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on: Friday, 20 November 2009 20:12
on: Friday, 20 November 2009 18:54
on: Friday, 20 November 2009 18:32
on: Friday, 20 November 2009 17:49
on: Friday, 20 November 2009 14:23
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Current Poll

How do you react to holiday stress?

Does the Holiday Season Stress You Out or Make You Happy?

  Yes. The end of the year holidays stress me out.


 Nope. I love holiday season.


 The holidays do a little bit of both.


 What stress? I live for this time of year.


 Love the season, can't stand the in-laws.


 The kids get hyper -- I get annoyed.


 Panic sets in as the days count down.


 I get depressed, moody, and cranky.


 I'm already stressing, and the holidays haven't even begun....


 Expenses (the cost of gifts, parties, etc.)


How do you react to holiday stress?

 Eat too much


 Don't exercise


 Isolate myself


 Spend too much money



16 Total Votes
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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 11th 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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Stress
Articles about stress
By Lindsay

Dark Chocolate Reduces Levels Of Stress Hormones


New research suggests a palatable method to relieve stress involves regular consumption of dark chocolate. As an additional bonus, the chocolate may also improve cardiovascular health and supply benefits associated with antioxidants.

In a clinical trial, investigators found that eating about an ounce and a half of dark chocolate a day for two weeks reduced levels of stress hormones in the bodies of people feeling highly stressed.
Everyone’s favorite treat also partially corrected other stress-related biochemical imbalances.

By Forum Admin

How to Deal with Your Children’s Anxieties Over Celebrating the Holidays with Separated or Divorced Parents.

 

 Holidays can be a time to anticipate with excitement and happiness, or with anxiety and sadness, depending on what is happening in your life and family. For children of separated and divorced parents, the holidays are often a time of mixed emotions. The following are some common feelings children have:

  1. Uncertainty about where they will be spending the holidays.
    For children whose parents have separated since the previous holiday season, they may not know where they will be spending Thanksgiving, the first night of Chanukah, and/or Christmas. Some children do not want to ask their parents about this, because they think it might upset their parents to talk about it, or the children themselves may not want to face the reality of how these holidays will be different from years past.

By Lindsay

Recognize The Signs And Symptoms Of Stress

Understanding Stress

Signs, Symptoms, Causes, and Effects



Modern life is full of hassles, deadlines, frustrations, and demands. For many people, stress is so commonplace that it has become a way of life. Stress isn’t always bad. In small doses, it can help you perform under pressure and motivate you to do your best. But when you’re constantly running in emergency mode, your mind and body pay the price.

If you frequently find yourself feeling frazzled and overwhelmed, it’s time to take action to bring your nervous system back into balance. You can protect yourself by learning how to recognize the signs and symptoms of stress and taking steps to reduce its harmful effects.


By Forum Admin
 As the nation muddles through a great recession, a new study suggests that if you lose your job, you’re at greater risk for a slew of new health problems.


 


Even when people find a new job quickly, there is an increased risk of developing a problem such as hypertension, heart disease, heart attack, stroke or diabetes as a result of the job loss. The study suggests an important mental health component often overlooked when a person loses their job.
“In today’s economy, job loss can happen to anybody,” said Kate Strully, who conducted the research as a Robert Wood Johnson Foundation Health and Society scholar at the Harvard School of Public Health.
“We need to be aware of the health consequences of losing our jobs and do what we can to alleviate the negative effects,” he added.

By Forum Admin

Baby Steps To Surviving the Winter Holidays


 

 

What is it with the holidays? We're supposed to be happy, merry, and all too often, we're depressed, anxious, and stressed. The pre-enlightened Scrooge had the right idea, we think. Bah, humbug, we say! But if Scrooge can turn it around, why can't we? After all, are any of us as hard a nut to crack as he?

The following are 10 suggestions on how to survive the period between Thanksgiving and New Year's. Or how to turn around the holidays - without any ghostly visitations.


By Forum Admin

Depression And Our Economic Mood;

How Do We Cope With the Anxiety and Stress

of our Times? 


   As of now the economy is in dire straights and Wall Street is topsey-tervey.  Credit lines are tightening up, bailout proposals have become the local topic as well as housing worries and layoff fears and depression.  As members of DF come and go, the world's burden's weigh heavily on their shoulders in search of solutions, wondering what will happen next. There is a tremendous fear that; "If I lose my job, then my health benefits are in jeopardy."  What will happen next?

By Forum Admin

20 Twenty Quick Ways to Reduce Your Stress

Achieve calm in 60 seconds or less with  foolproof tips

 
Sure, an hour-long massage or a week-long vacation would do wonders to ease your stress. But what can you do to chill out right now? Try one of our mini–stress busters. They work wonders in a minute or less.

