Latest news with #selfmedication
Daily Mail
27-07-2025
- Entertainment
- Daily Mail
Sopranos star reveals mental health issues almost 'destroyed' his life
A Sopranos star has revealed his struggle with mental health issues nearly 'destroyed' his life and family. Joe Pantoliano, 73, who is one of many Hollywood A-listers considering moving to another country, shared he struggled with clinical depression for nearly a decade before getting a diagnosis. To relieve his symptoms, the actor, who starred as Ralph Cifaretto in the Emmy -winning crime drama told Page Six he would self-medicate via what he called his 'seven deadly symptoms.' ' Alcohol, what was available, women, you know, risky behavior, act first and then ask questions second,' the actor told the outlet on Thursday. The Goonies actor admitted he was a 'mess for a long time,' and attributed some of his problems to growing up with a mother who also suffered from mental health challenges. 'My wife [actress Nancy Sheppard] and my kids were ready to throw me out,' he said. 'The only people who were happy to see me weren't people. They were my dogs.' the actor recalled. The Last of Us star, who is currently starring in the off-Broadway show Ginger Twinsies, also credited his pups with saving his life. 'It was the only spark that was left in me. I was like Tinkerbell and the light was dying,' he explained. Pantoliano finally received a diagnosis in 2007. Two year later her found an organization called, No Kidding, Me Too! to help take away the stigma around mental health struggles. 'We've done such a great job,' he said. 'Our mission for No Kidding, Me Too! was to make the discussion of mental disease cool and trendy,' he said, adding, 'And we've succeeded. You can't get them to shut up now!' After his show closes on October 26, Pantoliano and his wife may pull up sticks and move to Europe amid all the political chaos in the United States. 'It's hard for me to think about people's bulls*** like making a TV show. The world is on fire; it's hard for me to concentrate,' Pantoliano said. In a recent video on social media he told his fans, 'Nancy and I were in Portugal for a couple of weeks.' 'We actually looked into getting visas so that we could live there part of the time, or most of the time.' 'It's a great place to retire,' he added, saying, 'It suits me. I love to walk; I take amazing walks there.' Other celebrities such as Rosie O'Donnell, Ellen DeGeneres and her wife Portia de Rossi, designer Tom Ford, along with Ryan Gosling and partner Eva Mendes have already moved abroad.
Medical News Today
07-07-2025
- Health
- Medical News Today
Alcohol-induced psychosis disorder: What to know
Schizophrenia is a mental health condition. Alcohol itself cannot cause schizophrenia. However, some people might experience symptoms of schizophrenia due to alcohol-induced psychosis disorder (AIPD) can arise when someone drinks large amounts or withdraws from heavy alcohol use. People who can reduce or quit drinking alcohol have a good chance of not experiencing this form of psychosis alcohol cause schizophrenia?Schizophrenia is a psychotic disorder that involves hallucinations or delusions. People with schizophrenia may also experience thought, behavior, and speech disturbances. Schizophrenia affects roughly 1% of adults cannot cause schizophrenia. However, some forms of alcohol use can lead to AIPD, a condition sometimes known as alcohol-related psychosis or alcohol alcohol intoxication, alcohol withdrawal, and long-standing alcohol misuse all have the potential to lead to alcohol-induced psychosis. However, this complication is relatively in a 2019 article also suggests that people with schizophrenia may be three times more likely to experience heavy alcohol use than those without the condition. Possible reasons for this include:Self-medication: Some people with schizophrenia may use alcohol to try to get relief from their symptoms or the side effects of prescribed reasons: The article suggests that having schizophrenia correlates with factors that can lead to heavier alcohol consumption, such as poverty, cognitive problems, and impaired social or trauma: Some problems with the brain, such as injury or dysfunction of the brain's reward system, could predispose some people toward developing schizophrenia and alcohol use disorder (AUD).Symptoms of schizophrenia and AIPDSchizophrenia and AIPD are both psychotic disorders, and they have some symptoms in common. Alcohol-induced psychosis symptomsAIPD refers to psychosis that develops as a result of alcohol consumption. The symptoms of AIPD arise either during or just after a period of heavy alcohol consumption. They may include:hallucinationsdelusions paranoiafearSchizophrenia