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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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The brain gets 'mellow' with age. People become more "mellow" in response to negative emotions over their lifetime, research suggests.
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The brain gets 'mellow' with age
People become more "mellow" in response to negative emotions over their lifetime, research suggests.
A brain imaging study in individuals aged 12 to 79 found that emotional stability continues to improve, even into the seventh decade.
And older people were found to be less neurotic than teenagers.
The results published in the Journal of Neuroscience combat negative beliefs that brain function declines with age, say the Sydney University researchers.
A total of 242 healthy men and women were assessed for the study using emotional well-being questionnaires.
Neurotic traits were found to decrease with advancing age - with the 12 to 19 year age group being the most neurotic and the 50 to 79 year age group being the least neurotic.
Researchers then used MRI scanning and measurements of electrical activity to monitor brain responses while subjects viewed facial expressions of emotions.
When shown images of faces expressing emotion, younger age groups were significantly better at recognising fear but less accurate when it came to identifying happiness.
"Hopefully, these findings will begin to usher in a new and more positive understanding of the aging process"
Professor Helen Fisher, Rutgers University
Brain scans also showed that in older people the medial prefrontal area of the brain was more active when processing negative emotions than positive ones.
The results indicate that older people have better control over brain responses to negative emotions than younger people.
Emotional wellbeing
Writing in the journal, Dr Leanne Williams and colleagues at the Brain Dynamics Centre, Westmead Millennium Institute in Sydney, Australia concluded: "These findings provide new evidence that emotional wellbeing improves over seven decades of the human lifespan.
"We propose that life experience and changing motivational goals may drive plasticity in the medial prefrontal brain to increase selective control over the balance of negative and positive emotion."
They added that with predictions one in three people will be over age 60 by 2150, researchers should draw on positive changes in emotional brain function to help find interventions to address age-related decline in cognitive function.
Professor Helen Fisher, an expert in human emotion at Rutgers University in New Jersey said: "Hopefully, these findings will begin to usher in a new and more positive understanding of the aging process."
Dr Simon Surguladze, deputy head of the department of neuroscience and emotion at King's College London said the control over negative emotions in older people was likely to be an evolutionary trait.
"In my opinion people have acquired this over hundreds of years of evolution - so that in growing old, the brain selects positive reinforcement more easily to balance losses in life and mental health.
"The brains are adjusted so people are not going into depression - there is a balance in the control of emotion."
Story from BBC NEWS:
2006/06/16 23:25:13 GMT
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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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