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Depression & Mental Health FAQs
US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) estimated 40 million Americans living today will suffer from major depressive illness during their lives. Seasonal affective disorder is major depression that appears in the fall or winter and goes away in spring, thought to be caused by lack of sunlight.
Postpartum depression occurs within four weeks of a women giving childbirth. Most new mothers suffer from some form of the �baby blues.� Postpartum depression, by contrast, is major depression, thought to be triggered by changes in hormonal flows associated with childbirth. Catatonic depression is a rare form of major depression characterized by (at least two): Stupor, excessive motor activity, extreme negativism, peculiarities in voluntary movement, and repetition of other people's words or actions. - mcmanweb.com
Psychotic depression is a rare form of depression characterized by delusions or hallucinations, such as believing you are someone you are not and hearing voices.
According to the National Institute of Mental Health, approximately 18.8 million American adults, or about 9.5 percent of the US population age 18 and older in a given year, have a depressive disorder. Depression is a chronic illness that exacts a significant toll on
America's health and productivity. It affects more than 21 million
American children and adults annually and is the leading cause of
disability in the United States for individuals ages 15 to 44.
Lost productive time among U.S. workers due to depression is estimated
to be in excess of $31 billion per year. Depression frequently
co-occurs with a variety of medical illnesses such as heart disease,
cancer, and chronic pain and is associated with poorer health status
and prognosis. It is also the principal cause of the 30,000 suicides
in the U.S. each year. In 2004, suicide was the 11 th leading cause of death in the United States, third among individuals 15-24.
According to the World Health Organization, depression is presently on track to becoming the world's second-most disabling disease (after heart disease) by the year 2020. Depression is responsible for some $87 billion a year in lost productivity in the US (a conservative estimate), and according to Bank One, is responsible for most lost work days in its employees after pregnancy and childbirth. Additionally, one million people worldwide die by their own hand, most as a result of a mood disorder. Finally, the linkage between depression and a host of physical illnesses makes it arguably the world's greatest killer.
Research presented at the 56th Annual Conference of the Canadian
Psychiatric Association shows a marked link between bipolar disorder
and migraines. The odds of migraine in persons with bipolar disorder were 40% higher than the general population. Data
obtained from 36,984 people aged 15 and over, who screened positive for
manic or depressive episodes with migraine, were compared against those
who screened positive for mania but who didn�t suffer from migraines. Amongst
males, 14.9% of those with manic episodes were also diagnosed with
migraines compared with 5.8% of the general population. Amongst
females, 34.7% had both migraines and bipolar disorder compared with
14.7% who only had migraines.unquote.gif While the research was
skewed towards persons who were already diagnosed with bipolar
disorders, what does it mean for people who suffer from migraines but
who may have an undiagnosed bipolar disorder?
Migraines and headaches aren�t fully understood but the manifestations are very real and debilitating for their sufferers: Throbbing pain Nausea Heightened sensitivity to light or sound Seeing dots, wavy lines, flashing lights, or blind spots Difficulty with speech, sensation, or movement
An estimated 2.1 million
American adolescents have experienced major depression within the last
year, according to a new comprehensive government study. Researchers
surveyed more than 67,000 young people ages 12 to 17 and found that one
in 12 had suffered from serious depression in the previous year.Nearly
13 percent of girls had struggled with depression, compared to less
than 5 percent of boys. Odds of depression increased with age -- just 4
percent of 12-year-olds experienced depression but that climbed to 11
percent for older teens.
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Do you have expertise in a particular area such as Psychology, graphic/web design, journalism, public relations, IT, (Web Geeks Needed!) or fund raising? We need your assistance volunteering for DF. We're always looking for additional forum and chat moderators as well, keeping DF the safe haven it has always been for our members. If you're interested, this would be a wonderful way of giving back to DF. Contact Forum Admin for more details.
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College Students - Depression and Academic Performance
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Aug 7, 2009 - According to new research, college students with depression are twice as likely as their classmates to drop out of school. However, the research also indicates that lower grade point averages depended upon a student’s type of depression.
There
are two core symptoms of depression—loss of interest and pleasure in
activities, or depressed mood—but only loss of interest is associated
with lower grade point averages.
“The correlation between
depression and academic performance is mainly driven by loss of
interest in activities,” says Daniel Eisenberg, assistant professor in
the University of Michigan School of Public Health and principal
investigator of the study.
“This is significant because it
means individuals can be very depressed and very functional, depending
on which type of depression they have. I think that this can be true
for many high achieving people, who may feel down and hopeless but not
lose interest in activities.
“Lots of students who have
significant depression on some dimension are performing just fine, but
may be at risk and go unnoticed because there is no noticeable drop in
functioning.”
Students with both depression and anxiety had especially poor academic performance.
“If
you take a student at the 50th percentile of the GPA distribution and
compare them to a student with depression alone, the depressed student
would be around the 37th percentile—a 13 percent drop,” Eisenberg said.
“However, a student with depression and anxiety plummets to about the 23rd percentile, a 50 percent drop.”
In
the study, Eisenberg and his colleagues conducted a Web survey of a
random sample of approximately 2,800 undergraduate and graduate
students about a range of mental health issues in fall 2005, and
conducted a follow-up survey with a subset of the sample in fall 2007.
The
dropout rate for University of Michigan students is about 5 percent per
year, which is much lower than the national average, Eisenberg says.
This likely reflects the type of high-achieving students Michigan
attracts, along with U-M’s support network for students experiencing
emotional problems or depression.
“Michigan does seem to be
a leader in many respects in terms of things the university has done
related to student mental health,” said Eisenberg, who noted that the
next step in the research is a large scale study.
“I see
this study as suggesting that there is value in a large randomized
trial of screening and treating depressed students, in which the
academic outcomes are measured carefully. That’s what it will take to
really see what the value is in reducing the dropout rate and improving
GPA. As far as I know this has not been done.”
Many students with depression—as with the general population—remain untreated.
“Maybe
the biggest reason is only about 50 percent of people with depression
say they think they need help,” Eisenberg said. “College students in
particular may feel that stress is normal.”
According to
Eisenberg’s research, certain types of students have higher levels of
stigma. Males, students from lower-income backgrounds and Asian
students, in particular, report higher levels of stigma about mental
health.
Source: University of Michigan
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Depression & Mental Health FAQs 2
What is Clinical Depression? Clinical
depression can affect your body, mood, thoughts, and behavior. It can
change your eating habits, how you feel and think about things, your
ability to work and study, and how you interact with people. Clinical
depression is not a passing mood, a sign of personal weakness or a
condition that can be willed away. Clinically depressed people cannot
"pull themselves together" and get better. Depression can be
successfully treated by a mental health professional or certain health
care providers. With the right treatment, 80 percent of those who seek
help get better. And many people begin to feel better in just a few
weeks.
Depression a Big Factor in Poor Health World Health Organization Finds Depression Often Goes Untreated By Salynn Boyles WebMD Medical News Reviewed by Louise Chang, MD Sept.
6, 2007 -- Depression has a greater impact on overall health than
arthritis, diabetes, angina, and asthma, but it all too often goes
unrecognized and untreated, a report from the World Health Organization
(WHO) suggests. more... Depression a Big Factor in Poor Health
For Additional Information About Depression Write To: The National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH)6001 Executive Boulevard, Room 8184, MSC 9663 Bethesda, MD 20892-9663
For free brochures on depression and its treatment call: 1-800-421-4211. or visit: http://www.nimh.nih.gov
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