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Post Traumatic Stress Disorder by Kathy Griffin | MedPage today

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This month, 62-year-old comedian Kathy Griffin went to tik tak to tell her fans that she was diagnosed with “complex post-traumatic stress disorder” – post-traumatic stress disorder.

“If any of you know my story, you will understand that it really started for me about 5 and a half years ago. Wink,” she said, apparently referring to it, when she posted a photo of herself holding a bloodied copy of the former president. Donald Trump’s head in 2017.

Griffin received a major backlash for the episode, which hurt her both professionally and personally. She was fired from hosting CNNNew Year’s show with Anderson Cooper. The Secret Service investigated her and put her on the “No Fly List” for several months. “I haven’t been able to get on TV for years,” she said. She stopped leaving the house for several months and self-medicated with anti-anxiety drugs.

On June 25, 2020, she overdosed and was admitted to a psychiatric hospital. She was diagnosed with stage I lung cancer in 2021, which “didn’t help,” she noted.

Griffin often experiences panic attacks and anxiety. On Instagram she wrote: “For the past year and a half, I have been plagued by terrible panic attacks. Sometimes they last several hours or more often, they last at least a whole day, if not several days in a row. I feel stupid even telling you this because I always thought PTSD was just for veterans and all. During my attacks, I usually feel quite nauseous and often have to go to the emergency room to get intravenous fluids.”

Although Griffin did not say how she is currently being treated, she said she intends to try eye movement desensitization and processing (EMDR) therapy.

PTSD

According to American Psychiatric Association (APA), post-traumatic stress disorder is defined as “a psychiatric disorder that can occur in people who have experienced or witnessed a traumatic event, series of events, or set of circumstances. The individual may perceive it as emotionally or physically harmful or life-threatening and may affect mental, physical, social and/or spiritual well-being. Examples include natural disasters, major accidents, terrorist attacks, war/combat, rape/sexual assault, historical trauma, intimate partner violence, and bullying.”

Anyone can develop PTSD, regardless of age, race, gender or culture, although women are more susceptible than men, according to the APA. It is estimated that PTSD affects about 3.5% of US adults each year, and about one in 11 people will be diagnosed with PTSD in their lifetime.

Personal factors such as previous trauma, age, and gender can influence whether a person develops PTSD. What happens after the traumatic event is also important. Stress can make PTSD more likely and social support less likely.

Signs and symptoms

When exposed to a traumatic event, most people experience short-term symptoms, according to Mayo Clinic. However, most of them do not develop chronic symptoms, i.e. post-traumatic stress disorder. Traumatic events do not always involve dangerous situations, and can also include the sudden death of a loved one, stalking or verbal abuse, or work where you often see other people get hurt or die (such as emergency services). Symptoms usually appear within 3 months of the traumatic event, but for some, symptoms do not appear until years later.

To be diagnosed with PTSD, symptoms must last more than a month and be severe enough to interfere with relationships or work.

According to the Mayo Clinic, a patient must have all of the following symptoms:

  • At least one symptom of re-experiencing, including flashbacks, bad dreams, or frightening thoughts.
  • At least one symptom of avoidance, such as avoiding places, events, or objects that are reminiscent of the traumatic experience, or avoiding thoughts or feelings associated with the traumatic event.
  • At least two symptoms of arousal and reactivity, including mild arousal, feeling tense or “nervous”, difficulty sleeping, or outbursts of anger that make daily tasks difficult.
  • At least two cognitive and affective symptoms, including trouble remembering the traumatic event, negative thoughts about self or the world, distorted feelings such as guilt or guilt, or loss of interest in previously enjoyable activities.

Treatment for post-traumatic stress disorder

Both trauma-focused psychotherapy (counseling or talking therapy) and drug treatment of post-traumatic stress disorder have been proven to work. Sometimes people combine psychotherapy and medication.

