Archives for May 2009

Jude Pinkerton had an extreme personality change and tried to take her own life after taking a widely used antidepressant drug. This week, the 22-year-old spoke to the Weekend Herald to warn others off paroxetine hydrochloride, which she believes is highly dangerous.

Medical opinion is still divided about paroxetine and similar drugs. Some psychiatrists have condemned them but others maintain they are safe for use in adults.

Mrs Pinkerton said she was put on Prozac in January last year for depression, which she attributes to a stressful job as a social worker. It was the first time the Wellington woman had had any psychological problems and she had never harmed herself nor thought about committing suicide.

Read the complete story

A new report suggests a strategy of closely monitored antidepressant therapy coupled with pain self-management can produce substantial improvements in both depression and pain.

Pain, the most common reason for adults to visit a primary care physician, and depression, the most frequent mental complaint requiring a doctor’s appointment, occur together as often as half the time.

Researchers from the Indiana University School of Medicine and the Regenstrief Institute report in the May 27 issue of the Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA) that a strategy they developed of closely monitored antidepressant therapy coupled with pain self-management can produce substantial improvements in both depression and pain.

Read the complete story

Although teen depression poses a widespread problem for which proven treatments exist, few depressed teens receive any care.  Why don’t they undergo treatment? The answer depends whether you ask parents or the adolescents themselves, according to a study in the June issue of the journal Medical Care.

“With teenagers, treatment decisions greatly involve other parties, especially parents. For instance, teenagers often rely on adults for transportation. Doctors need a sense not just of what the teen thinks or what the parent thinks, but what both think,” said Lisa Meredith, Ph.D., lead author of the new study.

The ability of their physicians to address all the perceived barriers “affects the teenager’s own ability to acknowledge their depression and do something about it,” said Meredith, a researcher at RAND. Teens with untreated depression more often have social and academic problems, become parents prematurely, abuse drugs and alcohol and suffer adult depression and suicide.

Read the complete story

For patients who experience pain and depression, common co-existing conditions, an intervention that included individually tailored antidepressant therapy and a pain self-management program resulted in greater improvement in the symptoms of these conditions than patients who received usual care, according to a study in the May 27 issue of JAMA.

Pain complaints account for more than 40 percent of all symptom-related outpatient visits, and depression is present in 10 percent to 15 percent of all patients who receive primary care. Pain and depression frequently co-exist (30 percent-50 percent co-occurrence), effect the treatment responsiveness of each, and have adverse effects on quality of life, disability, and health care costs, according to background information in the article.

Kurt Kroenke, M.D., of Indiana University School of Medicine, Indianapolis, and colleagues conducted a study to determine if a combined pharmacological and behavioral intervention improves both depression and pain in primary care patients with musculoskeletal pain and co-existing depression.

Read the complete story

A half-finished bottle of Mirinda orange drink sits on the table, a crumpled blanket lies on the bed and a letter flashes on the laptop computer. All these items seem to be waiting for their owner, but Zhang Cunxiao will never return.

Last month, the fourth-year student at the College of Material Science and Project in Beijing University of Science and Technology, jumped to his death from the 12th floor window of his dormitory. The reasons leading to his tragic death are still under investigation but his suicide note revealed a young, troubled, tortured soul.

Teachers and students in Zhang's school were horrified by the incident, which happened only one day after a double suicide occurred at the Communication University of China. Two students at that campus, who are said to have been lovers, jumped to their doom.

Read the complete story

Individuals with heart disease are twice as likely to suffer from depression as the general population, an association the medical community has largely been unable to explain. Now, a new study by researchers at The Miriam Hospital, in conjunction with The Montréal Heart Institute, University of Montréal and McGill University, reveals there may be genetic variations that contribute to depression in heart disease patients.

According to the study, published in the April issue of the American Journal of Medical Genetics Part B: Neuropsychiatric Genetics, the genes are related to the vascular system, suggesting that vascular health – which includes the body's network of blood vessels, arteries and veins – may be a predictor of depression in individuals with heart disease. This is the first large-scale genetic study of depressive symptoms in cardiac patients.

Read the complete story

Postpartum depression is a seriousand often undiagnosedcondition affecting about 10 to 12 percent of new mothers.

Some of the causes might include personal history of depression, stressful life events, and lack of social, financial or emotional support. Left untreated, it can have lasting negative effects not only on the mother but on her child's development.

In the first study of its kind, researchers at Harvard Medical School and the University of Minnesota School of Public Health report that low-income women with diabetes have a more than 50% increased risk of experiencing this serious illness.

"While prior studies have linked diabetes and depression in the general population, this is the first time, to our knowledge.

Read the complete story

The Times ’s investigation into the Eddie Gilfoyle case — he was convicted of murdering his pregnant wife in 1993  has helped to highlight a medical condition that rarely gets the attention it deserves. While we are all familiar with postnatal depression and the risk to mother and baby, few people know that antenatal depression can be just as serious and is just as common.

Indeed, more pregnant women and new mothers commit suicide than die from better-recognised complications of pregnancy, such as infection, high blood pressure and haemorrhage, combined.  Gilfoyle was convicted of hanging his wife in their garage after forcing her to write a suicide note.

He protested his innocence but, after considering expert evidence suggesting that suicide was unusual during pregnancy, the police didn’t believe him. Sixteen years later we now know that suicide is one of the biggest threats to the life of a pregnant woman. So why do we pay it so little attention compared with other antenatal complications such as pre-eclampsia?

Read the complete story

EVERYONE has had times when they felt sad or down for a while. Usually these feelings pass pretty quickly and life goes back to normal. However, for some people, these sad feelings linger, and this may be a sign of depression.

Although men and women can suffer from depression, it's more common in women. The reasons for this are uncertain. Some kinds of depression--such as postpartum depression--are linked to women's hormones. But women are more susceptible to all forms of depression.

Depression is a persistent feeling of sadness or low mood accompanied by other symptoms such as diminished or increased appetite, difficulty sleeping or sleeping too much, fatigue and irritability. There are different forms of depression, including:

Read the complete story

In today's stressful lifestyle, it is not difficult to find people who are stressed. However it has been found that children of depressed parents have a worst effect in their lives than their peers. It seems parental depression has an adverse impact on children.

When the parents are depressed, children take on an enormous amount of responsibility for the ill parent and for other family members.

They take responsibility for the depressed parent, siblings and themselves, when they notice that the parent cannot cope. The toughest burden of responsibility that children take on is ensuring that the depressed parent doesn't commit suicide.

Read the complete story