Rolfing as Alternative Depression Treatment

Rolfing Overview

According to "Wikipedia Dictionary", Rolfing is a manipulation of the body and tissue to realign the structure of a body. The deep massage treatment was developed by Dr. Ida Pauline Rolf. Studies show the deep tissue rub is combined with pinpointing specific areas of the body in order to maintain or correct posture. Thus, Rolfing is referred to as Structural Integration, or Posture Realignment.

Depression can be a devastating alternative when combined with tragedies such as divorce, and lead to medications prescribed by physicians. However, physicians will also advise patients to seek massage therapy, when they feel Rolfing can benefit the patient. Actually, Rolfing is not a massage and it is not bone manipulation. It works from the fact that our muscles each have a wrapping which is a bit like being encased by a silk bag. These silk bags can start to stick to each other as a result of life's stresses, including depression. As they stick together, instead of working individually they start to work as a mass and this mass starts to pull the spine and bones in the wrong directions, thereby pulling you out of alignment. A physician may find a back out of alignment due to continuous slumping or bad posture. The therapist will work on the area of concern, and trigger in with a deep tissue massage, ultimately releasing the point of contention. It may require up to ten visits to completely release the pained area, or it could only take a few visits.

Rolfing works to free up your muscles so they can move freely and independently again. This is vital in returning your body to a state of balance and health. Once this happens, your spine can improve its alignment and posture. Once the muscles work properly the whole skeletal system can start doing what it's meant to do - support the muscles and protect the organs. It will improve you muscle and back pain, and it will also have a wonderful effect on your breathing and digestion, amongst other things.

Physical pain and Depression

In March 2008, a team of brain researchers at Harvard medical school published a paper investigating the relationship between pain and depression. The researchers observed that patients with pain often show signs of depression. They designed their experiment to investigate the mechanisms by which pain and depression might interact and confirmed that some chemical and a part of the brain are involved in the simultaneous presentation of depression and pain. They are strongly related at a very basic level.

Another team of researchers at the University of Toyama in Japan published research in the journal Neuropsychopharmacology on the relationship between anxiety and pain and stated:

“Clinically, it is well known that chronic pain induces depression, anxiety, and a reduced quality of life. There have been many reports on the relationship between pain and emotion. We previously reported that chronic pain induced anxiety with changes in opioidergic function in the central nervous system.”

So if pain is directly related to anxiety and depression, and Rolfing is doing great job in relieving pain, so it can provide a direct impact on patient’s levels of anxiety and depression.

How does Rolfing differ from Chiropractic and Massage?

Chiropractic care generally focuses on joint and bone alignment through quick and high velocity adjustments. Unless the connective tissue (muscle, tendon, ligamentous) tensions and strains are balanced and repositioned, the bones, which are embedded in this tissue will find their way back into patterns of misalignment. Rolfing works to achieve this balance of tensional strains and creating space by using slow applied pressure to reposition the soft tissue allowing bones to fall back into their natural relationships, optimizing joint motility and thus allowing more permanent changes in bone alignment. In certain cases Rolfing coupled with Chiropractic care can be highly effective.

The general goal for most types of massage is to bring relaxation and stress relief to individual muscles yet offering just temporary relief from symptoms. Rolfing addresses the underlying causes for pain and tension in the body truly holistically, resulting in often profound and significant lasting changes. Rolfers usually have more technical training in anatomy, physiology, kinesiology and therapeutic relationship than the average massage therapist. They understand the relationships that exist between regions of the body and know how to work methodically on a deeper more intrinsic level to bring about lasting change. Not just immediate pleasure, they are trying to encourage you to find a place of freedom and spaciousness that has been lost due to a lack of or limited patterns of movement. This is also achieved throughout each session by having the client actively perform specific movements, breathing into new areas of their body, calling attention to new sensations and even standing and walking during certain sessions.

What Does Rolfing Feel Like?

Rolfing generally feels like slow, applied pressure, similar to a deep tissue or myofascial massage. Today Rolfing is practiced with more effective results using gentle, techniques ranging from light to deeper pressure. Sensations typically range from pleasurable to a deeper feeling of release, depending on factors such as past injuries and chronic stress in the afflicted area that can be either physical or emotionally related.

Clients report a sense of lightness, awareness and better balance. Movement feels easier and more resourceful. Feelings of wellbeing reflect the body’s higher energy level. Chronic pain or discomfort often disappear rapidly throughout the sessions or soon after the series is complete.

