Sevitar

General learning

• A radio interview Wiveka Ramel did on Alice’s Radio (97.3) in December 2009 about depression and anxiety disorders and the current research and treatments available.

• National Institute on Mental Health has a lot of helpful information about the science and treatment of many mental health disorders: http://www.nimh.nih.gov/health/topics/

• Association for Behavioral and Cognitive Therapies (ABCT) has information about many psychological disorders and conditions and evidence-based treatments in the Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT) tradition: http://www.abct.org/.

• An article written in the San Francisco Chronicle describing Cognitive Therapy.
  

• For information on Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT), which is a behavioral approach used to treat many psychological conditions, see http://www.contextualpsychology.org/

• An article in Time magazine describing Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT) and shared components of other “third wave” therapies like Dialectical Behavior Therapy (DBT) and Mindfulness-Based Cognitive Therapy (MBCT).

• In the HBO series “Confessions” Mike Wallace, Martha Manning, and William Styron talk about their personal experiences with major depression.

• For research papers on depression, meditation, and emotion regulation, see

o        http://sevitar.com/research

o        http://www.pitt.edu/~gsiegle/

o        http://www-psych.stanford.edu/~psyphy/papers.html

Books

• Author William Styron describes his personal experience with major depression in a beautifully written book “Darkness visible: A memoir of madness.”

• Dr. Kay Redfield Jamison, a psychologist and researcher of bipolar disorder, gives a compelling description of her personal experience with bipolar disorder in “An unquiet mind: A Memoir of Moods and Madness.” She has also written about great artists in history who suffered from bipolar disorder in “Touched with Fire: Manic-Depressive Illness and the Artistic Temperament“

• The “Noonday Demon: An Atlas of Depression” by Andrew Salomon examines personal, cultural, and scientific aspects of depression. It won the 2001 National Book Award.

• For many self-help books with an Acceptance and Commitment Therapy orientation, see New Harbinger’s extensive publications (http://www.newharbinger.com/). Here are some suggestions:
  • Get Out of Your Mind and Into Your Life
  • Leave Your Mind Behind
  • The Mindfulness and Acceptance Workbook for Depression
  • The Mindfulness and Acceptance Workbook for Anxiety

• A self-help book that gives a cognitive-behavioral perspective on how to deal with depression and anxiety is “Feeling Good” by Dr. David Burns.

• For a Buddhist approach to dealing with adversity, read any of Pema Chödrön’s books (e.g., “When things fall apart,” “The wisdom of no escape”).

Treatment

• Hotline for mental health services in San Francisco that links people to public and private mental health resources: Access 415-255-3737

• To find a psychiatrist in San Francisco who can prescribe medication, see http://www.sfpsych.org/

• To find a psychologist who specializes in Cognitive Behavior Therapy (CBT) and Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT), use the following web sites where you can search for therapists in the whole country:

o        ABCT: http://www.abct.org/members/Directory/Find_A_Therapist.cfm

o        ACT: http://www.contextualpsychology.org/therapist_referrals

Support groups

• Depression and Bipolar Support Alliance, San Francisco: http://www.dbsasf.org/, Jane 415-519-0171

• The National Alliance of Mental Illness (NAMI), San Francisco: http://www.namisf.org/

Participate in research on mood, anxiety, sleep, emotion, memory, and more

• Research on psychotherapy and meditation for social anxiety, CAAN at Stanford: http://waldron.stanford.edu/~caan/

• Research on treatment for insomnia and depression at Stanford (TRIAD): triadproject.org. Study coordinator Katherine Taylor <klilytay@stanford.edu>

• Research at Berkeley on stress, daily routines, sleep, and mood in bipolar disorder: http://www.ocf.berkeley.edu/~ahsleep/main.html (click on ’studies’ then ‘Daily Rhythms Study’), phone 510-643-3797

• Cognitive behavioral therapy treatment study on insomnia for post-traumatic stress disorder at San Francisco VA Medical Center / UCSF. Contact Aric Jensen at (415) 221-4810 x 4773 or Aric.Jensen@va.gov

• Stanford mood and anxiety disorder laboratory: http://www-psych.stanford.edu/~mood/

• Stanford Depression Research Clinic: http://med.stanford.edu/depression/research.html

• Stanford Psychophysiology Laboratory: http://www-psych.stanford.edu/~psyphy/

• Berkeley Psychology Department: http://psychology.berkeley.edu/

• Stanford Psychology Department: https://www.stanford.edu/dept/psychology/

• UCSF Department of Psychiatry, research studies on depression: http://ucsfdepressioncenter.ucsf.edu/research.aspx?id=2746

• The Mindfulness-Based Cognitive Therapy research study at UCSF (“Practicing Alternative Techniques to Heal Depression (PATH-D) Study): http://psych.ucsf.edu/clinical-trials.aspx?id=5392