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on: Friday, 08 August 2008 15:06
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QUOTE (Maggie4713 @ Jul 30 2008, 01:27 AM) *
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Thanks everyone.
This site is AWESOME.
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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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Loneliness May Be Alleviated By Animals, Gadgets, Spiritual Beliefs, Not Just People
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21 Jan 2008
New research at the University of Chicago finds evidence for a
clever way that people manage to alleviate the pain of loneliness: They
create people in their surroundings to keep them company.
"Biological reproduction is not a very efficient way to
alleviate one's loneliness, but you can make up people when you're
motivated to do so," said Nicholas Epley, Assistant Professor of
Behavioral Science at the University of Chicago's Graduate School of
Business. "When people lack a sense of connection with other people,
they are more likely to see their pets, gadgets or gods as human-like." Social scientists call this tendency "anthropomorphism." As a
research topic, the phenomenon carries important therapeutic and
societal implications, Epley said. He and his co-authors will publish
their findings on anthropomorphism in the February issue of the journal
Psychological Science.
Also contributing to the research were Scott Akalis of Harvard
University and the University of Chicago's Adam Waytz and John
Cacioppo.
The behaviors they describe in the paper are not limited to
the lonely. Nevertheless, they are well-known to casual observers, from
the stereotype of the woman who lives alone surrounded by her menagerie
of cats, to the movie portrayal of a tropical island castaway.
"In the movie Castaway, Tom Hanks was isolated on an island
and found the social desolation to be one of the most daunting
challenges with which he had to deal," said Cacioppo, the Tiffany and
Margaret Blake Distinguished Service Professor in Psychology at the
University of Chicago.
"He did so, in part, by anthropomorphizing a volleyball,
Wilson, who became his friend and confidant while he was on the
island." Although fictional, "Castaway depicts a deep truth about the
irrepressibly social nature of Homo sapiens," Cacioppo said.
The researchers designed three experiments to test their
expectations that lonely people are more likely to make up for their
lack of social connection by creating humanlike connections with
gadgets or pets, or to increase their belief in the supernatural.
In one experiment, the team found a correlation between how
lonely people felt and their tendency to describe a gadget in terms of
humanlike mental states.
In another experiment, the team made people feel lonely in the
laboratory by asking them to write about a time when they felt lonely
or isolated. Under those circumstances, they were more likely to
believe in the supernatural, whether it be God, angels or miracles,
than when they were not feeling lonely.
"If we made them feel lonely, they were also more likely to
describe a pet, even if it wasn't their own pet, as having humanlike
mental states that were related to social connection, like being more
thoughtful, considerate and compassionate," Epley said.
The research further revealed that not just any negative
emotional state produces this effect. "It's something special about
loneliness," Epley said. Fear, for example, doesn't increase reported
belief in God, or how people describe their pets.
Loneliness is both painful to experience and potentially
deadly. "It's actually a greater risk for morbidity or mortality than
cigarette smoking is. Being lonely is a bad thing for you," he said.
But anthropomorphizing pets or God may actually confer many of
the same psychological and physical benefits that come from connections
with other people. The same benefits may not apply to gadgets, which
were a component of Epley's studies.
"Non-human connections can be very powerful," Epley said. "A
brain's not so sensitive to whether it's a person or not. If it's
something that has a lot of traits associated with what it means to be
a human, then all the better for us, it seems."
The study also provides insight into the flip side of
anthropomorphism: dehumanization. People who enjoy a strong sense of
social connection are less likely to perceive humanlike mental states
in people who seem different from them. Classic examples occur during
times of war, during which a strong sense of nationalism or group
identity tend to emerge.
"It may be that strong in-group identity is one of the things that facilitates dehumanizing the opposing side," Epley said.
Source: Steve Koppes
University of Chicago
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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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