Depression
Recognizing the Subtle Signs of Depression
By Colin Gilbert
The wide variety of symptoms associated with depression often makes it difficult to identify. On the surface, especially to outside observers, the signs of depression are easily mistaken for laziness or other such character flaws that do not warrant professional help.
Consequently, friends and family members of depressed individuals are susceptible to misinterpret the manifested behavior. For example, if a woman notices that her husband has been unmotivated, apathetic, sleeping through the day, and gaining weight, she might scold him for being lazy instead of recognizing his malaise as symptomatic of depression. Her resentment is likely to intensify his depression, which may already be a source of confusion to him.
Weight Loss May Improve Symptoms of Depression
Depression can be a complicated condition. It can cause weight gain, while weight gain can cause depression. For those who struggle with depression or weight gain, the other challenge is likely to soon follow.
Science Daily published a release highlighting research to be presented at the Annual Meeting of the Society for the Study of Ingestive Behavior (SSIB). This research found that after a six month behavioral weight loss program, depressed patients lost 8 percent of their initial weight and showed improvements in their symptoms of depression.
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Frequent Chest Pain Linked to Anxiety and Depression
A new study shows that heart patients with depression and anxiety are more likely to suffer chest pain than patients without those symptoms. The findings, published in the June 30 edition of Circulation, also suggest that angina associated with blocked arteries may also have a psychosocial component.
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Mental Disorders Can Be Prevented in Young People
About one in five young people in the US currently suffer from a mental, emotional, or behavioral disorder. About half of all adults with mental disorders recalled that their problems started in their mid-teens, and three-quarters said they started by their mid-twenties. Early onset of mental health problems have been associated with poor outcomes such as failure to complete high school, increased risk for psychiatric problems and substance abuse, and teen pregnancy.
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Link Between Depression and Asthma
Depression and asthma can often go hand in hand, to the detriment of the patient suffering from both. In young people with asthma, they have nearly twice the incidence of depression as compared to their peers without asthma. Studies into the area have found that depression is associated with increased asthma symptoms. In some cases, it even results in death.
Science Daily recently reported on a new study from researchers at the University of Buffalo found that depressed children with asthma exhibit a dysregulation of the autonomic nervous system along with increased airway compromise. This could possibly be the first study to examine pathways linking emotional stress, depressive symptoms, autonomic nervous system dysregulation and airway function in young asthma patients.
The study was designed and carried out by Bruce D. Miller, M.D., and Beatrice L. Wood, Ph.D., professors of psychiatry and pediatrics in the UB School of Medicine and Biomedical Sciences, in collaboration with other UB researchers.
Study Finds Link Between Racism and Depression
By Susan J. Campbell
Race impacts more in our lives than perhaps even we realize. According to recent research, fifth-graders who believe they have been mistreated as a result of the color of their skin are much more likely than their classmates to have symptoms of mental disorders, especially depression.
The Pensacola News Journal recently reported on a study that suggests that there is evidence that racial discrimination increases the odds that adolescents and adults will develop mental health problems. This is the first study that examines a possible link in children of varied races.
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Medical History of Mental Disorders Lacking in Doctor’s Office
Anytime a patient visits the doctor’s office, a medical history is taken or updated. This history includes things like whether or not there is heart disease or cancer in the family, the number of surgeries a patient has had, and if he or she is allergic to any type of medication.
When it comes to mental disorders however, nothing is asked and therefore, generally nothing is said. Science Daily recently published a piece that examined the research findings at the Duke Institute for Genome Sciences & Policy (IGSP). In this study, researchers found that 30 minutes or less of question-and-answer about the family history or depression, anxiety or substance abuse is enough to predict a patient’s approximate risk for developing such a disorder.
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Teen Drinking Linked to Behavioral Problems
Teens who drink heavily are more likely than their peers to have behavioral and attention problems and suffer from anxiety and depression, new research finds.
Science Daily reports that a team led by researchers from the Norwegian University of Science and Technology based their research on a study of nearly 9,000 Norwegian teenagers aged 13-19 years. Eighty percent of the teens said they had tried alcohol, and 29 percent said they had been drunk more than ten times in their lives.
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Longer Treatment Found to be More Effective in Depressed Teens
A new study shows that the longer depressed teens are treated, the more likely they are to go into remission. The rate of remission for teens who were treated for 36 weeks was more than double that of those who were treated for 12 weeks, regardless of whether the teens were treated with antidepressants, cognitive behavioral therapy, or both.
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New Study Argues Against Single Depression Gene Theory
While many studies argue that a single gene helps to determine one’s risk of depression in response to a serious reversal in the person’s life – a lost job, divorce or other event – when the theory was tested through scientific scrutiny, it did not prove to be valid.
According to a piece in the New York Times, when the original finding emerged, it created a sensation as it provided a plausible explanation for why some people are able to bounce back from adversity while others never seem to recover.
The new report is not trying to suggest that the interactions between genes and life experiences have no meaning. It instead argues that nailing down those factors more precisely is much more difficult than scientists were led to believe just a few years ago.
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