The results of Rolfing are not only lasting, they are progressive. Clients report feeling and looking better long after their last session.

Other benefits of Rolfing

* Poor Posture

Almost everyone has a poor posture to certain degree. As the body collapses we get uneven tension in our body. This feels uncomfortable and puts a lot of stress and strain on joints, nerves and internal organs. Good posture feels great!

* Joint Pain

Back, neck, hip, knee, ankle, wrist, shoulder pain can all be alleviated with Rolfing. Balancing the joints takes away the pain.

* Headaches

Most headaches come from neck and/or shoulder imbalance, which interferes with blood flow and/or puts pressure on nerves in the neck and head. You don't have to put up with headache pain from these causes.

* Breathing Difficulties

Asthma, emphysema, and panic attacks involve breathing disorders. These conditions, although varied, all respond well to Rolfing. The balancing of the rib-cage (and body generally) and the releasing of pressure on the lungs and diaphragm helps with the overall health, wellbeing and functioning of the respiratory system.

* Anti-Aging

As posture becomes more stooped, internal organs have inhibitory pressure applied on them, preventing them from functioning to their optimum. As Rolfing prevents the breakdown and collapse of the structure of the body, we can stand straight, giving our whole body the opportunity to function properly. The lift and balance of Rolfing helps to organize and space the systems of the body, enabling them to function without stress.

* Arthritis

Helps to unclog and free the joints and move toxic build-up out of the body.

* Improving Performance

Many athletes, dancers, yoga students and sportspeople have noticed that the increased flexibility, mobility and fluidity that comes from Rolfing has enhanced and improved their individual performances.

* Post Partum

Most women will tell you that their body just isn't the same after their pregnancy. It is important to know that as your body expands for the baby, tissues are stretching and migrating into unfamiliar positions. For some women the pushing out of the abdomen also externally rotates the hips, which stay rotated after the birth. This means that the hip joints no longer fully support the spine and the ribcage collapses down, putting strain on shoulders and neck. For other women the diaphragm might be re-located, the spine compressed or the pelvis itself becoming unstable. Rolfing will put you back together, better than before your pregnancy.

Summary

Physicians and chiropractors believe Rolfing is a safe alternative to medicine, including prescribed drug treatment. Unfortunate side effects are linked to medications for depression that can cause dependability. And if you have heard talk of it being incredibly painful, the perception was once correct, but it is outdated now. In the old days Rolfing was known to hurt quite a lot. However things have changed, and the new breed of Rolfers are gentle and just as effective.

Sources and Additional Information:

http://www.depression-solutions-supersite.com/rolfing.html

http://www.helium.com/items/528488-what-is-rolfing-and-what-does-it-do

http://www.rolfingnow.com/

http://uprighthealth.com/2008/09/09/how-can-rolfing-affect-you-emotionally/

http://www.rolfing.com.au/benefits.html

Psychotic Depression: Symptoms and Treatment

Overview

Psychotic depression (major depression with psychotic features) is one of the most severe forms of the general depressive disease, in which the person experiences occasional moments of delusional or paranoid being. Psychotic depression is characterized by not only depressive symptoms, but also by hallucinations (seeing or hearing things that aren't really there) or delusions. Psychotic depression is a chronic, cyclic condition. In general, the patient may have unremarkable general depressive episodes marked by moments of extreme psychoses. Suicide is most prevalent in patients affected by psychotic episodes. Psychotic depression is unlike schizophrenia because people who are experiencing this type of depression are usually aware that the psychotic episodes they experience are not real.

Diagnosing

Though major depression with psychotic features represents about 25% of consecutively admitted patients, it is frequently overlooked by professionals. Patients are often reluctant about revealing cognitive deficits and delusions and will sometimes deny thoughts of suicide, which makes this disorder difficult to diagnose. Similarities in the symptoms of psychotic depression, schizophrenia, and schizoaffective disorder also make diagnosis even more difficult.  Clinical data have shown that in multiple cases psychotic depression as much more in common with schizophrenia than with non-psychotic depression.

In the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, Fourth Edition, psychotic depression is classified as a major depressive disorder, severe, with psychotic symptoms. This classification requires the usual criteria for a major depressive episode with the additional symptoms of hallucinations or delusions, which can be either mood-congruent or -incongruent. Some researchers have argued that psychotic depression should be classified as a separate clinical disorder due to a number of biological and behavioral symptoms that are specific for this depression type of disease.

