![[dr. bob]](/dr-bob-sm.gif)
Dr. Bob is Robert Hsiung, MD,
bob@dr-bob.orgShown: posts 1 to 6 of 6. This is the beginning of the thread.
Posted by willow on May 24, 2001, at 23:02:06
I wasn't able to make out the question/answer part completely. Will it play the same way if I try again?
The doctor mentioned that depression was a syndrome, which I understand to be a constellation of symptoms. Then can anxiety, depression, and the physical symptoms all be the same disorder but with different presentations in each individual?If anxiety is managed in a child, has it been shown to help prevent the occurrence of depression later on? When do you consider treating a child with medication?
How common is it for anxiety to turn into depression and then a somatoform disorder when each is treated?
I didn't really understand the talk about axises. How can chronic stress through abuse affect a teenager in their adult life??
Thank You
Willow
Posted by Cam W. on May 25, 2001, at 1:37:59
In reply to RYAN - Anxiety/Depression/ Somatoform, posted by willow on May 24, 2001, at 23:02:06
Willow - Here is some stuff on the HPA axis:
http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/20000420/msgs/31619.html
- Cam
Posted by Dr. Bob on May 26, 2001, at 14:01:31
In reply to RYAN - Anxiety/Depression/ Somatoform, posted by willow on May 24, 2001, at 23:02:06
> I wasn't able to make out the question/answer part completely. Will it play the same way if I try again?
Probably. Sometimes the people who ask questions don't speak into the microphone, or it just takes time to get the microphone to them. But you can give it a try, start it up and fast-forward to that section...
Bob
Posted by Noa on May 30, 2001, at 16:51:49
In reply to RYAN - Anxiety/Depression/ Somatoform, posted by willow on May 24, 2001, at 23:02:06
> How can chronic stress through abuse affect a teenager in their adult life??
I was helped to understand this by the author/physiologist Robert Sopolsky (Why Zebras don't get Ulcers). Apparently, repeated or chronic stress experiences can cause increased levels of cortisol (stress hormone) which can lead to deterioration of parts of the brain, such as the hippocampus. In addition, if one has to be hypervigilant to abuse, the parts of the brain that are useful in maintaining alertness to danger (such as the amygdala) become hypersensitive and even larger. This can lead to being overly reactive to percieved dangers in one's life, or even to learned helplessness.
He also explained using an animal model. In his field studies, he was looking for an animal model that paralleled a common human situation ---where we don't have the kind of acute survival-related stress that a zebra would have in running for its life from a hungry lion. He found a parallel in a community of baboons in Africa. The baboons had ample food supply and no threat of predators to speak of, ie, very little in the way of survival-related acute stress. What he did find was that in the absence of that kind of stress (the kind our bodies are made to deal with) the baboons created the kind of stress we humans have created for ourselves--social stress. In the baboon community, hierarchical status was an important factor, and the low man on the totem pole was regularly harrassed by the higher ups. This led to chronically elevated levels of cortisol in the low-status males, which caused suppression of muscle growth, and even loss of muscle mass, and permanent brain changes. The low status males became less and less able to cope.
Posted by Dr. Bob on June 12, 2001, at 8:04:32
In reply to RYAN - Anxiety/Depression/ Somatoform, posted by willow on May 24, 2001, at 23:02:06
What we have so far is a lot of genetic evidence that there is probably a common set of genes (a handful, not one or two) which predispose to both depression and anxiety disorders. However, these genes just make people liable and don't, of themselves, completely determine what happens. Life events and other experiences then push some people into anxiety or depressive disorders. It looks like many people develop anxiety first and then subsequently have episodes of depression (more often than depression first and then later anxiety). We do not yet know if successfully treating an anxiety disorder decreases the risk for subsequent depression, but that would seem to be a very promising approach.
Mike De Bellis, Joan Kaufman, and others have done nice work looking at abuse and PTSD in children and the course and biological changes. That is a separate and very important topic. The life events I was talking about leading to depression were not catastrophic events but rather those events which are more normative but still negative (e.g. death of parent, moving, etc.).
Posted by minarose on February 16, 2005, at 13:43:49
In reply to RYAN - Anxiety/Depression/ Somatoform, posted by willow on May 24, 2001, at 23:02:06
hello, my name is minarose,
i was reading you message as i to have been stuggling i have a teenageger he is my nephew and my sister in law abondoned him, he has mental health issues.. and he has high anxity as well as possible bipolar or schixatrizphoriana and he going into day treament. i am as well fell like throwing up my hands because you want to help them so very badly. my nephew has alot of angerissues and i am curious on what i should do ..
minarose
This is the end of the thread.
Psycho-Babble Parents | Extras | FAQ
Dr. Bob is Robert Hsiung, MD,
bob@dr-bob.org
Script revised: February 4, 2008
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/cgi-bin/pb/mget.pl
Copyright 2006-17 Robert Hsiung.
Owned and operated by Dr. Bob LLC and not the University of Chicago.