Trauma focused psychotherapy

Trauma-focused psychotherapy is the most recommended treatment for PTSD. “Trauma-oriented” means that treatment focuses on the memory of the traumatic event or its meaning. According to the APA, the three most effective types of trauma-focused psychotherapy are:

  • Cognitive processing therapy that teaches patients to understand how trauma has changed their thoughts and feelings.
  • Long exposure therapy that uses repetitive descriptions of trauma in a safe environment to help the patient deal with their feelings and take control of their feelings.
  • EMDR, which helps the patient process trauma memory and uses eye movements similar to REM sleep.
  • Group therapy, in which patients with similar traumatic experiences share their experiences with each other.

Medications for PTSD

Medications may be effective for treating symptoms of PTSD, including some selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors and serotonin and norepinephrine reuptake inhibitors.

Michelle R. Berman, MD, pediatrician turned medical journalist. She has trained at Johns Hopkins University, Washington University in St. Louis, and St. Louis Children’s Hospital. Her mission is both journalistic and educational: to report on common diseases that affect extraordinary people and to summarize the evidence-based medicine behind the headlines.

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What You Need to Know About Ticks, Lyme Season After a Mild Winter – Chicago Tribune

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PORTLAND, Maine — After a mild winter in the US, will there be a surge in ticks this year?

Researchers say it’s hard to predict how tick season will play out. This year’s mild winter and early snowmelt could mean more ticks earlier than usual and a wider spread of Lyme and other tick-borne diseases, scientists say.

Tick ​​numbers have increased in Connecticut this year, according to Gudarz Molaei, a state mite expert. So far, more than 700 ticks have been submitted for the testing program, which would normally have received 200 to 300 by now. The state usually has many cases of Lyme disease, which takes its name from the town in Connecticut.

“This year will be above average in tick activity and numbers,” Molai said.

Infected ticks spread bacteria, viruses, and parasites that make people sick. Lyme disease is the most common tick-borne infection in the US, primarily in the Northeast and Midwest. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, 476,000 Americans are diagnosed with Lyme disease each year. Black-legged ticks, also called deer ticks, can carry more than just the bacteria that causes Lyme disease. They can also spread babesiosis, anaplasmosis, and Powassan virus disease. The lone star tick, mostly found in the southern, eastern, and midwestern states, can carry ehrlichiosis and Heartland viral disease. American dog ticks can spread Rocky Mountain spotted fever. Ticks pick up disease-causing microbes by biting infected wild animals, usually rodents.

It varies by region, but tick season usually runs from April to October. The mites are mostly dormant during the cold winter months and appear when temperatures rise, but may be active on warm winter days as well. Memorial Day is often considered the start of the season, but that’s mostly because that’s when people in cold-weather states start spending more time outdoors, said Sam Telford of Tufts University School of Veterinary Medicine in North Grafton, Massachusetts. The peak incidence of Lyme disease usually occurs in June, July and August. April and May are usually lighter months, but not always.

Tiny nymph-stage mites – about the size of a poppy seed – may be active earlier this year. Bobbi Pritt, who studies tick-borne diseases at the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minnesota. “When we have mild winters, we expect the mites to come out earlier and start biting people,” Pritt said.

Government disease trackers say it is difficult to predict how tick-borne diseases will develop. The number of ticks can vary from region to region, and the diagnosis can be influenced by how well different doctors screen and report cases. Climate change has both positive and negative effects on ticks, Telford says, as warm, humid weather is good for them, but particularly hot weather is not. Tiny mites can indeed be active early, he says, but dry, hot summers can also kill mites. The best approach is to assume that the mites will be very active. “Every year should be considered a bad year,” he said.

Thank you, there many ways to prevent tick bites. The CDC recommends treating clothing with products containing 0.5% permethrin. It is also important to be especially careful in tick habitats such as grassy and wooded areas. The CDC says the use of repellents and subsequent scrutiny are also key. Limiting exposed skin also helps to avoid biting.

The illness can cause fever, chills, fatigue, muscle and joint pain. It is treated with antibiotics and most people recover. If left untreated, it can worsen, causing symptoms such as heart problems and debilitating pain. There is no Lyme vaccine for humans on the US market, but one is being tested.

New York-based AP reporter Mike Stobbe and Seattle-based data journalist Camille Fassett contributed to this report.