symptomsThe Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, 5th edition (DSM-5) states that a person has schizophrenia if they experience at least two of the following symptoms for at least 1 month:delusionshallucinationsdisorganized speechhighly disorganized behaviornegative moodAt least one of these symptoms must be delusions, hallucinations, or disorganized speech. There are some important differences between schizophrenia and AIPD. People with the latter condition tend to have more severe anxiety or depression symptoms than people with schizophrenia. Conversely, people with schizophrenia tend to have more disorganization symptoms than people with for AIPDTreatment should begin shortly after a person's AIPD diagnosis. Healthcare professionals must first check whether alcohol consumption has caused life threatening physiological changes that require large amounts of alcohol can cause the following serious complications:liver inflammationliver failure, in people with chronic liver diseaseirregular heartbeatheart failurestrokeIf the individual becomes unstable, aggressive, or violent, they may require sedation. Doctors can provide sedation using medications, such as benzodiazepines, antipsychotics, or both. Although the dosage may change, the use of these medications may persist into the medium or long alcoholQuitting alcohol is an essential component of the treatment plan and is necessary to prevent AIPD United Kingdom's National Health Service (NHS) lists the following tips to help abstain from alcohol:Talk therapy: Therapies, such as cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT), can provide tips for managing harmful thoughts or feelings to minimize the risk of drinking detox: This is when someone with an alcohol addiction stops drinking completely for an extended time in a safe and controlled environment. Specialist staff will help the person manage any withdrawal groups: Support groups, such as Alcoholics Anonymous, can help people with alcohol addiction. They allow for open, nonjudgmental discussions about addiction and give a person access to a network of supportive and understanding people.»Learn more:How to stop drinking alcoholWhere to get help for addictionSupport from addiction and mental health services might give someone the best chance of recovering from Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration offers resources for people in the United States seeking help for alcohol can also speak with a healthcare professional to find local support conditionsProviding accurate diagnoses can be difficult when different conditions have similar symptoms. Conditions that can appear similar to AIPD include:bipolar disorderdeliriumhallucinogen usecannabis-related disorderscocaine-related disordersschizophreniaMedical records can help doctors rule out conditions such as those above. However, this may not always be of AIPDThere are possible severe complications of AIPD, including an elevated risk of: depressionanxietysuicideAdditionally, people with AIPD may be unpredictable or resort to outlook for people with AIPD will vary. For instance, acute alcohol intoxication can be a life threatening condition, which means that people whose psychosis originates from this condition could need urgent medical attention.A person's outlook can depend on whether they abstain from alcohol. Those who do not are likely to experience ongoing mental health problems. People with AIPD have a 5% to 30% chance of developing a chronic condition that is by abstaining from alcohol, people can lower their risk of another alcohol-induced psychotic asked questionsHow long does alcohol-induced psychosis last?Scientists estimate that AIPD lasts up to 1 month. However, some people could experience symptoms for more than 6 behavioral and mental symptoms last for significantly less or longer than this, healthcare professionals may not consider AIPD the cause of the estimate that AIPD lasts up to 1 month. However, some people could experience symptoms for more than 6 behavioral and mental symptoms last for significantly less or longer than this, healthcare professionals may not consider AIPD the cause of the is alcohol paranoia?Alcohol paranoia is a paranoid episode resulting from alcohol use. People with AIPD can also experience intense paranoia is a paranoid episode resulting from alcohol use. People with AIPD can also experience intense is a rare but serious complication of alcohol use. Although it is not a form of schizophrenia, these conditions have several characteristic symptoms in common. Experiencing psychosis can be scary, but support from healthcare professionals and mental health and addiction services can help people with AIPD. People who abstain from alcohol have the best chance of not experiencing psychosis again.
