The 1980′s and 90′s saw a boom in the development of psychiatric medications. The 20-year limit on their exclusive patents are now expiring, and more and more generic versions of these drugs are becoming available.
Generic drugs are almost always cheaper than their brand name counterparts, so insurance companies insist on dispensing generics whenever possible.
The public is confused and suspicious of the generic drugs being pushed on them by their insurers. Are these medications as effective and safe as the brand names? Do they introduce new side effects?
This article is the first of a two-part series written to provide you with answers. This part will give you a quick overview of generic drugs: What they are, how they are certified by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) and how to identify them. The section headings are:
- What is a generic drug?
- How is a generic drug certified by the FDA?
- How can I tell if my medication is generic?
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Tagged as:
Anxiety,
Medications,
Mental Health Professionals
More and more of the early psychiatric medications are reaching the end of their 20-year exclusive patents.
That means still-effective drugs like Wellbutrin®, Lamictal® and Paxil® now have generic equivalents. These generics are cheaper, and of course the insurance companies insist that they be prescribed instead of the brand names.
Part One of this two-part series provided information on how generic drugs are certified by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration and how to identify their pill bottles.
This article, Part Two, addresses a number of issues surrounding generics such as effectiveness, side effects, labeling and doctors’ attitudes toward them. The topics covered are:
- Issues: Are generic and brand name drugs identical?
- Issues: What about generics’ effectiveness?
- Issues: What about generics’ side effects?
- Issues: Generic drug labels don’t have to be updated
- Issues: Doctors’ attitudes toward generic drugs
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Tagged as:
Anxiety,
Medications,
Mental Health Professionals
After a long hiatus, I’m back with four more interesting articles for you to read. Sunbeams, rainbows and bluebirds! Nothing to bring you down, and everything to lighten your mood.
Here’s a list. To read them all, just click the “Read the entire article” link:
- FDA Approves Generic Lexapro for Depression, Anxiety
- Mentoring scheme helps anxiety sufferers
- Panic in Paradise — Honeymoon Ruined by Agoraphobia and Panic
- Mobile app lets you "Tweet-A-Beer" — Perfect for agoraphobic beer lovers!
Many people take Lexapro for Anxiety Disorders, and it can become quite costly after a while. Good news!
In March, 2012 the U.S. Food and Drug Administration approved the first generic Lexapro (escitalopram tablets) to treat both depression and generalized anxiety disorder in adults. Of course, generic drugs are much less expensive than name-brand medications.
[Read the entire article...]
Tagged as:
Announcement,
Anxiety,
Mental Health
'Couple' by Mary Neighbor
Articles on Adult Separation Anxiety Disorder have drawn large numbers of comments on Anxiety, Panic & Health. People are confused and hurting, with lives disrupted or even destroyed by the disorder.
There is no consensus among mental health care professionals about Adult Separation Anxiety Disorder. In fact, despite the millions of people suffering, it is not even recognized by the American Psychological Association. There has been some tentative research in the past two decades, but there have been few studies compared with other Anxiety Disorders.
Ryan Rivera, is publisher and founder of the Calm Clinic website. In the following must-read article he writes about his observations on the Adult Separation Anxiety Disorder.
In the past, on this website and others, there has been an exploration of an often ignored psychological issue that affects millions of people in America at some point in their lives – Adult Separation Anxiety Disorder.
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Tagged as:
Adult Separation Anxiety Disorder,
Anxiety,
Anxiety Disorder
You have a fear of spiders, or of flying, or of crowds. Are you just sitting there suffering? It’s time to try Exposure Therapy!
Exposure therapy is a type of Behavioral Therapy used to help the patient confront a feared situation, object, thought, or memory and dispel its power to produce fear and anxiety. It involves reliving a traumatic experience in a controlled, therapeutic environment.
The Anxiety Disorders can paralyze the sufferer with ever-mounting avoidance behaviors. While successful for the moment, avoidance just sets aside the fear and anxiety triggered by a situation. They are sure to come back, stronger than ever.