While symptoms of psychotic depression can be intense, differentiation from other disorders and detection of undisclosed symptoms often require extensive examination of the patient. The delusions experienced by psychotically depressed patients are typically guilty, paranoid, and somatic; and their hallucinations are auditory, visual, or somatic. Studies conducted to test the neuro-vegetative symptoms of psychotic depression revealed multiple symptoms of severe depression and permanent depressive state of mind with both higher levels of retardation and higher levels of cognitive disturbance according to Hamilton Rating Scale for Depression (HAM-D) scores and compared with non-psychotic patients.

Patients with psychotic depression have shown a higher rate of errors of commission on verbal memory tests. Researchers found that these patients had a higher rate of cluster A personality disorder and a lower level of education compared with patients with non-psychotic depression.

Other features characteristic of psychotic depression compared with non-psychotic depression include a history of past delusions but fewer previous episodes, a positive family history of mental disorder, previous suicide attempts, greater suicidal ideation and intent. Psychotic depression is often considered a disorder of the elderly, but at least one study has reported that younger age was found to be a more common characteristic of psychotic rather than non-psychotic depression. In comparison with patients with schizophrenic disorders, patients with psychotic depression have shown greater emotional impact features and higher tendency to lose control.  If a patient’s psychotic depression is further complicated by agitation, determining whether the patient is suffering from agitated psychosis, severe anxiety, or a dysphoric manic state may be difficult. A number of questions can help in the differential diagnosis:

• Does the patient suffer from insomnia?


• If so, does the patient believe that he or she needs less sleep than usual?


• If delusions are present, are they guilt-ridden as in a depressive state or pleasure-seeking as in a hypomanic or manic state?


• Has the psychosis been present in the absence of affective symptoms?


• Is there a family history of psychotic or affective illness?

Treatment

An individual suffering from psychotic depression needs to be hospitalized as this disease only responds to intensive treatment. Hospitalization also ensures that the patient is under proper medical observation. The treatment for this form of depression can be divided into two parts; medication and electro-convulsive treatment.



As far as medication is concerned the treatment is mostly dependent on antidepressant and antipsychotic drugs. There are various antipsychotic or neuroleptic drugs available today but these have to be used under strict medical supervision as they have some side-effects.

Electro convulsive therapy (ECT) is recommended if the medications don't yield the desired result. In ECT, electric current is applied by putting electrodes on the scalp of the patient. It causes controlled convulsions and triggers massive neurochemical release in the brain. It mostly lasts for 30 to 90 seconds and this method is practiced for 6 to 10 times. It is carried out under the influence of anesthesia to ease the pain. Although that is one of the accepted fastest ways to relieve the patient, its most common side effect is temporary short term memory loss.

Researchers are also studying the effectiveness of RU-486 (the "abortion pill" and "emergency contraceptive"), which is said to dramatically relieve psychotic depression.

It is observed that, like all other forms of depression, even psychotic depression may eventually increase the risk of suicides. Hence a proper solution to this problem is a must, and combination treatment in the form of medications, counseling and talk therapies would definitely help the individual.

Prognosis

If you have symptoms of depression combined with hallucinations or delusions, don't hesitate to ask for help. It is particularly important to share the details of your symptoms with your doctor, because psychotic depression must be managed differently than other types of depression. The most serious risk of psychotic depression is suicide, so getting appropriate treatment as soon as possible is crucial.

Psychotic depression is an illness, not something to be ashamed of or a weakness. It is also a treatable condition, and most people recover within a year, however continual medical follow-up may be necessary.

Sources and Additional Information:

http://www.depression-information.org/depression-types/psychotic-depression.htm

http://www.psychiatrist.com/pcc/pccpdf/v05s01/v64s0104.pdf

http://www.buzzle.com/articles/psychotic-depression-symptoms-and-cures.html

http://www.everydayhealth.com/depression/psychotic-depression-losing-touch-with-reality.aspx

http://www.healthyplace.com/depression/main/psychotic-depression/menu-id-68/

Sleep Deprivation as Cure for Depression

History of Approach

Nearly 30 years have passed since Anna Wirz-Justice, MD, first prescribed a night without sleep for a severely depressed 80-year-old woman. "She used to just sit around all day, feeling suicidal," says the Swiss neurobiologist. "She hardly spoke or moved.''

