Depression
Antidepressants Could Pose Stroke Risk for Older Women
Could antidepressants be bad for your health? According to a Women’s Health Initiative study, participants who reported taking an antidepressant drug had a statistically significant increase in the risk of stroke and of death compared with participants not taking antidepressants. This study was recently featured in a Science Daily post.
“Depression is a serious illness with its own health risks, and we know that antidepressants can be life-saving for some patients. No one should stop taking their prescribed medication based on this one study, but women who have concerns should discuss them with their physicians,” says Jordan W. Smoller, MD, ScD, of the Massachusetts General Hospital (MGH) Department of Psychiatry, the study’s lead author.
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Few Americans with Major Depression Receive Treatment
Many adults in the U.S. with major depression do not receive treatment or therapy based on treatment guidelines, and some racial and ethnic groups have even lower rates of adequate depression care, according to a report in the January issue of Archives of General Psychiatry, one of the JAMA/Archives journals.
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Postpartum Depression Prediction Tools Identified in Study
Until recently, postpartum depression was something a new mother often suffered from in silence. Classic signs may have been present, but without proper education into the risk and what to look for, many cases went undetected.
Now, in a Health US News report, Spanish researchers announce they have developed ways to detect 80 percent of cases of postpartum depression. This mental illness is estimated to affect more than 10 percent of women who have given birth.
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High Blood Lead Linked to Major Depression and Anxiety
Young adults with higher blood lead levels appear more likely to have major depression and panic disorders, even if they their exposure to lead levels are generally considered safe, according to a report in the December issue of Archives of General Psychiatry, one of the JAMA/Archives journals.
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Seasonal Affective Disorder (SAD)
By Leslie Thompson
The leaves are falling and the brisk, cool air of fall is permeating the streets. Winter is just around the corner, but instead of embracing the seasonal change, you’re feeling a bit down, a little moodier, or even depressed. If this sounds like you, know that you’re not alone: Many people suffer from these same symptoms once the temperature drops. Although many brush it off as simply a case of the winter blues, seasonal affective disorder (also known as SAD) is a type of depression that occurs annually—most often during the fall and winter months.
Diet Can Lead to Depression
The everyday diet can make a tremendous impact on a person’s well-being. Sure, the food a person chooses to ingest can play a part in their physical health, but new research is showing it also plays a role in their mental health as well.
According to a piece in Psych Central, a well-rounded, healthy diet may protect against depression in middle-aged people. This finding is part of a study conducted by researchers at the Department of Epidemiology and Public Health, University College London (UCL), UK and the Institut National de la Santé et de la Recherche Médicale (INSERM), University of Montpellier, France.
Depression as Deadly as Smoking, New Study Finds
A study has found that depression is as much of a risk factor for mortality as smoking, according to researchers at the University of Bergen, Norway, and the Institute of Psychiatry (IoP) at King’s College London.
Utilizing a unique link between a survey of more than 60,000 people and a comprehensive mortality database, the researchers found that over the four years following the survey, the mortality risk was increased to a similar extent in people who were depressed as in people who were smokers.
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Easing Nightmares Can Help Treat Depression and Other Maladies
Some psychology experts say that treating disturbing nightmares directly can help relieve symptoms of depression, post-traumatic stress disorder, insomnia, and other mental health problems.
Kim Painter of USA Today writes that when Yael Levy went to the Sleep-Wake Disorders Center at Montefiore Medical Center two years ago for help with her insomnia, she found that her nightmares were also treatable. Levy knew she had conquered her life-long nightmares the night she was able to turn a circle of sharks into a ring of dolphins. “I was able to change my nightmare while it was happening,” said the 29-year-old New York City graduate student. “I had control over my dreams.”
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New Magnetic Stimulation Offers Noninvasive Treatment for Major Depression
Rush University Medical Center has opened the Transcranial Magnetic Stimulation (TMS) Clinic to offer patients a safe, effective, non-drug treatment for major depression. TMS therapy is the first FDA-approved, non-invasive antidepressant device-based treatment clinically proven for treatment of depression.
Science Daily reports that psychiatrists at Rush University Medical Center were among the first to test the technique. Dr. Philip Janicak, professor of psychiatry and lead investigator at Rush for the clinical trials of TMS, helped develop the therapy.
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Brain Stimulation May Be Effective Treatment for Severe Depression
A new neurosurgical procedure may prove helpful for patients with treatment-resistant depression. Bilateral epidural prefrontal cortical stimulation (EpCS) was found generally safe and provided significant improvement of depressive symptoms in a small group of patients, according to lead researcher Ziad Nahas, M.D. at the Medical University of South Carolina (MUSC).
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