is such an interesting developement in psycological treatment. I know that TMS is done at our office and Ive been interested to talk to participants who are ending treatment to get their feedback on its effectiveness. I didnt previously consider that different "types" of depression may be better treated with this therapy compared to others. As an overall implication for recommended therapy I wonder how this may be faught by drug companies and lobbiest even if it is effective. Psychological disorders are largely objective and one of the few areas of medicine with much to be discovered as far as treatment which is obvious in that so many pharmalogical treatments currently used have no identifiable MOA. Hopefully this will change.
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Post by Malaka Mustafa on Mar 4, 2017 12:14:07 GMT -4
Although it is difficult to diagnose depression in the psychiatric world because of the way patients present, I think the method we are using now is still reliable. The DSM-V check list is enough to aid in the diagnosis of depression and antidepressant medication should be first line therapy. I think it is a tad bit unrealistic to need an MRI to diagnose someone with depression, not to mention how expensive that would be. TMS therapy may be a great method to help treat subtypes of depression but it should be reserved to patients who fail antidepressant medication. It is nice to see that medicine is constantly growing and improving, but there are a few things that we are doing now that I think should remain first line in managing and diagnosing depression.
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Post by Sharmaine Brar on Mar 4, 2017 18:05:09 GMT -4
This article was very interesting for me because it shows that there are so many ways to treat patients with depression. In the beginning of the article it mentions how depression is diagnosed and that just shows how patients don’t have to have the same combination of symptoms to be diagnosed with the same problem. Similarly, doctors will start a patient with certain medications and if they’re stable, they always have room to play around with the dosing. It would be interesting to see research on using TMS in group of patients as their first line treatment alongside the patients who have to start with anti-depressants. Although fMRI and TMS can be extremely costly, it would be interesting to see if or how much quicker a patient with depression could essentially decrease the amount of negative thoughts and symptoms they were experiencing.
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Sanju R. Wadhwa - UMHS
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Post by Sanju R. Wadhwa - UMHS on Mar 4, 2017 18:20:39 GMT -4
This article was a very interesting read and eye opening in a sense. For someone like myself who has a fondness for numbers and tends to think in a quantitative and qualitative black and white type manner it is hard to disagree with the thinking that the field of psychiatry is based more on qualitative information rather than the quantitative numbers of cardiac enzymes in cardiology or TSH in endocrinology for example. The research described in the article in regards to fMRI studies and TMS treatments are pleasing to read as who wouldn't be encouraged by new research and procedures. However, the field of psychiatry is such that maybe it is better off staying behind the times and staying consistent with qualitative signs and symptoms rather than quantitative tests. There are many patients out there who view their psychiatrist as more than just a physician, but rather a friend or even an outlet. The sample size described in the article is very small and although it helps view depression in a new light, it fails to address the underlying source which in my opinion is more behavioral modification, positive reinforcement instead of medications and diagnostic tests.
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iyke
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Post by iyke on Mar 5, 2017 14:56:22 GMT -4
psychiatry as a field in medicine has vast areas that are yet to be understood. for example the area of depression. some people present with the classical symptoms of sleep disturbance, loss of interest, guilt, low energy, loss of concentration, decreased appetite and loss of pleasure. while other might be entirely opposite. however, they are both depressions. this creates a major problem in treatment. like in the article, Anne dalton was not responding to the anti-depressant which could be due to different reasons like the time she started the treatment because it takes the antidepressants about 4-6weeks to be effective and during this time she might be engaging in some activities that cause drug interaction for example drinking alcohol. assuming all her behavior and the drug action during the time of treatment was normal. it then becomes a problem on knowing what part of the brain to concentrate the treatment on. though the fMRI has help with isolating some areas of the brain that are affected or likely affected treatments like TMS have not been directed to the those particular areas. rather it does the job ob a thorough sweep. this could lead to problem of memory loss as in the case of ECT. this might be the predicaments faced by the researchers in the psychology or the psychiatry field but the future still has more to unfold.
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Post by tamuno belema on Mar 5, 2017 17:13:59 GMT -4
wow is amazing to know that someone that has battled with depression all this years is finally relieved of the symptoms that comes with it when other persons with same ailment lives on medications. To know that there are other means mental health such as this can be handled is also easing. different things works for different persons for some persons ECT works some antidepressants although this is the first for have read of for TMS. just like every other health problems i used to think that if there where possibilities to scan the brain in order to point out the exact mental health issue one is going through,from which we could find out the severity and remedy,i believe psychiatry medicine could have really gone farther from where it is today to that note knowing that there is an fMRI that goes as far as identifying the subtypes of depression is a big deal as this could be less time consuming identiifying and treating the depression earlier.
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Post by Ned Kletz on Mar 5, 2017 20:27:23 GMT -4
A doctor friend of mine once said "psychiatry is in the dark ages of medicine" which spoke to the notion that there is no quantifiable way of diagnosing most of the psychiatric disorders known to us currently. The complexity and multi-factorial aspects of depression do indeed point to a need for more specific subtypes of depression, as far as diagnosis. It would seem, that this would guide treatment choices with more specificity. Depression appears to me to be due to any number of factors such as family history, life experience genetic predisposition, or any number of health related issues. I believe in most cases depression is based on a combination of the aforementioned. Based on this article, it appears headway is being made in terms of understanding depression and exciting developments for treatment such as TMS.
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Post by Stefan Gordon on Mar 5, 2017 23:00:46 GMT -4
This new study helps scientists and doctors in two major ways. The first is the broadening of the application of a new therapy for depression that is non-invasive, has little to no risk (so far), is cheap and affordable, and effective. The possibility that they might have the option of adjusting the magnet in order to target the part of the brain affected by the particular subdivision of depression would provide a new and exciting method of targeted therapy for depression that conventional medicine at the moment does not possess. The other important thing this study achieves is helping the community of psychiatry and medicine as a whole to narrow down the classification of depression into smaller more manageable pieces, therefore making it less complex and easier to treat. However, although the author of the article points out that this approach does not directly create medicine which relies on finding core mechanisms related to the disease, it does so indirectly by highlighting the areas of abnormal activity in different areas of the brain. Based on our knowledge of the predominant biochemistry occurring in that region scientists may work towards developing more specific drug regimens for the emerging subdivisions and classes of depression that may arise in the future.
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Post by Josie Asaba on Mar 6, 2017 0:27:53 GMT -4
It is exciting to see that people who have refractory depression and other psychiatric needs have a last resort which is the functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) to measure the strength of connections between neural circuits in the brain. Not only does this help alleviate the pain of depression that is resistant to medication, it provides a targetted treatment to the particular needs for different types of depression. What is most intriguing to me is the fact that stressed student displayed abnormal electrical activity in areas of the brain that required flexibility but every thing comes back to normal after exteneded periods of rest. The brain so very complex and it is one reason why I am interested in it and all its complexities. Striving to know more about how the brain functions and processes information is the only way to unlock most, if not, all of the mental disorders and behavioral issues plaguing our fellow mean.
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