Recurrent Depression

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Planting improves heart rate, stress levels of mentally challenged adults
2011-12-13 16:01:00
Participation in horticultural activities can improve confidence and social skills, cultivate a positive attitude, and rejuvenate the mind and body. Many studies have emphasized the effects of horticultural activities in relation to physical and psychological rehabilitation, but few have considered the influence of these types of activities on mentally challenged people?s autonomic nervous system (ANS) and on the stress hormone cortisol. A new study examined how activities such as pressing flowers, planting, creating flower arrangements, and making topiaries affect stress relief for patients who are mentally challenged. In the first experiment of the study, the heart rate variation (HRV) was measured in 30 mentally challenged people at a rehabilitation center in Daegu, South Korea. Researchers in the second experiment measured the cortisol levels of 20 mentally challenged people from a residential home in Yeongcheon, South Korea. Min-Jung Lee from the Department of Horticultural T...
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Depressive symptoms and impaired physical function are frequent and long-la
2011-12-11 16:14:00
Depressive symptoms and impaired physical function were common and long-lasting during the first two years following acute lung injury (ALI), according to a new study from Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine. Depressive symptoms were an independent risk factor for impaired physical function. ?Early identification and treatment of depressive states should be evaluated as a potential intervention to improve long-term outcomes in ALI survivors,? said first author O. Joseph Bienvenu, MD, PhD, associate professor of psychiatry and behavioral sciences. ?Depressive symptoms are a potentially modifiable risk factor for later-onset physical impairment in these patients.? The findings were published online ahead of print publication in the American Thoracic Society?s American Journal of Respiratory and Critical Care Medicine. A total of 186 mechanically ventilated patients with ALI were included in the study, with follow-up at 3, 6, 12 and 24 months following injury. Outcome mea...
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Women?s post-natal depression linked to partners? abuse: study
2011-12-07 15:44:00
Forty percent of women who suffer depression after childbirth are abused either physically or emotionally by their partners, researchers in Australia said on Wednesday, calling on health workers to be more alert to such cases. ?That is a very important message to get out to health professionals,? said Hannah Woolhouse at Murdoch Children?s Research Institute in Victoria, Australia. ?If they are working with women with post-natal depression, they should consider the possibility that partner violence may be contributing to that.? Possible solutions included offering treatment to the abusive partner, counseling for such couples, or even shelter for abused women, she said in a telephone interview.
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Depressive symptoms and intimate partner violence in the 12 months after ch
2011-12-07 09:17:00
Forty percent of women who report depressive symptoms following birth also reported intimate partner violence finds a new study published today (7 December) in BJOG: An International Journal of Obstetrics and Gynaecology. The study also found that most of the women reporting postnatal depressive symptoms first reported this at six months after birth or later. Intimate partner violence (both physical and emotional abuse) in the perinatal period is associated with a range of physical and psychological health problems including adverse pregnancy and birth outcomes, postnatal depression, and future behavioural problems for children. This Australian study looked at 1305 nulliparous women. They were recruited from six public hospitals between 6 and 24 weeks of gestation. Written questionnaires were completed at recruitment and at 3, 6 and 12 months postpartum.
More About: Partner , Violence , Symptoms

Depression increases risk of dementia in patients with Type 2 diabetes
2011-12-06 03:11:00
Depression in patients with diabetes is associated with a substantively increased risk of development of dementia compared to those with diabetes alone, according to researchers from the University of Washington and Kaiser Permanente. The study, among the first (and largest to date) to examine all-cause dementia in diabetes patients with and without depression, appears on the current online issue of the Archives of General Psychiatry. Patients with type 2 diabetes who also had depression had a doubling in risk of dementia during years 3 to 5 after initial screening, compared to patients with diabetes who did not have depression, said the study?s lead author Wayne Katon, MD, professor and vice chair of the University of Washington department of psychiatry and behavioral sciences. This study was supported by the National Institutes of Health-funded Diabetes & Aging Study, which focuses on the special health problems of older patients with diabetes, and its parent study, Diabet...
