Depression
Depression treatment in children - poor data
|
|
When the U.S. Food and Drug Administration declared in 2004 that certain antidepressants are linked to an increased risk of suicide in adolescents, there was surprisingly little data about how depression was being treated in young patients.
Now new research from the Stanford University School of Medicine provides critical documentation of the potential misuse of these medications in the years leading up to the FDA’s decision to issue the so-called “black-box” warnings.
Study Confirms Physical Toll of Stressful Events
|
|
The death of a child. Divorce. An assault. Loss of a job. These and other highly stressful events can take a toll on physical health and mortality many years later, according to a University of Michigan study published in the current issue of the Journal of Health and Social Behavior.
And life-altering events like these are especially likely to happen to people with low levels of education and income, the study found.
Depressed diabetics have higher mortality risk
|
|
Both minor and major depression are strongly associated with increased mortality in diabetic patients, according to results of a study published in the current issue of Diabetes Care.
Researchers in Seattle examined whether patients with minor or major depression and type 2 diabetes have a higher mortality rate compared with patients with diabetes alone. They surveyed 4,154 diabetic patients in a large health maintenance organization and followed them for up to 3 years.
Seasonal Depression, Anxiety Affects Hamsters
|
|
A new study suggests that hamsters may suffer from symptoms of anxiety and depression during the dark days of winter, just as some humans do.
Using a variety of tests, researchers found more symptoms of depression and anxiety in adult hamsters that were housed for weeks in conditions with limited daylight, as they would find in winter, when compared to hamsters who had days with longer daylight.
Terminating Unwanted First Pregnancy Doesn’t Add to Risk of Depression
|
|
Women who terminate an unwanted first pregnancy are no more likely to develop depression than women who carry unwanted first pregnancies to term.
This finding emerged from a survey of 1,247 American women who had unwanted first pregnancies, reported Nancy Felipe Russo, Ph.D, a professor of psychology at Arizona State, and Sarah Schmiege, Ph.D., of the University of Colorado in Boulder.
Marijuana May Grow Neurons in the Brain
|
|
Advocates for medical marijuana can take heart over the findings of two Canadian research teams.
A synthetic cannabinoid—similar to the compounds found in marijuana, but substantially stronger—causes the growth of new neurons and reduces anxiety and depression, investigators at the University of Saskatchewan here reported.
Study links depression, suicide and seizures
|
|
Results of a study hint that the brain dysfunction that underlies epilepsy may also determine whether people are at risk for suicide. In a large study conducted in Iceland, researchers found that attempted suicide and depression are each independently associated with an increased risk of seizures.
Although a link between Depression and suicide and seizures has been previously documented, most studies did not address the time order of the association. Up until now it was assumed that suicide attempts occurred more often in patients with epilepsy because the disease increases the risk for Depression.
New Surgical Treatment For Severe Depression
|
|
Treatment-resistant depression is a severe form of the illness that affects 20% of patients with Depression.
A team of psychiatrists and neurosurgeons at the University of California, San Diego (UCSD) Medical Center is the first in the area to offer implantation of a device recently approved by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) for treating patients with treatment-resistant depression.
Baby blues or depression?
|
|
What do you want to know? Come ask the experts! A selection of answers to your questions will be regularly posted on the site. For instant gratification, click here to see what other questions have already been answered. Something not here that you want to know? Well come on—ask your question!
The question:
What are “the baby blues”? Are they an early warning sign of postpartum depression?
Surprising Links Between Depression, Suicide, and Epilepsy
|
|
Researchers have found provocative evidence that the brain dysfunction that underlies epilepsy may also determine whether people are at risk for suicide. The study, published online October 10, 2005 in the Annals of Neurology (http://www.interscience.wiley.com/journal/ana), also suggests that Depression and suicide may have different brain mechanisms.
“For reasons that are not understood, depression both increases the risk for developing epilepsy and is also common among people with epilepsy who experience many seizures,” said lead author Dale C. Hesdorffer, Ph.D., of the Gertrude Sergievsky Center at Columbia University.
Depression and mental disorders can be prevented and treated with simple healing foods
|
|
A new study published in the February 15, 2005 issue of Biological Psychiatry shows that certain foods are better at treating depression than antidepressant drugs. The study found that omega-3 fatty acids and foods high in a compound called uridine were able to reduce the symptoms of depression as well as or better than three different antidepressant drugs that were tested. This research was conducted at the McLean Hospital, which is affiliated with Harvard. It’s very exciting to see this kind of study, because it shows yet more scientific evidence for the healing effects of food as well as the relative uselessness of prescription drugs.
New Warning Issued on Paxil
|
|
U.S. health officials have issued a warning about possible birth defects in infants born to women who take the antidepressant Paxil during the first trimester of pregnancy.
A study sponsored by GlaxoSmithKline, the drug’s maker, suggested that infants born to women taking Paxil were at about double the risk of birth defects compared with women taking other antidepressants. The most common defects were cardiovascular. The risks were about 50 percent higher than they were in the general population.
New dads get postpartum depression, too, study finds
|
|
What if Tom Cruise and Katie Holmes have a baby ... and Tom’s the one who gets postpartum depression?
That’s not just a fantasy for those outraged at Cruise’s comments in June about the illness. It’s entirely possible.
With Hollywood-perfect timing, on June 25 - one day after Cruise and “Today” co-host Matt Lauer had their infamous on-air spat about post-birth depression, psychiatry and medication - the British medical journal The Lancet published the results of a groundbreaking study:
Knowing The Signs Of Depression
|
|
For most people, figuring out the difference between being moody and being depressed is difficult.
However, knowing the difference could affect your health.
The term “depression” is used often. Most of us feel down once in awhile, but when is it something more serious?
Anxiety in Decades Past Linked to Parkinson’s
|
|
With the help of a decades old database, doctors have bridged past anxiety and negativism with the development of Parkinson’s disease and parkinsonism years later.
Researchers accessed the Mayo Clinic database looking for patients who had been treated between the years 1962 and 1965 and who had taken the Minnesota Multiphasic Personality Inventory (MMPI)—a standard instrument that captures personality characteristics such as anxiety, depression, sociability, and negativity or pessimism.
