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Depressed and anxious

People who have anxiety disorders often wind up with depression. Anxiety wears out the body and puts you at a greater risk for not being able to handle challenges when they occur. So, if you have lots of anxiety, please get help. Start with some solid self-help books, but psychotherapy (we recommend Cognitive and Behavioral Therapy) decreases both anxiety and depression.

New Article on OCD consistent with our book Obsessive Compulsive Disorder For Dummies

Ken Pop, Ph.D. passed along the abstract to this new article. It shows that treatment for OCD works and confirms the statements we made about treatment efficacy in OCD For Dummies.

Clinical Psychology Review* (vol 28, #8) Psychological treatment of obsessive-compulsive disorder: A meta-analysis.

Authors: Ana Rosa-Alcazar, Julio Sanchez-Meca, Antonia Gomez- Conesa, & Fulgenzio Marin-Martinez:

Abstract: “The benefits of cognitive-behavioral treatment for obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD) have been evidenced by several meta- analyses.  However, the differential effectiveness of behavioral and cognitive approaches has shown inconclusive results. In this paper a meta-analysis on the effectiveness of psychological treatment for OCD is presented by applying random- and mixed-effects models.  The literature search enabled us to identify 19 studies published between 1980 and 2006 that fulfilled our selection criteria, giving a total of 24 independent comparisons between a treated and a control group.  The effect size index was the standardized mean difference in the posttest.  The effect estimates for exposure with response prevention (ERP) alone (d-super(+) = 1.127), cognitive restructuring (CR) alone (d-super(+) = 1.090), and ERP plus CR (d-super(+) = 0.998) were very similar, although the effect estimate for CR alone was based on only three comparisons.  Therapist- guided exposure was better than therapist-assisted self-exposure, and exposure in vivo combined with exposure in imagination was better than exposure in vivo alone.  The relationships of subject, methodological and extrinsic variables with effect size were also examined, and an analysis of publication bias was carried out.  Finally, the implications of the results for clinical practice and for future research in this field were discussed.”

Negative Results and Publication

Just received this as a forward from Ken Pope, Ph.D.–CE

Wiley-Blackwell, the publisher of the *Cochrane Library*, issued the following news release:

Clinical trials: Unfavourable results often go unpublished

Trials showing a positive treatment effect, or those with important or striking findings, were much more likely to be published in scientific journals than those with negative findings, a new review from The Cochrane Library has found.

“This publication bias has important implications for healthcare. Unless both positive and negative findings from clinical trials are made available, it is impossible to make a fair assessment of a drug’s safety and efficacy,” says lead researcher, Sally Hopewell of the UK Cochrane Centre in Oxford, UK.

The international team of researchers carried out a systematic review of all the existing research in this area. In addition to showing that negative results were published less often, they found that if these results were eventually published, they would take between one and four more years to appear in journals than studies showing positive results.

Results from one of the five studies in the review indicated that investigators and not editors might be to blame. The reasons most commonly given for not publishing were that investigators thought their findings were not interesting enough or did not have time. “The registration of all clinical trial protocols before they start should make it easier to identify where we are missing results,” says Kay Dickersin from Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore, USA, another of the researchers on this project.

One of the other researchers, Kirsty Loudon, based in Scotland, adds, “Registration of trials and their results would help people conducting systematic reviews to look at both published and unpublished evidence, to reach reliable conclusions.”

The researchers say their study also highlights the need for a worldwide commitment to the disclosure of the findings of clinical trials. Mike Clarke of Trinity College Dublin in Ireland, says, “The World Health Organisation recently found widespread support for the development of such a process.”

Andy Oxman from the Norwegian Knowledge Centre for Health Services concludes, “Healthcare decisions need to be based on all the evidence, not just the most exciting results.”

Writing “For Dummies”

Sometimes people complain to Laura or myself that our self-help books have the title “For Dummies.” We try to correct what we view as a misconception whenever we can. “For Dummies” is a series (published by Wiley) that’s designed to present material to an intelligent audience who may not be completely familiar with the particular topic. It is definitely not meant to disparage the intelligence of anyone. We sincerely apologize to anyone who takes offense at those two words in the title. However, we think the publisher would never have sold as many of these books as they have if they were intending to belittle their readers. CE

Help for OCD is on the way

Check with your local bookstore in about four weeks. Obsessive Compulsive Disorder For Dummies should be on the way soon. My wife (Dr. Laura Smith) and I really enjoyed writing this book–possibly more than any other we’ve written to date within the For Dummies series. We hope you will learn a great deal about this fascinating disorder–whether you have OCD or someone you care about does. Let us know your comments! We honestly believe that you cannot find a resource with as much information about OCD anywhere (at least that’s written for the public). CE

Death in America

I read an interesting article this week written by associated press author, Stephen Ohlemacher. He reported about the statistics released by the Nation Center for Health Statistics. Although Americans may be living longer, we are slipping in respect to other countries. How could the richest country in the world, the country that spends the most on health care, have shorter life expectancy than Japan, France, Australia, Sweden, Canada, and the United Kindom?

The answers: 45 million without health insurance in the US

                      US has the highest obesity rate in the world

                      Infant mortality is high—forty countries do better

We can do better too! When you consider who will get your vote, think about the real consequences of American policy on our lives and those we care about. LS