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Walgreen, others sue Pfizer over depression drug
2011-12-02 04:58:00
Pfizer Inc and Teva Pharmceutical Industries Ltd were sued by Walgreen Co and four other large retailers, accused of violating U.S. antitrust law by conspiring to keep generic versions of a popular antidepressant off the shelves. Walgreen, Kroger Co, Safeway Inc, Supervalu Inc and HEB Grocery Co accused Pfizer?s Wyeth unit of conducting an ?overarching anticompetitive scheme? to prevent and delay the approval and marketing of generic versions of the prescription drug Effexor XR, causing them to overpay. In a complaint made public on Thursday by the U.S. District Court in Trenton, New Jersey, the retailers said Wyeth kept generic equivalents off the market for at least two years after its marketing exclusivity for the original Effexor compound patent lapsed in June 2008.
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Chronic post-traumatic stress disorder in women linked to history of rape,
2011-11-29 16:16:00
A Florida State University clinical psychologist has identified factors that could cause some women with post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) to have chronic, persistent symptoms while others recover naturally over time. At the conclusion of a two-year study of women from across the nation, Assistant Professor Jesse R. Cougle found that those with PTSD who reported a history of rape or severe childhood physical abuse were more likely to suffer chronic PTSD symptoms. What?s more, women who reported more ?re-experiencing? symptoms, such as nightmares and flashbacks, at the initial assessment were more likely to suffer from persistent PTSD symptoms two years after the study began. ?What makes our findings unique is the recovery component,? Cougle said. ?Most studies of this kind have looked at risk and resiliency or the factors that determine who develops PTSD and who doesn?t. We studied factors that influence recovery, or lack thereof, in a sample with PTSD.? ?What we found,int...
More About: Women , History , Post , Stress , Post Traumatic Stress Disorder

Depression can lead to heart disease
2011-11-28 15:43:00
Depression may have more far-reaching consequences than previously believed. Recent data suggests that individuals who suffer from a mood disorder could be twice as likely to have a heart attack compared to individuals who are not depressed. This process has been poorly understood - until now. A new study led by Concordia University has found that depressed individuals have a slower recovery time after exercise compared to those who are non-depressed. These findings suggest that a dysfunctional biological stress system is at play among depressed individuals. Published in the journal Psychophysiology, the research warns of the importance of testing for cardiovascular disease among people suffering from major depression. ?There have been two competing theories as to why depression is linked to cardiovascular disease,? says first author Jennifer Gordon, who is a PhD candidate at McGill University. ?Depressed people may have poorer health behaviors, which may in turn lead to heart...
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Foster kids get more antipsychotics: study
2011-11-23 07:23:00
Kids in foster care are more likely to have long-term prescriptions for more than one type of antipsychotic medication than kids who are also on government assistance, but not in foster care, a new study finds. The results, published in the journal Pediatrics, point to prescribing practices that have known risks, but uncertain benefits, researchers say. ?We have very little evidence for antipsychotic use in kids, and no evidence to support two medications,? lead author Susan dosReis, a professor at the University of Maryland School of Pharmacy, told Reuters Health. DosReis and her colleagues examined antipsychotic prescriptions given to nearly 17,000 children on Medicaid in 2003.
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Psychological intervention reduces disability and depression in adolescents
2011-11-22 03:49:00
A recent trial shows cognitive-behavioral therapy (CBT) reduces functional disability and depressive symptoms in adolescents with juvenile fibromyalgia. The psychological intervention was found to be safe and effective, and proved to be superior to disease management education. Full findings from this multi-site clinical trial are published in Arthritis & Rheumatism, a peer-reviewed journal of the American College of Rheumatology (ACR). Medical evidence reports that juvenile fibromyalgia syndrome affects 2% to 7% of school age children. Similar to adult cases, the juvenile form of the disorder primarily strikes adolescent girls. Both adult and juvenile fibromyalgia patients experience widespread musculoskeletal pain, fatigue, as well as sleep and mood disturbances. Previous studies show that juvenile fibromyalgia patients are burdened with substantial physical, school, social and emotional impairments. However, studies investing treatment for the juvenile form of the disorder ...
