Years ago, I was with a friend whose son developed panic disorder from smoking weed. The 22-year-old son had the presence of mind to come to my friend's house.
He was lying on the sofa, almost breathless, crying intermittently, begging for help. My
friend, who was his father, talked patiently and helped calm him down in two hours.
For some of you, maybe talking a mental disorder through will help also, and be enough. But start at
the hospital ER if talking doesn't fix the problem. Mental conditions can be rougher
than a stroke! "Head stuff" almost always is.
Years later, I wondered about mental disorders as related to stroke, and this article popped up. Under the title, Study Links Psychiatric Disorders to Stroke Risk, comes this disheartening news from National Institutes of Health (NIH), published on February 23 of this year:
"Getting care at a hospital for a
psychiatric disorder may be linked to a higher risk of stroke in the
following weeks and months," new NIH research suggests.
Oh, great, another reason to worry, especially for people who already have depression, anxiety, or post-traumatic stress. Now they might have both--a stroke and one of the aforementioned. Here's what the researchers found out.
People with mental conditions, stroke or no, possessed a triple threat of stroke--or another stroke--following their stay in the in-and-out ER or for a prolonged stay in hospital bed.
The threat of stroke began to decrease after 30 days, but "remained twice as high for at least a year after the ER visit or hospital stay," the researchers discovered.
"We have known for some time that people who have a stroke seem to be at an increased risk for later on developing some sort of psychiatric illness, depression or post-stroke psychosis," said the lead study author, Jonah Zuflacht.
Zuflacht went on to say, "But what has been less studied is the inverse of that. Meaning, if you have some sort of psychiatric illness, does it increase the risk for stroke?"
The conclusion? The ER visit or hospitalization for a psychiatric disorder was associated with a higher risk of stroke. The research team said the body might go into overdrive with a "fight-or-flight" stress response, elevating blood pressure, a leading cause of stroke.
"The other possibility," Zuflacht added, "is that there are behavioral reasons at work. For example, are these patients not taking the medications they should be taking to prevent a stroke--like their high blood pressure meds--because of their mental illness?"
The study from California's Healthcare Cost and Utilization Project analyzed more than 52,000 stroke events--equally divided between men and women--that had taken place between 2007 and 2009.
The team discoved that more than 3,300 patients (or 6%) had hospital care for a psychiatric illness at some point in the year leading up to their stroke and were more likely to be female.
The risk of stroke tripled within the first 15 days after receiving mental health care and dropped slightly afterwards, but was still more than triple the normal rate of having a stroke one month out, with the risk more than double the norm through the 12-month period.
It's not surprising to me, though, and I think it's more than an increase in blood pressure. The psychiatric illnesses may result in other things, too, like increased eating of junk, aka fast, food (http://stroketales.blogspot.com/2013/04/hey-can-fast-food-in-abundance-really.html), going on alcoholic binges (http://stroketales.blogspot.com/2016/09/alcohol-and-stroke-you-may-be-just.html), or elevating your cigarette smokes (post eventually coming), all causes of stroke.
Years later, I wondered about mental disorders as related to stroke, and this article popped up. Under the title, Study Links Psychiatric Disorders to Stroke Risk, comes this disheartening news from National Institutes of Health (NIH), published on February 23 of this year:
Oh, great, another reason to worry, especially for people who already have depression, anxiety, or post-traumatic stress. Now they might have both--a stroke and one of the aforementioned. Here's what the researchers found out.
People with mental conditions, stroke or no, possessed a triple threat of stroke--or another stroke--following their stay in the in-and-out ER or for a prolonged stay in hospital bed.
The threat of stroke began to decrease after 30 days, but "remained twice as high for at least a year after the ER visit or hospital stay," the researchers discovered.
"We have known for some time that people who have a stroke seem to be at an increased risk for later on developing some sort of psychiatric illness, depression or post-stroke psychosis," said the lead study author, Jonah Zuflacht.
Zuflacht went on to say, "But what has been less studied is the inverse of that. Meaning, if you have some sort of psychiatric illness, does it increase the risk for stroke?"
The conclusion? The ER visit or hospitalization for a psychiatric disorder was associated with a higher risk of stroke. The research team said the body might go into overdrive with a "fight-or-flight" stress response, elevating blood pressure, a leading cause of stroke.
"The other possibility," Zuflacht added, "is that there are behavioral reasons at work. For example, are these patients not taking the medications they should be taking to prevent a stroke--like their high blood pressure meds--because of their mental illness?"
The study from California's Healthcare Cost and Utilization Project analyzed more than 52,000 stroke events--equally divided between men and women--that had taken place between 2007 and 2009.
The team discoved that more than 3,300 patients (or 6%) had hospital care for a psychiatric illness at some point in the year leading up to their stroke and were more likely to be female.
The risk of stroke tripled within the first 15 days after receiving mental health care and dropped slightly afterwards, but was still more than triple the normal rate of having a stroke one month out, with the risk more than double the norm through the 12-month period.
It's not surprising to me, though, and I think it's more than an increase in blood pressure. The psychiatric illnesses may result in other things, too, like increased eating of junk, aka fast, food (http://stroketales.blogspot.com/2013/04/hey-can-fast-food-in-abundance-really.html), going on alcoholic binges (http://stroketales.blogspot.com/2016/09/alcohol-and-stroke-you-may-be-just.html), or elevating your cigarette smokes (post eventually coming), all causes of stroke.
Truly discouraging.
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