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recommended links
- ABIL: Agoraphobics Building
Independant Lives - Agoraphobia and Panic
Disorder Foundation - Anxiety Disorders Association
of America - Anxiety Network Australia
- Anxiety-Panic.Com
- AnxietyZone
- Army Behavioral Health
- BrainPhysics - OCD
- Canadian Network for Mood
and Anxiety Treatments - Children of Hoarders
- Choices in Mental Health (UK)
- Dart Foundation: Gateway to PTSD
information - David Baldwin's
Trauma Information Pages - e-couch free personal self-help guide
- EMDR Institute, Inc.
- EMDR Network Japan
- Fear of Flying course (free)
- Healthy Minds
- Information for People with Anxiety Disorders
- Internet Guide to REBT, CBT
- Knowledge Center of the
Neuroscience Initiative - Living with a Brain Disorder
- Morita Therapy
- Mayo Clinic : Depression
- Mayo Clinic : GAD
- Mayo Clinic : OCD
- Mayo Clinic : Panic Attacks
- Mayo Clinic : PTSD
- Mayo Clinic : Social Anxiety
- Medicines.org.uk - Anxiety &
Depression guides - Mind-Your-Mind Canada
- National Center for PTSD
- National Institute of Mental
Health (NIMH) - No Such Thing As Crazy
- OCD Action, UK
- OCD Ireland
- Obsessive Compulsive Foundation
- Open Minds, Open Doors
- Out of the silence - site for young people with mental illness
- Paniccure.com
- Partners With PTSD
- Prescription Drug Information
- Psychiatric Service Dog Society
- PsychNews
- Rational Emotive Behavior
Therapy (REBT) - Sane Australia
- Shyness & Social Anxiety
Service of Australia - Social Phobia/Social Anxiety
Association - Social Anxiety Support board
- South African Depression &
Anxiety Group - Suicide Prevention Help
- tAPir - the Anxiety Panic
internet resource - The Panic Center (Free
CBT based programs) - The School of OCD
- UN-WHO Drug Trials Database
- U.S. Army Behavioral Health - PTSD
we support
"just don't smoke"
Yul Brynner
- Menthol cigarettes harder to quit
- Secondhand smoke in cars serious threat to kid's health
- Lung Cancer can run in families
- Starting smoking young increases addiction risk
- Exercise helps smokers quit
- Smoking doesn't slim girls;
stunts boys' growth - Cutting down not enough, smokers must quit
- 40 reasons why you should quit smoking
- Pregnant smokers 'prime' their kids to smoke
- Smoking related coronary artery disease quickly reversed if young smokers quit
- Not ready to quit? Try cutting back
- Half smoking again within year of lung cancer surgery
- Cutting back 'compensation' increases toxin load per cigarette
- Tobacco companies upped nicotine level 11% since 1998
- Workplace passive smoke increases lung cancer risk
- Hooked by genes: The DNA sequences cigarette companies love
- Smoking causes long lasting changes to brain's bio chemistry
- Nicotine receptor stimulant trebles the odds of stopping smoking
- Bupropion, nortriptyline double chances of quitting
- Nicotine's powerful role in reinforcing smoking
- Pregnant smokers raise child's risk of stroke, heart attack
- Smoking linked to pancreatic cancer
- Neurobiology of Smokers' Cravings
- 'Low cancer risk' cigarettes as deadly as regular kind
- Quitting reduces lung cancer death risk by 70%
- Fetal nicotine exposure linked to teen attention problems
- Outdoor second-hand smoke exposure can harm
- Response to day's first cigarette predicts ease of quitting
- 'Healthy' children of smoking parents aren't really so healthy
- Children of smokers have up to five times higher levels of a nicotine toxin
- Smoking increases risk of dementia
- Smoking kills even after quitting
- Antenatal second hand smoke exposure increases child's psychological problems
- Smoking could kill 1 billion this century: WHO
- Just 1 cigarette can lead to nicotine addiction
- Smokers less likely to survive early stage lung cancer
- Smokeless tobacco delivers carcinogens more efficiently than cigarettes!
- Smoking permanently turns on genes that increase lung cancer susceptibility
- Secondhand smoke a health hazard for pets too
- Hypnosis for smoking cessation sees strong results
- Smoking doesn't burn fat
- Smoking linked to sagging breasts
- No evidence waterpipes decrease smoking harm
- Tobacco smoke + alcohol damage hearts more than either alone
Poly antidepressant treatment and diabetes risk
While analyzing data from Saskatchewan health databases, Lauren Brown, a researcher with the University of Alberta School of Public Health, found people with a history of depression had a 30 per cent increased risk of type 2 Diabetes.
Brown then studied the medical history of 2,400 people who were diagnosed with depression and were taking antidepressants to determine whether there was a clear correlation between that disease and type 2 Diabetes.
Brown divided the group into four categories: those who took antidepressants that were considered older therapies, patients who were using newer treatments, those using a combination of both an old and new treatments and people who were switching medications.
What she found was the risk of diabetes almost doubled for the patients who were using two types of therapies at the same time, tricyclic antidepressants (TCAs) and selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors (SSRIs). Brown says people are usually prescribed multiple medications "if they have severe depression or if they are having a problem finding the right therapy."
Brown believes these results, and results of previous studies demonstrating an increased risk of type 2 diabetes in people with depression, emphasize the need for regular screening for type 2 diabetes in people with depression, particularly those taking more than one antidepressant. She also encourages diabetes and depression organizations to educate their members about this link.
Brown LC, Majumdar SR, Johnson JA. Type of antidepressant therapy and risk of type 2 diabetes in people with depression. Diabetes Res Clin Pract. 2008 Jan;79(1):61-7. [Abstract]
While this research found a link between diabetes and the concurrent use of TCA with SSRI class antidepressants, it is unclear whether the increased risk is from the antidepressants, or that poly antidepressant use is an indication that the patients had more severe depression which increased diabetes susceptibility. A number of previous studies have shown that anxiety and depressive disorders are themselves significant risk factors for type II diabetes.
If you are taking both a TCA and SSRI antidepressant and are in a high diabetes risk group consult the prescribing physician about changing the treatment regime.
Caution: Antidepressants should never be quit "cold-turkey" but weaned off slowly over a period of weeks or months. Ask your doctor for a weaning schedule if you intend to discontinue treatment.