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Study Results Confirm Benefit of Treating Patients Suffering from Severe De
2011-11-18 17:16:00
Results from the first multi-center pilot study of deep brain stimulation (DBS) for major depressive disorder were published online today by the Journal of Neurosurgery. The study, conducted at three research facilities in Canada, was designed to replicate and build upon an earlier study by Dr. Andres Lozano and Dr. Helen Mayberg which was published in the journal Neuron in 2005. Sponsored by St. Jude Medical, Inc. (NYSE:STJ), the study demonstrates significant improvement in depression symptoms among patients who are highly treatment resistant. The results of the study showed that DBS therapy targeted to an area of the brain known as Brodmann Area 25 provided noticeable improvement in depression symptoms and increased overall quality of life in patients who typically don?t respond to treatment. The study enrolled 21 patients who on average had suffered from depression for 20 years, had tried in excess of 16 depression medications and were considered disabled or unable to work at ...
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How Schizophrenia Gene Linked To Psychiatric Disorders Impairs Brain Develo
2011-11-18 16:42:00
Researchers have discovered how the gene variant DISC1, which is linked to schizophrenia and other psychiatric disorders, impairs a particular signalling pathway in neurons that is crucial for normal brain development. Li-Huei Tsai, director of MIT?s Picower Institute for Learning and Memory, and colleagues, write about their findings in the 17 November issue of the journal Neuron. DISC1, short for Disrupted in Schizophrenia-1, was first identified in a large Scottish family with high rates of schizophrenia, bipolar disorder and depression, and more recent studies have shown that the mutation can lead to changes in brain structure and impaired cognitive function. But exactly how it did this remained somewhat unclear. For their study, Tsai and colleagues screened the genes of 750 participants. Some of the participants were healthy and some had psychiatric diseases. They found several common variants of DISC1, but it was clear that although these impaired brain development, they w...
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Animal Study May Explain Link between Prenatal Infection and Schizophrenia
2011-11-16 06:31:00
New findings show prenatal infection - a known risk factor for schizophrenia - can cause changes in the brain and behavior comparable to certain aspects of schizophrenia. The animal study shows that prenatal infection decreases functioning in key brain chemical receptors vital for long-term memory. The findings were presented at Neuroscience 2011, the annual meeting of the Society for Neuroscience and the world?s largest source of emerging news about brain science and health.  Schizophrenia is thought to reduce the function of proteins important in brain cell communication called N-methyl-D- aspartate receptors (NMDAR). The new study, led by Melissa Burt, at McGill University, suggests prenatal infection could lead to schizophrenia by decreasing NMDAR function.  To simulate prenatal infection, the researchers administered a bacterial toxin to pregnant rats. When the offspring reached adolescence, they showed reduced NMDAR function in the hippocampus, a br...
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Reducing the treatment gap for mental, neurological, and substance use diso
2011-11-16 05:35:00
In this week?s PLoS Medicine, Shekhar Saxena of the WHO in Geneva, Switzerland and colleagues summarize the recent WHO Mental Health Gap Action Programme (mhGAP) intervention guide that provides evidence-based management recommendations for mental, neurological, and substance use (MNS) disorders. This guide is aimed at reducing the treatment gap for MNS disorders, which is more than 75% in many low- and middle-income countries (LMICs). Further details and background material to the guide can be accessed on the WHO website The authors recommend that: ?In the near future, further efforts should be made to introduce formal evaluations of the capability of [treatment] programs to induce relevant and persistent changes, and to generate useful insights on how implementation in [low- and middle-income countries] should be conducted to maximize benefit at sustainable costs.? ### The PLoS Medicine Mental Health in Low- and Middle-Income Countries Collection, a seven-part series of artic...
