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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
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Celebrity suicide sparks "copycat" attempts
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pQUOTE]
Thursday, July 26, 2007; 4:27 PM
NEW YORK (Reuters Health) - The media frenzy surrounding a celebrity suicide may lead to a spike in suicide attempts, with people who have previously attempted suicide being especially susceptible, researchers from Taiwan report.
"The results provide further support for the need for more restrained reporting of suicides as part of suicide prevention strategies and for special vigilance for contagious effects of such reporting on people who have carried out recent suicidal acts," Dr. Andrew T. A. Cheng of the Institute of Biomedical Sciences at the Academia Sinica in Taipei and colleagues conclude.
Past studies have linked celebrity suicides and "copycat" attempts, Cheng and his colleagues note, but most studies have not delved into how much suicide coverage these individuals actually saw or how it influenced them.
To investigate, the researchers interviewed and collected data for 270 individuals who had attempted suicide during the 3-week period of media coverage after the 2005 suicide of Taiwanese TV star M.J. Nee. The researchers were able to interview 124 of these individuals.
On TV and in print, the researchers note, "the suicide act was depicted as an understandable solution to the victim's dilemma, which included his extramarital relationships and his recent frustrations in show business."
Compared to the same time period in 2003 and 2004, the suicide rate for the two counties included in the study rose by 55 percent during the weeks after Nee's body was discovered and media coverage was heaviest, the researchers found.
Nearly 90 percent of the people the researchers interviewed said they had been exposed to coverage of Nee's suicide, while 23.4 percent of these individuals said they had been influenced by it
Men were more than twice as likely as women to report being influenced, while individuals who had attempted suicide in the previous year were more than 50 times as likely to say the coverage of Nee's death had helped trigger their own suicide attempt. No increase in suicide attempts was found among those with a history of suicidal thoughts but who made no attempts in the last year.
Most commonly, people said that coverage of Nee's death had encouraged them to imitate the TV star or helped them to rationalize the act. Others said hearing of the celebrity's suicide gave them a sense of hopelessness or provided them with information on suicide methods.
The findings confirm that "dramatic and extensive" reporting of celebrity suicides can influence others to attempt suicide, the researches write, and suggest that during such coverage, doctors should pay particularly close attention to people who have tried suicide in the past.
SOURCE: Journal of Clinical Psychiatry, June 2007.
Copyright © 2007 Reuters Limited.
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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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