The remedy worked.  By the next morning, the elderly woman "was talking and moving around as if she were actually another person," Wirz-Justice says. "She told me that at about two or three in the morning, she felt like a black cloud had been lifted from her shoulders."

Was Wirz-Justice on to something? She and other researchers thought so -- at first. There is no denying that sleep deprivation temporarily eases depression. Up to 60% of depressed people will show a 30% improvement after just one night awake, according to a review article published in the January 1990 issue of the American Journal of Psychiatry. People who feel the most depressed in the morning and improve later in the day seem to benefit the most from a night without sleep.

But there was a problem: Patients tended to relapse into depression as soon as they did get a good night's sleep. Moreover, habitual sleep deprivation may be linked to long-term health problems such as high blood pressure and diabetes. The challenge then became to find a way of relieving depression by tinkering with sleep-wake cycles.

Does it Work?

If a depressed mother stays up all night, or even the last half of the night, it is likely that by morning the depression will lift.  Although this sounds too good to be true, it has been well documented in over 1,700 patients in more than 75 published papers during the last 40 years. Sleep deprivation used as a treatment for depression is efficacious and robust: it works quickly, is relatively easy to administer, inexpensive, relatively safe and it also alleviates other types of clinical depression. Sleep deprivation can elevate your mood even if you are not depressed, and can induce euphoria. This throws a new light on insomnia.



This remarkable result is not well known outside a small circle of sleep researchers for three good reasons.  First, sleep deprivation is not as convenient as taking a pill.  Second, prolonged sleep deprivation is not exactly a desirable state; it leads to cognitive defects, such as reduced working memory and impaired decision making.  Finally, depression recurs after the patient, inevitably, succumbs to sleep, even for a short nap.  Nonetheless this is an incredibly important observation; it shows that depression can be rapidly reversed and suggests that something is happening in the sleeping brain to bring on episodes of depression.  All this offers hope that studying sleep deprivation may lead to new, unique and rapid treatments for depression.

How does it Work?

Neuroscientists have been trying to solve this puzzle.  The first hint of what may be happening during sleep came from J. Christian Gillin, at the University of California at San Diego. Using imaging, he found that a small area of the cerebral cortex in the front of the brain  — the anterior cingulate cortex — which was consistently overactive in depressed patients, quieted to normal levels of activity after the patients were deprived of sleep. And when the patients were allowed to sleep, the activity in this area returned to the elevated levels.

Helen Mayberg at Emory University has shown that electrical stimulation of the anterior cingulate cortex, which disrupts normal activity, also reduces depression.  Some patients reported feeling immediate relief and calm after the procedure.

This tells us where in the cortex to look, but we also need to understand the changes that occur in the cortex during sleep. As you fall asleep, neurons in the brain stem that project throughout the cortex and keep it activated stop firing. The reduced stimulation from the brain stem disconnects the cortex from sensory input and there is a major shift in the pattern of electrical activity in the cortex. During the early part of the night the cortex is in a state of slow-wave sleep punctuated by brief periods of rapid-eye movement sleep (REM), which become more frequent and longer lasting toward early morning.

One major class of antidepressants, tricyclics, blocks REM sleep, which suggests that sleep deprivation may work against depression the same way. This is consistent with the tendency for depressed individuals to sleep longer than they do when they feel normal. Additional support for this hypothesis comes from genetic studies of families with short REM latency — the tendency to enter REM early in the sleep cycle. This condition disrupts slow wave sleep and extends REM sleep. The risk of depression is much greater if you come from a family with this genetic background. While this is a rare genetic defect that can only account for a small fraction of all depressed patients, these special cases give us valuable clues to conditions that predispose some people to clinical depression.

Power of Hormones

Today, researchers are experimenting with ways to make use of the body's biological clock -- its circadian, or 24-hour, rhythms -- without asking patients to abandon rest altogether. The solution may lie in timing sleep to benefit from certain hormones that ebb and flow throughout the day.

For instance, thyroid stimulating hormone (TSH) helps control our metabolism and, indirectly, our levels of energy. An estimated 25% to 35% of depressed patients have low TSH levels. In recent years, researchers at the National Institute of Mental Health have found that sleep inhibits the release of TSH, while staying awake through the night and the early morning hours boosts it.