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Too little exercise, too much TV tied to depression
2011-11-14 07:47:00
Older women who got more exercise and less television time were the least likely to be diagnosed with depression, according to a U.S. study of thousands of women?with physical activity having the biggest impact. According to findings published in the American Journal of Epidemiology, researchers found that women who reported exercising the most in recent years were about 20 percent less likely to get depression than those who rarely exercised. On the other hand, the more hours they spent watching TV each week, the more their risk of depression crept up.
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Depression in Young People Increases Risk of Heart Disease Mortality
2011-11-11 18:36:00
The negative effects of depression in young people on the health of their hearts may be stronger than previously recognized. Depression or a history of suicide attempts in people younger than 40, especially young women, markedly increases their risk for dying from heart disease, results from a nationwide study have revealed. The results are published in the November 2011 issue of Archives of General Psychiatry. ?This is the first study looking at depression as a risk factor for heart disease specifically in young people,? says senior author Viola Vaccarino, MD, PhD, chair of epidemiology at Emory?s Rollins School of Public Health. ?We?re finding that depression is a remarkable risk factor for heart disease in young people. Among women, depression appears to be more important than traditional risk factors such as smoking, hypertension, obesity and diabetes which are not common in young women.? First author is Amit Shah, MD, a cardiology fellow at Emory University School of Medi...
More About: People , Heart , Young , Disease

Bisexual women, more likely than bisexual men, to be depressed and abuse al
2011-11-09 03:34:00
Bisexual women are more likely than their male counterparts to suffer from depression and stress and to binge-drink, according to a new national study led by George Mason University researcher Lisa Lindley. Bisexual women also are at greater risk to smoke and be victimized, the research finds. ?Why?? Lindley wonders. ?That?s what we keep asking.? She has some theories. ?Bisexuals are often invisible,? she says of bisexual women. ?There?s a lot of prejudice against them. They?re told ?You?re confused?pick one.? There tends to be this expectation or standard that a person picks one sexual identity and sticks with it. I think there?s a lot of misunderstanding about bisexuals. I think their risk has a lot more to do with stigma.?
More About: Women , Abuse , Bisexual

Is it Mind Over Meds in Depression Treatment?
2011-11-06 17:08:00
When it comes to the odds of getting better with depression treatment, people?s beliefs may matter even more than the treatment itself, a new study suggests. Clinical trials in all areas of medicine turn up some degree of ?placebo effect? - the phenomenon of people who are given a sham treatment, instead of the real thing, getting better anyway. Placebo responses are particularly common in certain disorders, depression being one. In the new study, researchers re-analyzed findings from a 2002 clinical trial that compared the antidepressant sertraline (Zoloft), the herbal depression treatment St. John?s wort, and a placebo.
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Texas Biomed develops new approach to study depression; may lead to new mar
2011-10-28 16:22:00
Scientists at the Texas Biomedical Research Institute and Yale University have identified a new target area in the human genome that appears to harbor genes with a major role in the onset of depression. Using the power of Texas Biomed?s AT&T Genomics Computing Center (GCC), the researchers found the region by devising a new method for analyzing thousands of potential risk factors for this complex disease, a process that led them to a new biomarker that may be helpful in identifying people at risk for major depression. ?We were searching for things in psychiatric disease that are the equivalent of what cholesterol is to heart disease,? said John Blangero, Ph.D., director of the GCC and a principal investigator in the study. ?We wanted to find things that can be measured in everybody and that can tell you something about risk for major depression.?
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Depression risk no higher for older first-time mums
2011-10-26 14:59:00
Women who have their first baby at an older age aren?t at any greater risk of postpartum depression than their younger counterparts, according to an Australian study of more than 500 first-time mothers. Researchers led by Catherine McMahon at Macquarie University in Australia found that women aged 37 or older were no more likely to get postpartum depression than younger women, regardless of whether they conceived naturally or had infertility treatment. ?Older mothers are frequently discussed in the media. There are a lot of myths, and limited empirical data,? McMahon, a psychology professor, said in an email.