                                                                                                             



By Forum Admin
 

Young & Stressed Out


Our over scheduled kids may be doing it all -- from soccer and little league to music and language lessons -- but that's not the same as having it all, some experts say. Today's overachieving youngsters may, in fact, be missing out on being children.


When it comes to childhood activities, more may well be less, say some child psychologists -- less time for a child to develop friendships, less time for the kind of self-reflection and daydreaming that helps a child understand who he or she is, less time for just plain playing.

"Parents need always to keep in mind that playing time is just as important, if not more important, than exposure to lots of different experiences," says Anita Gurian, PhD, a child psychologist at New York University's Child Study Center. "Kids are learning about the world in play time or even when they are just hanging out, especially when they are younger. Those are not frivolous things."


By Forum Admin

ALEXANDRIA, Va. (May 8, 2008)-Today's mother often juggles full-time employment, household chores and parenting, but a growing number of women are taking on yet another responsibility-caring for an aging loved one. Next week, as Americans observe both Mother's Day and Mental Health Month, Mental Health America encourages mothers to take the Mental Health Connection Challenge by building their social support networks to help cope with the stress of their demanding lives.

Of the 22 million Americans caring for both children and parents or older relatives, nearly two-thirds are women. In a survey of "Sandwich Generation" mothers conducted by the National Association of Social Workers (NASW) and the New York Academy of Medicine (NYAM), only 20 percent said they were "very happy," and almost 1 in 5 said it was directly due to the stress of caring for both parents and children.

 

While the demands of modern motherhood may seem overwhelming, it's important for these women to protect their own health.  Mental Health America suggests five tips to help them cope:


By Forum Admin
Health News
 
Feb 4, 2008, 10:49

Uncontrollable, unpredictable, and constant stress has far-reaching consequences on our physical and mental health. Stress can begin in the womb and recur throughout life. One of the pathological (abnormal) consequences of stress is a learned helplessness that leads to the hopelessness and helplessness of clinical depression, but, in addition, many illnesses, such as chronic anxiety states, high blood pressure, heart disease, and addictive disorders, to name a few, also seem to be influenced by chronic or overwhelming stress.

 

Nature, however, has provided us with wonderful processes (mechanisms) to cope with stressors through the HPA axis and the locus coeruleus/sympathetic nervous system. Furthermore, research has shown us the biological processes (mechanisms) that explain what we all intuitively know is true--which is, that too much stress, particularly when we cannot predict it or control its recurrence, is harmful to our health.

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Medical News
Depression News From Medical News Today
Latest Depression News From Medical News Today.

A Risk Factor In Childhood Asthma Symptoms May Be Mother's Depression
Asthma symptoms can worsen in children with depressed mothers, according to research from Johns Hopkins Children's Center published online in the Journal of Pediatric Psychology.

Telephone-Delivered Care For Treating Depression After Coronary Artery Bypass Graft Surgery Appears To Improve Outcomes
Patients who received telephone-delivered collaborative care for treatment of depression after coronary artery bypass graft surgery reported greater improvement in measures of quality of life, physical functioning and mood than patients who received usual care, according to a study in the November 18 issue of JAMA. The study is being released early online because of its presentation at an American Heart Association scientific conference.




ADHD News From Medical News Today
Latest ADHD News From Medical News Today.

Shire Reports Analysis Examining Emotional Lability In Children With ADHD Taking Vyvanse
Shire plc (LSE: SHP, NASDAQ: SHPGY), the global specialty biopharmaceutical company, announced findings from a post hoc analysis examining emotional lability from Phase 3 study data with Vyvanse®. In this study, Vyvanse demonstrated significant improvement in Attention-Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD) symptoms as measured by the ADHD Rating Scale IV (ADHD-RS IV) and Connors' Parent Rating Scale-Revised Short (CPRS-RS) in children with ADHD aged 6 to 12 years.

Queen's And Yale Researchers Win Award For Study That Links Health And Education
Queen's University researcher Steven Lehrer has won a prestigious international award in recognition of his contributions to health economics. A professor in Queen's School of Policy Studies and Department of Economics, Dr. Lehrer shares the RAND Corporation's Victor R. Fuchs Research Award with Jason Fletcher of Yale University.




Anxiety / Stress News From Medical News Today
Latest Anxiety / Stress News From Medical News Today.

People With Type D Personalities Experience More Health Problems
People who experience a lot of negative emotions and do not express these experience more health problems, says Dutch researcher Aline Pelle. She discovered that heart failure patients with a negative outlook reported their complaints to a physician or nurse far less often. The personality of the partner can also exert a considerable influence on these patients. Aline Pelle investigated patients with a so-called type D personality.