Malay Mail
26-06-2025
- Health
- Malay Mail
Singapore cracks down on over 1,200 illicit health listings online, including unregistered contact lenses sold by teen
SINGAPORE, June 26 — Singapore's Health Sciences Authority has removed 1,288 listings of illegal health products from local e-commerce and social media platforms between December 2024 and May 2025, the agency said in a statement on Thursday, Xinhua reported. Warnings were issued to 732 sellers, including an 18-year-old who was found promoting and selling unregistered contact lenses. The three most common categories of illegal products removed were medicines for skin and hair conditions, which accounted for 37 per cent of the listings, antibiotic, antifungal and antiviral creams, tablets, and capsules, which made up 15 per cent, and unregistered contact lenses, which comprised 13 per cent. Of the 1,288 listings removed, 644 were prescription medicines. Such products are often purchased by consumers who self-medicate, the authority said, warning that buying prescription medicines online poses serious health risks. These medications contain potent ingredients and should only be used under proper medical supervision. — Bernama
Washington Post
14-05-2025
- Health
- Washington Post
Chimps sometimes care for others' wounds, and scientists want to know why
Primatologist Elodie Freymann arrived in Uganda's Budongo Forest in 2021 to observe the chimpanzees there and learn more about their ability to self-medicate with healing plants. But as she flipped through a field book at the site containing the observations of researchers dating back to 1993, she began to notice accounts of the chimps not just ingesting plants to self-medicate, but using them for wound care — and sometimes not always on themselves. In looking through 30 years of observations — as well as eight months of their own — Freymann and her colleagues found that the chimpanzees of Budongo have, in dozens of instances, administered first aid on themselves and others. According to Freymann, these observations, published Wednesday in Frontiers in Ecology and Evolution, raise questions over chimpanzees' capacity for empathy and altruism. 'It's hard to prove that a nonhuman animal has empathy because you can't sit down and have a conversation with them,' Freymann said. 'Most studies have been done in captivity. But this provides a case study, or several case studies, of chimpanzees in the wild possessing the ability to not just take care of themselves, but to transfer those skills to others.' Chimpanzees and their behaviors have long dominated the field of zoopharmacognosy, the study of nonhuman self-medication. In addition to Freymann's previous research looking into chimpanzees ingesting healing plants to self-medicate, researchers who documented chimpanzees using insects to treat themselves and others in Loango National Park in Gabon argued that their behavior was evidence of their capacity for 'prosocial behaviors,' or voluntary actions that serve the best interest of another. The research into the chimpanzees of Budongo found 34 instances of the chimpanzees practicing self-care, whether it be something as simple as licking their wounds or using leaves to wipe after a bowel movement or mating, to something more complex, such as chewing up plants and putting the material on a wound. There have been seven more instances of chimpanzees providing this sort of care on other chimpanzees and not just related kin. In 2012, a subadult male — a chimpanzee between the age of 10 and 14 — identified as PS sucked the wound on the leg of another subadult male identified as ZG. In 2008, researchers documented an adult male identified as NK removing the nylon snare off an unrelated adult female. The behavior also raises questions over whether the animals' caring skills are instinctual or acquired and then passed on through social learning, Freymann said. In 2008, researchers observed an adult female identified as NB, injured in a bout of intragroup aggression, applying a folded and chewed leaf to her wound. Her daughter, a juvenile female identified as NT, observed her mother doing this and then mimicked the behavior, chewing a leaf and then applying it to her mother's wound. 'I'm not making a case that every certain medicinal behavior is learned, but I think it's not out of the question that chimpanzees are capable of possessing medicinal culture,' she said. Given that apes are considered the closest evolutionary cousin to human beings, understanding 'cognitive and social foundations of health-care behaviors in humans requires examining their evolutionary precursors in our closest living relatives,' Freymann argued in her research article. The chimpanzee behavior observed in Budongo suggests that 'the shared ancestors that we have with chimps and apes would have likely been capable of this kind of caregiving and have the capacity to identify those in need of care and to provide that to others,' Freymann said. But Alexander Piel, a University College London associate professor of evolutionary anthropology who was not involved in Freymann's research, noted that the prosocial behavior demonstrated by chimpanzees in Budongo was very rare, which makes him reluctant to tie the findings to human evolution. There's always an inclination, he said, to connect similarities between humans and apes to evolution, and while it's always a possibility, 'we share other features with them, like our intense sociality, and we share them with non-apes.' Researchers have observed prosocial health-care behaviors among non-ape species such as elephants and dwarf mongooses, Freymann wrote in her study. 