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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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WHAT THE TOP EXPERTS SAY.....by MichaelBlue
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WHAT THE TOP EXPERTS SAY.. Depression is a disease
It's one
thing to read about the current research being done on depression. But
it's another experience altogether to actually hear the voices of the
reigning experts. I want to recommend a one-hour audio program that was
well worth the money I spent. (I have no financial or other link to the
product!) I just want to say that I found this so refreshing and
enriching to listen to. Essentially, a half dozen of the
most-acclaimed depression experts in the U.S. – from Stanford’s Robert
Sapolsky to Yale’s Ronald Duman to Harvard’s Peter Kramer -- got
together last year to talk about the latest studies involving the
brain. Also, journalist Virginia Heffernan provided an extremely
stirring description of what it was like for her to experience
depression – an account that I think all of us can definitely relate to
-- and how her getting better from an anti-depressant made her
convinced that her depression was biologically-based. Among other
things, she describes how simple things like taking a shower or buying
a ticket at a movie theatre are transformed into desperate
all-encompassing acts.
If you google all four of these people's
names at once, you can easily find the audio report I’m talking about. Their
discussion covers everything from the effects of stress on hormones, to
the effects of antidepressants on neurogenesis, from exercise to
psychotherapy to ECT, to memory problems in depressed people, to how
the hippocampi of depressed people are clearly smaller (by 10-20%) than
in non-depressed people.
The overriding message one comes away
with: That it’s critically important that depressed people receive
treatment as soon as possible, in order to offset and reverse
anatomical changes that are happening in their brains!
It was
especially encouraging to hear Sapolsky, one of the world's top experts
on the neurology of stress and depression, respond to the question of
whether depression is an illness. Here are excerpts of his answer:
“Absolutely…
One of the big problems with depression...is this kind of temptation
after awhile to say, ‘Enough already. Pull yourself together. All of us
have hard times. We all come out the other end. Stop babying yourself.'
And what I have always sort of been on a soapbox about is...depression
is as real of a biological disorder as is diabetes. And you don’t sit
down a diabetic and say, ‘Oh, come on, what’s with this insulin stuff.
Stop babying yourself.'...Show somebody an image of somebody’s brain –
and say, 'Lookie here, this part of the brain is smaller than it would
be normally' -- and that screams 'biology' to you. It’s not somebody
simply indulging. That’s not 'pull yourself together…' It’s a
biological disorder that’s obviously exquisitely sensitive to
environment…That’s the ONLY way you can understand it.”
Harvard's
Kramer says the age-old question of whether depression is a disease was
settled back in Spring of 1999 with two key studies of the brain. One
study used computer modeling based on a microscopic examination of thin
slices of brain tissue taken from depressed and non-depressed people
who had suddenly died. Researchers found a "disruption of cell
architecture" in the depressed people's brains. In particular, there
was a marked absence of cells called "glia" that support and protect
neurons -- leaving those neurons in depressed people vulnerable to
stress.
The second decisive study -- conducted by Washington
University's Yvette Sheline, who also discusses it on this recording --
found that the hippocampus of depressed women were smaller -- even when
they are not actively depressed -- and that its smaller size even
corresponded with the number of days the women had been depressed in
their lifetimes!
Cutting-edge stuff, from these cutting-edge researchers.
Happy New Year all.
Forum Admin Note: You may PM MichaelBlue for more information http://www.learnoutloud.com/Sale-Section/Science/Biology/Depression-in-the-Brain/18552
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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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