Easing Needle Anxiety
Needle! For some people, the word-almost as much as the sight of one sliding into skin-is enough for people to cringe, cry, even swoon if they're standing in line waiting for one. Experts believe fear of needles may be preventing people from rolling up their sleeves for the H1N1 vaccination.




Bipolar News From Medical News Today
Latest Bipolar News From Medical News Today.

New Certified Reference Materials Offer Greater Certainty In Monitoring 3 Therapeutic Medications
To help bring greater certainty to the measurement of medication levels in a patient's bloodstream for three drugs with narrow therapeutic ranges, the U.S. Pharmacopeial Convention (USP) is releasing new certified reference materials (CRMs).

Mood Dysfunction Improved In Gene Knockout Mice
Removing the PKCI/HINT1 gene from mice has an anti-depressant-like and anxiolytic-like effect. Researchers writing in the open access journal BMC Neuroscience applied a battery of behavioral tests to the PKCI/HINT1 knockout animals, concluding that the deleted gene may have an important role in mood regulation.




Mental Health News From Medical News Today
Latest Mental Health News From Medical News Today.

Innovative Therapy That Offers New Hope For Borderline Personality Disorder
Patients coping with the chaos and misery of Borderline Personality Disorder now have reason for strong confidence in making major life changes through a new treatment, Schema Therapy. For the first time, three major outcome studies have shown that many patients with Borderline Personality Disorder can achieve full recovery across the complete range of symptoms.

Otsuka Pharmaceutical Europe Ltd Withdraws Its Application For An Extension Of Indication For Abilify (aripiprazole), Europe
The European Medicines Agency has been formally notified by Otsuka Pharmaceutical Europe Ltd of its decision to withdraw its application for an extension of indication for the centrally authorised medicine Abilify (aripiprazole) tablets, orodispersible tablets and oral solution. Abilify was expected to be used in the treatment of major depressive episodes, as adjunctive therapy, in patients who have had an inadequate response to previous treatment with antidepressants.




Psychology / Psychiatry News From Medical News Today
Latest Psychology / Psychiatry News From Medical News Today.

Mathematical Abilities Examined In Children With Fetal Alcohol Spectrum Disorder
Children with fetal alcohol spectrum disorder (FASD) have a number of cognitive deficits, but mathematical ability seems particularly damaged. Little is known about the brain structures related to mathematical deficits in children with FASD. A new study that used diffusion tensor imaging (DTI) to investigate the relationship between mathematical skills and brain white matter structure in children with FASD supports the importance of the left parietal area for mathematical tasks.

Innovative Therapy That Offers New Hope For Borderline Personality Disorder
Patients coping with the chaos and misery of Borderline Personality Disorder now have reason for strong confidence in making major life changes through a new treatment, Schema Therapy. For the first time, three major outcome studies have shown that many patients with Borderline Personality Disorder can achieve full recovery across the complete range of symptoms.




Schizophrenia News From Medical News Today
Latest Schizophrenia News From Medical News Today.

Otsuka Pharmaceutical Europe Ltd Withdraws Its Application For An Extension Of Indication For Abilify (aripiprazole), Europe
The European Medicines Agency has been formally notified by Otsuka Pharmaceutical Europe Ltd of its decision to withdraw its application for an extension of indication for the centrally authorised medicine Abilify (aripiprazole) tablets, orodispersible tablets and oral solution. Abilify was expected to be used in the treatment of major depressive episodes, as adjunctive therapy, in patients who have had an inadequate response to previous treatment with antidepressants.

Metabolic Effects Significantly Lower With INVEGA(R) Compared To Olanzapine
New data from a 6-month open label randomised controlled trial show INVEGA® (paliperidone ER) is associated with significantly less metabolic effects compared to oral olanzapine in people with schizophrenia, while demonstrating comparable efficacy.1 The results were presented at the 15th Biennial Winter Workshop in Psychoses in Barcelona, Spain.




Sleep / Sleep Disorders / Insomnia News From Medical News Today
Latest Sleep / Sleep Disorders / Insomnia News From Medical News Today.

Baby's Sleep Position Is The Major Factor In 'Flat-Headedness'
A baby's sleep position is the best predictor of a misshapen skull condition known as deformational plagiocephaly - or the development of flat spots on an infant's head - according to findings reported by Arizona State University scientists in the December issue of the journal Pediatrics.

Night Beat, Overtime And A Disrupted Sleep Pattern Can Harm Officers' Health
A police officer who works the night shift, typically from 8 p.m. to 4 a.m., already is at a disadvantage when it comes to getting a good "night's" sleep. Add frequent overtime to that schedule, and an officer may be climbing into bed as the sun comes up, setting the stage for short and unrestful slumber. A new study published in the current issue of Archives of Environmental & Occupational Health (vol. 64, No.




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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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