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WSU researchers demonstrate rare animal model for studying depression
2011-10-24 17:24:00
Washington State University researchers have taken a promising step toward creating an animal model for decoding the specific brain circuits involved in depression. By electrically stimulating a brain region central to an animal?s primary emotions, graduate student Jason Wright and his advisor Jaak Panksepp saw rats exhibit a variety of behaviors associated with a depressed, negative mood, or affect. ?We might now have a model that allows us to actually know where to look in the brain for changes relevant to depression, and we can monitor how activity in these regions change during states of negative affect and the restoration of positive affect,? says Wright. ?There are no other models out there like this.? The researchers caution that their work comes with a variety of caveats and that there are still many factors that need to be evaluated.
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Study highlights issues faced by friends and family of the suicidal
2011-10-21 04:27:00
A study focusing on the family and friends of people who were suicidal has highlighted the main challenges they face when trying to judge whether a person is in danger and decide what they should do about it. The research was carried out by Dr. Christabel Owens from the Peninsula College of Medicine and Dentistry, supported by Devon NHS Partnership Trust and funded by the UK Medical Research Council. The findings are published in the British Medical Journal on 22nd October 2011 (online 19th October 2011). Researchers investigated 14 suicides aged 18-34 in London, the South West and South Wales, none of whom were receiving specialist mental health care. They asked relatives and friends of the deceased what they had witnessed in the period leading up to the suicide and how they had interpreted what they saw. In all, 31 lay informants (parents, partners, siblings, friends and colleagues) took part. The findings of the research show that relatives and friends did not always receiv...
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New Psychotherapy Helps Depression Patients Cultivate Optimistic Outlook
2011-10-20 11:48:00
New Psychotherapy Helps Depression Patients Cultivate Optimistic Outlook Instead of Traditional Therapy Focus on Negative Thoughts About Past Patients with major depression do better by learning to create a more positive outlook about the future, rather than by focusing on negative thoughts about their past experiences, researchers at Cedars-Sinai say after developing a new treatment that helps patients do this. While Major Depressive Disorder patients traditionally undergo cognitive-behavior therapy care that seeks to alter their irrational, negative thoughts about past experiences, patients who were treated with the newly-developed Future-Directed Therapy? demonstrated significant improvement in depression and anxiety, as well as improvement in overall reported quality of life, the researchers found. Results were published recently in the peer-reviewed journal CNS Neuroscience & Therapeutics.

Mental health tests don?t catch all troubled troops
2011-10-05 10:41:00
Mental health assessments given to all soldiers after deployment may miss many cases of depression and post-traumatic stress disorder, according to a U.S. study. The research, published in the Archives of General Psychiatry, involved about 3,500 soldiers who were in Iraq in 2007 to 2008 for their third deployment in six years. Before they returned to Fort Stewart, Georgia, they completed a standard, computer-based post-deployment health assessment, which includes questions on PTSD and other mental health problems. This is not anonymous, and is meant to spot problems and help connect them with care when they get home
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MRI study finds that depression uncouples brain?s hate circuit
2011-10-04 14:13:00
A new study using MRI scans, led by Professor Jianfeng Feng, from the University of Warwick?s Department of Computer Science, has found that depression frequently seems to uncouple the brain?s ?Hate Circuit ?. The study entitled ?Depression Uncouples Brain Hate Circuit? is published today (Tuesday 4th October 2011) in the journal Molecular Psychiatry. The researchers used MRI scanners to scan the brain activity in 39 depressed people (23 female 16 male) and 37 control subjects who were not depressed (14 female 23 male). The researchers found the fMRI scans revealed significant differences in the brain circuitry of the two groups. The greatest difference observed in the depressed patients was the uncoupling of the so-called ?hate circuit? involving the superior frontal gyrus, insula and putamen. Other major changes occurred in circuits related to risk and action responses, reward and emotion, attention and memory processing. The hate circuit was first clearly identified in 2008 by...
