Depression
CPAP therapy improves symptoms of depression in OSA patients
|
|
Patients with obstructive sleep apnea (OSA) who also suffer from depression often find that continued use of continuous positive airway pressure (CPAP) relieves them of symptoms of depression, according to a study published in the October 15 issue of the Journal of Clinical Sleep Medicine (JCSM).
Daniel J. Schwartz, MD, of The Sleep Center at University’s Community Hospital in Tampa, Fla., surveyed patients referred to his sleep center for evaluation of OSA and who demonstrated a significant response to CPAP. The subjects were evaluated for symptoms of depression, were assessed again after four to six weeks of treatment with CPAP and then reassessed approximately one year later.
Depression outreach can benefit workers, employers
|
|
A work-based outreach and care program to help company employees with depression improves not only clinical well-being but also workplace productivity, a study shows.
As reported in this week’s Journal of the American Medical Association, employees seeking treatment for depression who participated in the program had fewer depressive symptoms, logged more hours on the job, and had greater job retention than similar employees receiving usual care.
Children of depressed moms do better when dad is involved, SLU researcher finds
|
|
Children whose mothers are depressed are less likely to develop problem behaviors if their fathers are actively engaged in family life, a Saint Louis University researcher finds.
It is well documented that children living in homes with depressed mothers are at increased risk of developing problems such as aggression, hyperactivity, depression and anxiety. However, an involved father – one who has a positive relationship with his children – may reduce the risk of those behaviors.
Group Psychotherapy Effective for Treating Depression of Displaced African Girls
|
|
Group psychotherapy was effective in reducing depression among displaced adolescent girls who are survivors of war in northern Uganda, though the intervention was not effective for adolescent boys, according to a study in the August 1 issue of JAMA, a theme issue on violence and human rights.
“Over 1.8 million individuals, mainly ethnic Acholi, have been internally displaced during 20 years of conflict between the government of Uganda and the Lord’s Resistance Army. The Lord’s Resistance Army has been accused of human rights abuses including mass violence, rape, and the abduction of more than 25,000 children.
Therapy for depression cuts suicide attempts
|
|
Treating people with depression—by means of either medications or psychotherapy—leads to a drop in suicide attempts, according to a new report.
The findings relate to the controversy about treating young people with antidepressant drugs, and the suspicion that doing so may be linked to increased suicide rates.
Depression may speed bone loss in older women
|
|
Depressed older women appear to lose bone at a faster rate than their non-depressed counterparts, new research shows.
In the study, researchers determined depressive symptoms and took two hip bone mineral density (BMD) measurements an average of 4.4 years apart in 4,177 women aged 69 and older participating in the Study of Osteoporotic Fractures.
New Mothers Often Not Asked About Depression
|
|
The majority of doctors in North Carolina do not probe for signs of postpartum depression in new mothers, according to a survey conducted by researchers at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.
Of the 228 physicians responding to the survey who said they had seen women for postpartum visits in the previous three months, 79 percent said they were unlikely to formally screen the patients for depression. An estimated 13 percent of new mothers are affected by postpartum depression. The study will be published June 6, 2007 in the North Carolina Medical Journal.
Efficacy and safety of Aripiprazole as adjunctive therapy in major depressive disorder
|
|
In adults with major depressive disorder, adding aripiprazole to antidepressant therapy (ADT) resulted in significant improvement in the primary endpoint, the Montgomery-Asberg Depression Rating Scale (MADRS) Total Score. In this six-week, randomized, placebo-controlled study presented here at the 160th Annual Meeting of the American Psychiatric Association, the Bristol-Myers Squibb Company (NYSE: BMY) and Otsuka Pharmaceutical Co., Ltd. atypical antipsychotic aripiprazole was added to antidepressants in patients who did not have an adequate response to ADT alone. (1)(Berman, 2007, APA Poster)
These findings are from one of two completed studies evaluating adjunctive aripiprazole with ADT.
High-quality Child Care for Low-income Children Offset the Risk of Later Depression
|
|
Young adults from low-income families who were in full-time early educational child care from infancy to age 5 reported fewer symptoms of depression than their peers who were not in this type of care, according to a new report. The early educational intervention also appears to have protected the children to some extent against the negative effects of their home environments.
The report, from the FPG Child Development Institute (FPG) at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, uses data from the Abecedarian Project, a longitudinal study begun in 1972 in which 111 high-risk children were randomly assigned to early educational child care from infancy to age 5 or to a control group that received various other forms of child care. The study is published in the May/June 2007 issue of the journal Child Development.
Treating depression may prolong survival in elderly
|
|
Previous research has shown that depression is associated with an increased risk of mortality in older adults; and now new research indicates that this risk can be reduced through primary care-based depression intervention.
Dr. Joseph J. Gallo, from the University of Pennsylvania in Philadelphia, and colleagues assessed the 5-year risk of death in 1,226 subjects, 60 years of age or older, who entered into a general practice-based clinical trial. The 20 participating primary care practices provided usual care only or usual care plus a depression “intervention,” which involved assessment by a depression care manager.
University In Pilot Project To Improve Depression Screening
|
|
Fifteen percent of college students suffered from depression last year, up from 10 percent in 2000, according to The American College Health Association. Mental health professionals on college campuses expect the percentage to rise again this year.
St. Lawrence University (Canton, New York) is addressing the problem on its campus by participating in a national pilot project to improve screening and care for students with depression.
Study finds major depression connection to diabetes
|
|
Elderly people who are depressed are more likely to become diabetic than those who are not, according to a study that suggests depression may play a role in causing the most common form of diabetes.
Writing on Monday in the Archives of Internal Medicine, the researchers said people with a high number of symptoms of depression were about 60 percent more likely to develop type 2 diabetes, formerly called adult-onset diabetes, than people who are not depressed.
Training program for depressed moms helps babies
|
|
Infants of depressed mothers show “quite dramatic” increases in positive responses after their mothers complete a 5-week course designed to help them better interpret and respond to infant behavior, even though the course had no apparent effect on depression.
“It was a significant difference and gave us a pretty strong message that it was having a pretty powerful effect,” Dr. Robert Short of the University of Alberta in Edmonton, Canada, one of the study’s authors, told Reuters Health.
Stress and nerve cells survival in rats; finding may open widow for depression treatment
|
|
A single, socially stressful situation can kill off new nerve cells in the brain region that processes learning, memory, and emotion, and possibly contribute to depression, new animal research shows.
Researchers found that in young rats, the stress of encountering aggressive, older rats did not stop the generation of new nerve cells—the first step in the process of neurogenesis. But stress did prevent the cells, located in the hippocampus, from surviving, leaving fewer new neurons for processing feelings and emotions. The hippocampus is one of two regions of the brain that continues to develop new nerve cells throughout life, in both rats and humans. The reduction of neurogenesis could be one cause of depression, says senior author Daniel Peterson, PhD, of the Rosalind Franklin University of Medicine and Science, near Chicago. His team reports their findings in the March 14 issue of The Journal of Neuroscience.
Diabetes and severe depression raise risk of death
|
|
Heart disease, diabetes, and depression can be a deadly combination, according results of a study that suggest that, in people with coronary artery disease, the presence of diabetes or depression increases the risk of dying from heart disease.
The risk is even higher when both diabetes and severe depression are present, investigators reported today at the annual meeting of the American Psychosomatic Society in Budapest, Hungary.