Exposure therapy has been shown to be effective with many of the Anxiety Disorders, including Social Phobia (SAD), Generalized Anxiety Disorder (GAD), panic attacks and Panic Disorder, Agoraphobia, Adult Separation Anxiety Disorder (ASAD), Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD), and specific phobias.
This is the second of a two-part series of articles on Exposure Therapy. It focuses on tips to make your Exposure Therapy successful. Today’s installment has these headings:
- Exposure Therapy: Better in real life or in imagination?
- Tips for successful Exposure Therapy experiences
Yesterday’s Part 1 describes Exposure Therapy and what goes into a typical Exposure Therapy plan:
- Exposure Therapy is based on habituation
- Exposure Therapy counteracts Anxiety Disorders’ avoidance
- Exposure Therapy is a part of Cognitive Behavioral Therapy
- Characteristics of a typical Exposure Therapy plan
[Read the entire article...]
Tagged as:
Adult Separation Anxiety Disorder,
Agoraphobia,
Anxiety,
Anxiety Disorder,
Exposure Therapy,
GAD - General Anxiety Disorder,
Panic Attacks,
Panic Disorder,
PTSD - Post Traumatic Stress Disorder,
SAD - Social Phobia,
Specific Phobias
The neighbor’s dog barks night and day. If you have gotten used to it, you have used one of the root principles of Exposure Therapy.
Exposure therapy is a type of Behavioral Therapy used to help the patient confront a feared situation, object, thought, or memory and dispel its power over them. It involves reliving a traumatic experience in a controlled, therapeutic environment.
In a way, Exposure Therapy is related to the old maxim “face your fears,” but instead of jumping into a terror-inducing situation with both feet, therapy usually advocates a carefully planned, gradual approach to alleviating fears.
Exposure therapy has been shown to be effective with many of the Anxiety Disorders, including Social Phobia (SAD), Generalized Anxiety Disorder (GAD), panic attacks and Panic Disorder, Agoraphobia, Adult Separation Anxiety Disorder (ASAD), Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD), and specific phobias.
This two-part series of articles describes what Exposure Therapy is, and offers tips to make your Exposure Therapy successful. Today’s installment has these headings:
- Exposure Therapy is based on habituation
- Exposure Therapy counteracts Anxiety Disorders’ avoidance
- Exposure Therapy is a part of Cognitive Behavioral Therapy
- Characteristics of a typical Exposure Therapy plan
Tomorrow’s part of the article will continue the discussion under these headings:
- Exposure Therapy: Better in real life or in imagination?
- Tips for successful Exposure Therapy experiences
[Read the entire article...]
Tagged as:
Adult Separation Anxiety Disorder,
Agoraphobia,
Anxiety,
Anxiety Disorder,
Exposure Therapy,
GAD - General Anxiety Disorder,
Panic Attacks,
Panic Disorder,
PTSD - Post Traumatic Stress Disorder,
SAD - Social Phobia,
Specific Phobias
Here I am again with another mental health miscellany for you! It’s not all tragic, either — there’s some right good humor mixed in!
But first: a birthday announcement. On June 25th, Anxiety, Panic & Health celebrated its first year of existence. During that time I’ve posted 132 articles and have had 834 comments on them. The top 5 articles were:
Rather than bore you with any more introductory blather, let’s get right to it. You’ll get a taste of what’s in store for you from the headlines of the sections:
- A Pioneer of brain imaging talks about her career and research
- Eyewitnesses may be more witness than eyes
- A touch — well, more of a whack — of psychiatric humor!
- Senior citizens may quit taking their medicine when the Medicare “Doughnut Hole” hits
- Materialistic people form strong brand connections when they fear death — really!
- Finally, another “Where have you been?”
[Read the entire article...]
Tagged as:
Announcement,
Anxiety,
fMRI,
Medications
You experience a pounding heart, sweaty palms, and dizziness. What do you think of? Are you frightened? Do you think you’re going crazy?
