Charlie Rose

pfinkral  09/04/2010 01:12 AM Report

I am a 47-year-old woman who has battled depression since childhood, my earliest memories beginning in the 4th grade. This has affected my life in so many ways. Although I still have bouts, my quality of life is much improved with medication after being hospitalized 12 years ago. I started crying watching this episode, which was about neurological illnesses, then touched on depression and hearing what I and my psychiatrist have discussed; that being that my, as well as others, clinical (not situational) depression is physiological in origin made me sit and say "thank you" not only for validating that this is not my fault but that there is hope. My mother died at 52 of a heart attack and her mother died at 56 of malignent hypertension. Both suffered from depression and anxiety. It is interesting to note that pre-hospitalization and treatment, my blood pressure was high and I was told I would eventually need medication. Post-hospitalization and treatment, I have not had ONE high blood pressure reading. Thank you, thank you thank you from the bottom of my heart!!!!

serdikoff  07/20/2010 03:10 PM Report

This was a brilliant episode and I am grateful to Mr. Rose for helping bring these issues to light. Having suffered from depression and anxiety for over 20 years, these issues have a profound impact on me.

Please stop by my blog for some of my experiences battling depression: http://thegallowspole.wordpress.com/

megandrid  07/19/2010 09:59 AM Report

Wow. Thanks. if the least I got from this broadcast is the vocabulary to deal with the medical experts I am beginning to encounter then Im forever grateful. However i think I now also have some good questions to ask these experts who are helping my son deal with his first episode of mania. I also have some good reasons to request my son to remain on the meds for a fair whack of time.

I am in Australia and it feels like our health system wants kids with MH issues to get on meds and get out to leave room for the next ones banging on the door and don't offer anything much in the way of supported treatment using psychotherapy. I will be constantly insisting that this treatment as part of a package be provided for him.

I feel like I took a big turn up on the learning curve I am on at present. Thank you.

PeterMelzer  07/14/2010 11:31 AM Report

The philosopher Martin Heidegger noted that a sense of time confers a sense of being and that history was impossible without language. His reasoning elegantly defined the fundamental elements of our mind almost a century ago. A new philosophy of mind, including contemporary findings in brain research, may benefit our ideas on mental health today.

This discussion clearly demonstrates that we are still at the beginning of unraveling the mysteries of brain and mind.

Functional brain imaging based on local changes in blood flow tells us where in the cerebral cortex cells are activated, which is important. But, mapping brain activation on the regional scale falls short of providing insights into which nerve cells are involved and why.

Identifying the genes associated with mental disorders may constitute a crucial advance toward understanding their causes. Our genome is like an extensive library of volumes containing plans for molecular construction and action. Learning to know the content of the volumes and where they are housed in this library are necessary steps. Yet, we still need to find out which volumes are checked out in health as well as in disease and which plans are implemented.

The brain is a giant self-medicating gland. Psycho-therapies, in as much as any experience, influence the brain's chemical balance and, with that, nerve cell connectivity.

Read more here:

http://brainmindinst.blogspot.com/2008/06/brain-giant-self-medicating-gland.html

taylorw  07/12/2010 04:46 PM Report

An extraordinary program. I agree completely with REMant below: we all live along a continuum of behavioral "conditions" that appear to be defined by the nature of our inborn wiring. Which can be and often is altered along the way.

I would like to recommend a related program that thoroughly probes the question CR asked about Why the insurance companies don't cover the treatments described at the table. As is increasingly clear, the brain is "it" in terms of fundamental personal human potential. The more that becomes clear and understood, the more important it will be, one hopes, to address the brain as a prime focal point of health.

Caprino  07/12/2010 10:25 AM Report

First I have to say that this was an extraordinary good episode. I loved it to the point that i almost cried. It looked like the guest enjoyed it very much as well.

I have bipolar disorder, and this episode sums up pretty much all the information I painstakingly have gathered over the last couple of years. I wish I saw this episode when i was diagnosed 2,5 years ago.

I will use this episode as an educational and inspirational video together with the support groups we try to gather in our local community.

I take the medication Lamictal witch I have responded very good to. I have experienced no side effects that I know of yet. I also go to something called Norwegian Psychomotoric Physiotherapy(http://www.uib.no/isf/people/doc/hovedfag/sjursen.htm). Witch has saved my life by treating muscle tension and at the same time functioning as psychoanalysis.

What I miss in the talk was focus on muscle tension and twitching muscles. I have found no good information about this, and no doctor I have been in contact with have been able to direct me to good information.

Severe muscle tension and uncontrollable muscle contractions is a problem for me, and many of the people I know who has mood disorders. I have also been on internet forums for people with bipolar disorder and i see that this is a problem for many people with both bipolar 1 and 2.

I have been to neurologists, but according to them I am very healthy and they find no sign of neurological problems at all. In spite of this, I hope that muscle tension and uncontrollable muscle contractions will be discussed in the last episode of the brain series.

If people reading this comment section have good information about muscle tension and uncontrollable muscle contractions in connection with mood disorders, I will appreciate if you share that information here. Thank you.

dhm002  07/09/2010 09:15 PM Report

A friend of mine suffers from bi-polar disease. When I first met him he was falling ill approximately once a year and each illness required long term hospitalization. Finally we were able to find him some help and with the assistance of Loxitane and Lithium, he was able to live without any major episodes for about 15 years. Unfortunately with the prolonged use of these medications, side effects began to manifest themselves and he had to discontinue the medications that had provided him with mental stability. With the discontinuation of these medication his bi-polar disease has become quite serious. Because of his manic episodes he had to close his contracting business which he had had for 22 years and go on disability. Medicaid does not cover all of his prescription costs and during the second half of each year, his out of pocket med costs per month exceed $1500 which is also more than he makes from his disability payments. We have asked Medicaid and the pharmaceutical companies for assistance but have been denied at each request. I agree with your guests that assistance is needed for mental illness. My friend was a contributing member of society for most of his life and given the proper medication (which he has never refused to take) and psychotherapy, he could perhaps at least regain his dignity. Bravo for discussing this important issue.

REMant  07/09/2010 05:33 PM Report

I'm happy to hear of next month's program, following Jamison's comment in that connection. Over the years it has become increasingly apparent to me that these "illnesses" are present in everyone to a greater or lesser extent, and can be seen in all sorts of thought and conduct throughout the ages. Any light the more extreme manifestations can shed on ordinary behavior is I think of the utmost importance, and vice versa, and is of course the direction I chose to go. Medical-types usually concentrate on is what can be treated with drugs and forget about the rest. Partly this is because it is what they know, but it is as well, too often all they know, and there is nothing dumber than the textbook history of psychology. The focus on "cures" has led to tragic mistakes. Parenthetically, I think the history and philosophy of the social sciences is an underdeveloped field students looking to make a mark should take up. "Meta" studies really are the way to make progress, which nearly always involves a paradigm shift. I'd spend some more time, too, looking at the environmental factors in the onset of schizophrenia. Studies of college student have noted - indeed touted - the effect on self-esteem in these years, tied to conversion historically.