'The fact that we see them in non-closely related species suggests that there are some other drivers to this beyond humanness or human-relatedness. … Empathy is a part of the equation, but the data doesn't support that it's the ultimate driver of this behavior,' Piel said. The findings provide a good jumping-off point, Piel said, for exploration into the drivers behind this rare type of prosocial behavior — for example, why chimps are so selective in providing health care to other chimps. Freymann said there will be more studies to come, as well as more long-term monitoring. 'I think we're going to find medicinal cultures not just in chimps but in other animals as well,' Freymann said. 'There's debate always, but there are some medicinal behaviors that appear to be instinctual, the more basic ones. There are some behaviors that we've observed that I think are too complex to be instinctual.'
BBC News
14-05-2025
- Health
- BBC News
Wild chimpanzees filmed using forest 'first aid'
Chimpanzees in Uganda have been observed using medicinal plants - in multiple ways - to treat open wounds and other of Oxford scientists, working with a local team in the Budongo Forest, filmed and recorded incidents of the animals using plants for first aid, both on themselves and occasionally on each research builds on the discovery last year that chimps seek out and eat certain plants to scientists also compiled decades of scientific observations to create a catalogue of the different ways in which chimpanzees use "forest first aid". Researchers say the study, which is published in the journal Frontiers in Ecology and Evolution, adds to a growing body of evidence that primates, including chimps, orangutans and gorillas, use natural medicines in a number of ways to stay healthy in the 'self-medicate' with healing plantsWounded orangutan seen using plant as medicineLead researcher Elodie Freymann explained there was "a whole behavioural repertoire that chimpanzees use when they're sick or injured in the wild - to treat themselves and to maintain hygiene"."Some of these include the use of plants that can be found here," she explained. "The chimpanzees dab them on their wounds or chew the plants up, and then apply the chewed material to the open injury."The researchers studied footage of a very young, female chimpanzee chewing plant material and applying it to an injury on its mother's also found records of chimpanzees tending to the wounds of other animals they weren't related to. This is particularly exciting, explained Dr Freymann, "because it adds to the evidence that wild chimpanzees have the capacity for empathy". Some of the hundreds of written observations that Dr Freymann and her colleagues studied came from a log book at the field station in the forest site, which is northwest of the capital, Kampala. This record of anecdotal evidence dates back to the 1990s – local field staff, researchers and visitors have written in, describing any interesting behaviour they have are stories in that book of leaf-dabbing on injuries and chimps helping other chimps to remove snares from their limbs. There are some surprisingly human-like hygiene habits: One note describes a chimpanzee using leaves to wipe itself after team of researchers has previously identified some of the plants that chimpanzees sought out and ate when they were injured. The scientists took samples of those plants, tested them and discovered most had antibacterial properties. Chimpanzees are not the only non-human apes with apparent knowledge of plant-based medicine. A recent study showed a wild oranguatan using chewed leaf material to heal a facial think studying this wild ape behaviour - and understanding more about the plants the chimps use when they are sick or injured - could help in the search for new medicines."The more we learn about chimpanzee behaviour and intelligence, the more I think we come to understand how little we as humans actually know about the natural world," Dr Freymann told BBC News."If I were plopped down here in this forest with no food and no medicine, I doubt that I'd be able to survive very long, especially if I were injured or sick.""But chimpanzees thrive here because they know how to access the secrets of this place, and how to find all they need to survive from their surroundings."