People who get scared when they have these symptoms — even if the cause is something as mundane as stress, exercise or caffeine — are more likely to develop a clinical case of an Anxiety Disorder, such as Post Traumatic Stress Disorder, or Panic Disorder, according to recent research. The chronic fear of these kinds of symptoms is a condition called Anxiety Sensitivity.
Those of us with Anxiety Disorders — and those of us without — can become hyper-aware of bodily sensations that lead to anxiety. When this awareness becomes morbid and takes over our lives, it can easily be labeled Anxiety Sensitivity.
Anxiety Sensitivity is a concept introduced in the 1980′s which has attracted a great deal of attention from researchers and clinicians. It is thought to be a preventable precursor to developing Anxiety Disorders, and a treatable condition for those who have already have a disorder.
This article explores Anxiety Sensitivity and its implications for you under the following headings:
- What is Anxiety Sensitivity?
- Is Anxiety Sensitivity inherited or is it learned?
- What is the relationship between Anxiety Sensitivity and Anxiety Disorders?
- Treating Anxiety Sensitivity
[Read the entire article...]
Tagged as:
Anxiety,
Anxiety Disorder,
Anxiety Sensitivity,
Panic Attack,
Panic Attacks,
Panic Disorder,
PTSD - Post Traumatic Stress Disorder
Artwork by Maria Yakunchikova
We all have fears and anxieties from time to time, but for most people they trouble you today and are gone tomorrow.
It’s when these fears and anxieties become persistent that they threaten to derail your life. Your every moment, your every thought is taken up by negative thoughts. You feel overwhelmed and it seems that everything is happening at once.
Stanley Popovich is the author of today’s guest post. He is a Penn State graduate who struggled with fear and anxiety for 15 years. He has written a book based on his personal experiences in overcoming his fear, as well as on interviews with a variety of professionals.
The book, “A Layman’s Guide to Managing Fear Using Psychology, Christianity and Non Resistant Methods” is easy to read and comprehend. It presents a general overview of techniques that are effective in managing persistent fears and anxieties. It is available both as a paperback and as an ebook. For more information and a number of helpful free articles, visit his web site, “A Layman’s Guide to Managing Fear.”
[Read the entire article...]
Tagged as:
Anxiety,
Fear
Artwork by Andy Warhol
The recession has most of America in its clutches, but it’s not time to roll over and play dead. It’s time to be proactive!
The magnitude of the this calamity causes people to have a great deal of stress and anxiety over their financial situations. They react to this stress and anxiety in a variety of different ways — unfortunately among them is denial, paralysis, and sticking their heads in the sand.
It doesn’t have to be so. I hope that the main thing you come away with from this series is that you can be proactive; you can maintain control over your life even in the worst of times.
This is the fourth and final part of a four-part series on “Surviving the Recession.” Today’s installment has 16 tips to help you regain control of your finances, your emotional life, and your relationships. Yesterday’s post, “Surviving the Recession, Part 3: 15 Things You Can Do to Regain Control” has 15 more tips, for a total of 31.
The tips are presented in no particular order. They come from over 20 different sources, each with a particular point of view. There may be some overlap, there even may be some contradictions, but there is a wealth of good advice among them.
Be sure to read the first and second parts of this series. The first, “Surviving the Recession, Part 1: What It’s Doing to Us,” discusses the effects of financial crisis on Americans under these subject headings:
- How are people handling the recession?
- Women in particular are stressed by the economy
- What the recession and economic worry are doing to us
“Surviving the Recession, Part 2: Anxiety, Harmful Behavior, and Paralysis” is the second part of the series, and deals with how the recession is affecting our mental health. It covers the topics:
- Economic stress and mental disorders
- Excessive worry may lead to Generalized Anxiety Disorder
- If you’re stressed out, anxious or depressed, avoid turning to harmful behavior
- Paralyzing yourself: Denial and catastrophizing
[Read the entire article...]
Tagged as:
Anxiety,
Anxiety Disorder,
Economy,
Recession,
Stress
