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QUOTE (Obsessing @ Dec 8 2007, 07:54 PM) *
If I could I would take all the pain from all the people here and ball it up and swallow it for you all!!
You are all beautiful, caring, sharing people who don't deserve the pain.
And I know I can't but really if I could I would I have been reading posts for about an hour now and I just think you people are so wonderful that if I could take it from you I would.
(QUOTE (Obsessing @ Dec 8 2007, 07:54 PM) *)
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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.
Our DF Members
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Broad Strategy Needed to Improve Quality of Health Care for Mental Health and Alcohol and Drug Problems
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Posted Thursday, November 03, 2005 :: infoZine Staff
Without a comprehensive strategy to improve the quality of health care for people with mental conditions and alcohol or drug problems, high-quality care in the nation's overall health system and better health for the public are goals that will remain unmet, says a new report from the Institute of Medicine of the National Academies.
Washington, D.C. - infoZine - The report offers such a strategy, outlining key roles for government officials, clinicians, health care organizations, health plans, and purchasers -- companies or other groups that compensate health care providers for delivering services to patients.
The diagnoses and severity of mental and substance problems vary widely -- from distress caused by a life-changing event to severe depression to physical dependence on alcohol. Each year more than 33 million Americans, many of whom are working adults, use health care services for such conditions. And research shows that successful, cost-effective treatments exist. However, as with general health care, the delivery of high-quality interventions can be spotty, and poor care has serious consequences: Mental health problems and alcohol and drug issues are leading risk factors for suicide. Furthermore, the consequences ripple throughout the U.S. education, legal, and welfare systems and the workplace in the forms of lost productivity, low academic achievement, and dysfunctional behavior.
"America will not have a high-quality health system if equal attention is not given to mental health issues and substance-use problems," said Mary Jane England, president, Regis College, Weston, Mass., and chair of the committee that wrote the report. "Mental health is inextricably linked with health and well-being, but treatment for mental conditions and inappropriate use of substances is often separated from other health care."
Health services for these conditions have been isolated not only from other components of the health system but also from each other, despite the fact that many people have both mental conditions and problems with alcohol or drugs. To make collaboration and coordination of care the norm, service providers should link relevant areas of their own organizations and form ties with other providers, the report says.
Government agencies, purchasers, health plans, and accrediting groups also should create incentives and policies to increase collaboration among all health care providers, the report says. The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services should lead these efforts by establishing a permanent, high-level mechanism to foster greater coordination across the department's mental, substance-use, and general health care agencies.
A broad range of providers is licensed to diagnose and treat mental health and substance-use illnesses. Consequently, their training levels and therapeutic approaches often differ, leaving the overall work force with an uneven distribution of the knowledge and skills necessary to provide consistent, high-quality services. Congress should authorize and fund a Council on the Mental and Substance-Use Health Care Work Force to develop and implement plans to help professionals improve the quality of their care, the report says. Licensing boards, accrediting organizations, and purchasers should adopt any national standards identified by the council, which would operate as a partnership between the public and private sectors.
Likewise, government programs, employers, and purchasers should allocate funds in ways that better support the delivery of high-quality care, the committee said. For example, states should revamp how they purchase health care services, giving more weight to the quality of care that vendors would provide.
Health professionals' ability to quickly obtain and share information on a patient's health and potential treatments is essential to effective care, the report says. Federal and state governments should revise laws, regulations, and administrative practices that hinder such information sharing.
Public-private partnerships are now developing an information technology system called the National Health Information Infrastructure (NHII) to make the exchange of health information easier. But so far, these efforts have not adequately dealt with health care for mental and substance-use problems, the report says. HHS and the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs should take steps to ensure that NHII will thoroughly address such conditions. Additionally, federal and state governments, purchasers, and foundations should offer clinicians and groups who treat these problems incentives to invest in the information technology needed to fully participate in NHII.
HHS should synthesize and disseminate scientific evidence on effective services for mental and substance-use conditions, the report adds. It also should lead efforts to significantly develop an infrastructure for measuring and improving the quality of mental and substance-use health care. To this end, the department, working with the private sector, should charge and fund a group similar to the National Quality Forum -- a private, nonprofit organization -- to identify and put into practice quality measures in these areas. And HHS should oversee a coordinated research agenda for improving care.
The report -- like the Institute of Medicine's 2001 report Crossing the Quality Chasm: A New Health System for the 21st Century -- envisions a revamped health care system that not only is centered on the needs, preferences, and values of patients, but also encourages teamwork among health care workers and makes much greater use of information technology. Patient-centered care is especially important in the delivery of mental health services and treatments for addictions, the report says, because of the stigma sometimes associated with interventions and greater use of coercion into treatment compared with general health care.
The study was sponsored by the Annie E. Casey Foundation; CIGNA Foundation; U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs; Robert Wood Johnson Foundation; and the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services' Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration, National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism, and National Institute on Drug Abuse. The Institute of Medicine is a private, nonprofit institution that provides health policy advice under a congressional charter granted to the National Academy of Sciences. A committee roster follows.
Copies of Improving the Quality of Health Care for Mental and Substance-Use Conditions will be available this fall from the National Academies Press; tel. 1-800-624-6242
SOURCE: ISSN 1082-7315 - © 1994-2005 INFOZINE ® A REGISTERED TRADEMARK.
infoZine ® is generously hosted by KCServers.com.
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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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