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Release Schedule for Love and Death

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Less than a year after Hulu went live candiesown retelling of the story of Candy Montgomery—the case of the Texas resident who murdered her secret lover’s wife in 1980 with an axe—HBO Max is about to tell this horrific story again in love deathwith Elizabeth Olsen as Candy.

The series again touches on the same obscene details of a story that is more than 40 years old: the monotony of the suburbs, spiced with the sinful date of two parents attending church, and punctuated by a bloody murder. Like the previous dramatized attempt, love death mainly relies on the final account narrated by John Bloom and Jim Atkinson in their 1984 book. Proof of Love: A True Story of Suburban Passion and Death. HBO Max series. love and death takes its title from a series of passages published in Texas Monthly, titled Love and death on the Silicon Prairie.

The series rarely goes beyond the events described in the works of Boom and Atkinson, offering little more than a sepia dramatization of the timeline. The audience seems to love and the critics just rolled their eyes.

Dallas morning news which published an update on the case at the end of 2021., tried to explain the continued interest in murder: “There is the most obvious reason: it happened in a white middle-class community. Take the same facts – with all their cruelty – and transfer them somewhere to a poorer and less racially homogeneous place. Will there be a streaming series? Would that be front-page news?

Probably no.

Although you can easily find out the details of the story through Texas Monthly series of articles, true crime fans will likely follow the series until its conclusion.

Here’s how to keep up love death until it spins.

HBO Max

When is the next episode love death exit?

Every Episode love and death will be available to stream on HBO Max on Thursdays. The next episode, Episode 4, will be available on Thursday, May 4th.

How many episodes love death left?

The series will consist of seven episodes. The first three episodes became available for viewing on the same day. The series will have four more episodes.

streaming love and death on HBO Max

Here is the full release schedule for love death

Episode 1 – Aired April 27.

Episode 2 – Aired April 27.

Episode 3 – Aired April 27.

Episode 4 – Broadcast May 4

Episode 5 – Broadcast May 11

Episode 6 – Broadcast May 18

Episode 7 – Broadcast May 25

Headshot by Joshua St. Clair

associate editor

Joshua St. Clair is Associate Editor of Men’s Health.

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Tablets that destroy stomach cells will help to cope with nausea and lack of appetite

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The swallowed capsule is covered with grooves that drain liquid.

Jay McRae (MIT)

The tablet has been used to electrically stimulate stomach cells in pigs to increase levels of ghrelin, a hormone that regulates hunger and relieves nausea. If the technology is transferred to humans, it could treat nausea, vomiting, and lack of appetite in people with eating disorders or those being treated for cancer.

Current interventions using electrical stimulation to relieve gastrointestinal symptoms require invasive surgery. So, Giovanni Traverso at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and colleagues have developed a non-invasive, growth-sized capsule that delivers small shocks.

Inside the capsule, a battery generates electrical currents that run through gold wire wound on the outside. Grooves etched into the surface of the capsule drain fluid so that the wire can electrically stimulate receptors in the stomach tissue that trigger the release of ghrelin. The device is coated with a thin shell that dissolves when it enters the stomach so as not to irritate the tissues of the esophagus.

Traverso and his team tested the capsule on 13 pigs that were fasted overnight and given anesthetics. Eleven animals received a 20-minute stimulation and two others received no stimulation.

The researchers measured blood levels of ghrelin before and 10 minutes after the stimulation. They found that, on average, ghrelin levels increased by about 40% in stimulated pigs, while ghrelin levels decreased by about 50% in unstimulated pigs.

“The levels we are seeing are comparable to the levels we would expect to induce hunger or suppress nausea, but we have not evaluated these levels. [symptoms] in animals,” says Traverso. “Part of the next steps involves doing this in humans to see if, for example, nausea can be treated with this system.”

Traverso said all animals cleared the capsule within two weeks, a normal time for pigs. Tissue samples taken from their stomachs, duodenums and colons showed no change or signs of injury, suggesting the therapy was safe.

“To my knowledge, this is the first ingestible device that can produce electrical stimulation of the gastrointestinal tract,” he says. Stavros Skid at the Feinstein Institute for Medical Research in New York. The technology can be modified to provide electrical stimulation to other tissues in the gastrointestinal tract, such as the colon.

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