Some researchers are trying to manipulate the body's hormonal tides by having patients stay awake through the early morning hours for about a week. Doctors at the University Hospital of Freiburg in Germany tried this experiment on a group of depressed patients who felt better after one night without sleep: They told the patients to go to sleep at 5 p.m. that evening and rest until midnight the next night -- a total of 31 hours. Then the patients gradually eased back to a normal sleep cycle over the course of the week. One night they slept from 6 p.m. until 2 a.m., the following night from 7 p.m. until 3 a.m., until finally they returned to an 11 p.m. to 6 a.m. sleep cycle. Remarkably, the majority -- 75% -- didn't relapse into depression, according to results published last fall in the European Archives of Psychiatry and Clinical Neuroscience.

Methods

There are two methods of using sleep deprivation as a treatment for depression: total or partial deprivation.

Partial deprivation - sleeping the first half of the night only, and waking up halfway through - proved more effective than going to sleep later, or sleeping only the second half of the night. It is thought that partial sleep deprivation, sleeping up to 4 hours a night, will have the same antidepressant benefits as total sleep deprivation. Whereas with total sleep deprivation, the benefits are felt the following day, but are not long-lasting, sleeping four hours can be done continuously, over several days or even weeks, so naturally the benefits here are superior.

Even in patients with bipolar disorder can benefit. Research shows patients with bipolar disorder after sleep deprivation, are pulled from their depressed state to manic state. Manic states can cause sleep deprivation, lasting weeks and even months, so the cycle continues. The patient feels great, lighter in mood, and feel no need for sleep. Of course one should limit this, because of other health risks in prolonged sleep deprivation. Partial deprivation, up to 4 hours sleep is definitely the way to go for long-term treatment.

The ideal way to try for yourself, seems to be to stay awake a full night the first night, then limit yourself to 4 hours a night after that. Try this for a week or two, and see how you feel. I think in most cases, you will have positive results.

If you know someone suffering with severe depression, who barely has energy to talk to you, and no matter how you try to animate them, you have no success, try visiting them in the evening and keeping them awake all night. You will find the next morning their mood will be elevated, they will be more lucid and talkative, and more likely to want to move around and do things. Try then to convince them to use an alarm clock and wake themselves up after only four hours, they'll see for themselves how much better they feel.

The optimum time for sleep appears in some studies, to be from 10pm-2am, 11pm-3am, or12-4 am, underlining the fact that sleeping only the first half of the night provides the best results. In other reports, however, 2-6am 3-7am was optimal. It would depend presumably on your normal bedtime.

Sleep deprivation treatment was popular in the 1970s, but with the discovery of new and effective antidepressant medications, it was soon deemed old-fashioned and unhelpful. Nowadays doctors are reconsidering and endorsing this treatment, finding it helpful even alongside these medications, as the body seemed to accept medication more easily. Many psychiatrists were convinced by remarkable transformations of severely depressed, psychotic and even suicidal patients, back to relative normality after only a few hours. Antidepressant medication alongside sleep deprivation, has proven to help prevent relapse into the depressed state, although these studies are still ongoing.

But Is It Practical?

Doctors admit that sleep deprivation regimen is tough to follow. Patients should probably try such sleep manipulation only under supervision and perhaps in a group to make the experience more enjoyable, says Edward DeMet, PhD, who studies sleep deprivation at the Veterans Affairs Medical Center in Long Beach. "Obviously, if you need to be driving the next day, you shouldn't do this," he says.

There are other ways to manipulate sleep to improve depressive symptoms. For instance, patients who go one night without sleep and who are exposed to bright light in the morning appear to prolong the emotional benefits of that sleepless night. People who try sleep deprivation while taking antidepressant medicine are also less likely to relapse, according to a study by Wirz-Justice and colleagues published in the August 1999 issue of the journal Biological Psychiatry.

Because antidepressants such as Prozac or lithium often take weeks to work, sleep deprivation may be most useful as a temporary tool that gives people a lift before the drugs take effect.

"It's much easier to pop a pill in the morning than stay up all night," says Wirz-Justice, a professor at the Psychiatric University Clinic's Chronobiology and Sleep Laboratory in Basel, Switzerland. "But sleep deprivation is very cheap and it's very fast. For patients who are severely depressed, the experience for that one day lets them know it's possible to get better. They finally have hope."

Sources and Additional Information:

http://www.medicinenet.com/script/main/art.asp?articlekey=50800

http://opinionator.blogs.nytimes.com/2010/04/07/in-sleepless-nights-a-hope-for-treating-depression/

http://hubpages.com/hub/depressionandsleep

http://www.psychforums.com/depression/topic23253.html