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More screening needed to identify depression, vision loss after mild stroke
2011-10-03 16:50:00
On the surface they appear unaffected, but people who have mild strokes may live with hidden disabilities, including depression, vision problems and difficulty thinking, according to a study released today at the Canadian Stroke Congress. The study calls for new guidelines for the treatment and management of mild strokes, which account for two-thirds of all strokes and usually involve a hospital stay of one to five days. Co-author Annie Rochette, Ph.D, of the University of Montreal, and her research team interviewed 200 people in Quebec, Ontario and Alberta within the first six weeks of their stroke. ?There is no such thing as a mild stroke,? says Dr. Rochette, who describes high rates of sleeplessness and depression among study participants ? almost a quarter of whom were clinically depressed. ?These patients face huge challenges in their daily lives.? Study participants reported a significantly poorer perceived quality of life.
More About: Depression , Loss

Combating mood disorders
2011-09-30 14:37:00
Psychiatric ailments such as depression, obsessive-compulsive disorder or anxiety states are often associated with disturbances in the metabolism of the neurotransmitter serotonin. Neurotransmitters are compounds that are released from the synapses at nerve cell endings and activate the firing of neighboring neurons. Thus, as their name suggests, they mediate the transmission of nerve impulses. The serotonin transporter (SERT) is responsible for reuptake of the transmitter into neurons, terminating its action. SERT is a major target for drugs that are used to treat many mood disorders, and the search for new SERT inhibitors is of continuing therapeutic relevance. A research team led by Professor Klaus Wanner of the Department of Pharmacy in the Center for Pharmaceutical Research at Ludwig-Maximilians Univeristät München (LMU) has now developed a novel binding assay, based on the use of mass spectrometry (MS), which promises to simplify the search for potential SERT inhibitors very s...

A Healthy Dose Of Repetitive Behavior Reduces Anxiety
2011-09-24 07:16:00
What do a patient with obsessive compulsive disorder (OCD), a basketball star, and an animal in captivity have in common? According to new research from Tel Aviv University, they share a clear behavioral link that reduces stress. In a new study, Prof. David Eilam and his graduate student Hila Keren of TAU?s Department of Zoology at the George S. Wise Faculty of Life Sciences found that repetitive behavior in general - and especially ritualistic-like behavior - is not only a human phenomenon but also one in the animal world. They concluded that ritualistic behavior in both humans and animals developed as a way to induce calm and manage stress caused by unpredictability and uncontrollability - heightening our belief that we are in control of a situation that is otherwise out of our hands. Pursued in collaboration with Prof. Pascal Boyer of Washington University and Dr. Joel Mort of the U.S. Air Force Research Laboratory, the research has been published in Neuroscience and Biobeha...
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U.S. advisers urge FDA to address antipsychotics in kids
2011-09-23 16:57:00
U.S. pediatric health advisers on Thursday urged drug regulators to continue studying weight gain and other side-effects of antipsychotic drugs as they are increasingly taken by children. Significant numbers of U.S. children are receiving drugs to tame aggression, attention deficit disorder and other mental problems, even though there is little conclusive data to show exactly how the medications work or whether they damage kids? health. The pediatric advisory panel on Thursday listened to preliminary results of a study sponsored in part by the FDA that, inconclusively still, compared whether some antipsychotic drugs put children at a higher risk of developing diabetes than others.
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Reports of Mental Health Disability Increase in U.S.
2011-09-23 16:35:00
The prevalence of self-reported mental health disabilities increased in the U.S. among non-elderly adults during the last decade, according to a study by Ramin Mojtabai, MD, PhD, of the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health . At the same time, the study found the prevalence of disability attributed to other chronic conditions decreased, while the prevalence of significant mental distress remained unchanged. The findings will appear in the November edition of the American Journal of Public Health. ?These findings highlight the need for improved access to mental health services in our communities and for better integration of these services with primary care delivery,? said Mojtabai, an associate professor in the Bloomberg School?s Department of Mental Health. ?While the trend in self-reported mental health disability is clear, the causes of this trend are not well understood.? For the study, Mojtabai reviewed data from the U.S. National Health Interview Survey covering 3...
More About: Mental Health , Disability