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April 7, 2006
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The Omega-3 Question
Fairfield County Weekly - Norwalk,CT,USA
... Once an obscure oil found in tuna, pumpkin seeds and walnuts,
omega-3 is now being heralded as a cure for depression, ADHD and bipolar
disorder. But is it? ...
Woman spends $1,500 bailing out nearly 2 dozen Broward County Jail ...
Sun-Sentinel.com - Fort Lauderdale,FL,USA
... "Bipolar disorder, that's the diagnosis I've been given time and
time again," she said. "They're giving me medicine for bipolar ...
Local advice: Juvenile-onset bipolar disorder
Rochester Democrat and Chronicle - Rochester,NY,USA
Possibly bipolar disorder is the cause. ... Bipolar disorder may not
present in its classic form, however, especially in the young. ...
Woman accused of threatening boyfriend with loaded gun
Redlands Daily Facts
REDLANDS - A woman reportedly suffering from bipolar disorder was
accused Wednesday night of pointing a gun at her boyfriend's head and
putting the barrel of the gun in his mouth, according to police logs.
Psychiatric care should be made a wait-time priority, CPA urges PM
Medical Post Online
TORONTO | The Canadian Psychiatric Association (CPA) is pressing Prime
Minister Stephen Harper's government to include serious psychiatric
illnesses in the national health service wait time priority list.
Mental health advocates speak for themselves and for their loved ones
Jefferson City News Tribune
When Linda Clark's grandson, Sebastian, was 3 years old, his doctor
predicted he'd end up in an institution.
Her goal: purpose-filled days
St. Petersburg Times
Barbara Rutch helps herself, and her surroundings, one small step at a
time.
Watch carefully what's in your medicine cabinet
Macon Telegraph
Your medicine cabinet is full of prescription drugs (new and old),
bottles of painkillers, cold medicines and that natural herb remedy you
tried during your hippie days.
Reason to be Happy.
U.S. News & World Report; 4/10/2006; Szegedy-Maszak, Marianne
Bryce Miller's work as an industrial engineer in Topeka, Kan., wasn't
a whole lot more challenging than the job he faces in retirement:
engineering his own medical care by 10 different doctors. Miller, 74,
sees a team of specialists, which includes a cardiologist, a urologist
and radiologist for prostate cancer, an endocrinologist for diabetes, a
nephrologist for kidney problems, and a psychiatrist to manage the
severe episodes of depression he has suffered during a long struggle
with bipolar disorder. "I can't find a doctor who can handle all of it,"
he says.
It's impossible to pinpoint all the causes of Miller's illness; a
combination of bad genes, bad luck, and bad diet probably gets much of
the blame. But lately, he says, he's been wondering whether his mental
state may have played a role, too. Medicine has recognized for some time
that chronically sick people are prone to depression and that those
affected have a tougher road back. Now, the signs are mounting that the
spectrum of depressive illness, and perhaps even bitter loneliness, may
actually make healthy people more vulnerable to a range of physical
ailments. "There is a growing body of evidence suggesting that
depression might be a causal risk factor in diseases like ischemic heart
disease, stroke, diabetes, and immune-based diseases like cancer and
HIV/AIDS," says Dwight Evans, chair of psychiatry at the University of
Pennsylvania medical school. "And there is also considerable recent
evidence that mood disorders can affect the course of medical illnesses.
It goes both ways. Depression may be both a cause and a consequence of
medical illness."
Risk factor. Consider a study published last month in the journal
Diabetologia, which concluded that depressed adults have a 37 percent
greater risk of developing type 2 diabetes than the rest of the
population; other studies have suggested their risk actually doubles.
(Apparently, English physician Thomas Willis was on to something when he
wrote in 1674, "Diabetes is caused by melancholy.") One intriguing
recent study of Alzheimer's patients revealed that those with a history
of depression had more extensive plaques in their brains. Depressed
postmenopausal women with no history of heart disease are much more
likely to develop it and die of it than their peers. In March,
University of Chicago researchers showed that loneliness can spike blood
pressure by 30 points in older people. Pancreatic cancer, for reasons
scientists don't understand, is often preceded by a serious depression
before the disease asserts itself.
And when melancholy comes on the heels of disease, it appears to
compound the physical insult. Diabetes is more likely to be
uncontrolled, for example. And several studies have found that in the
months right after a heart attack, the depressed patients are much more
likely to die than the others.
If the researchers are right, the human cost of letting depression go
untreated is staggering. Nearly 25 percent of American women and 10
percent of men will be clinically depressed at some point in their
lives; a massive study conducted by the World Health Organization,
Harvard University School of Public Health, and the World Bank found
that by 2020, depression will be second only to heart disease as a cause
of medical and physical disability. People who have suffered silently
because their mental-health insurance benefits are so stingy got a
glimmer of hope last week from the results of a large study showing that
employers could beef up benefits without significantly raising costs
(Box, below).
What might explain the mind's influence on physical health?
Certainly, chronic depression does not encourage a healthy lifestyle.
"Depressed individuals don't exercise. They are more likely not to take
medication, and it is harder for them to lose weight and stop smoking,"
says Nancy Frasure-Smith, a professor of psychiatry at the University of
Montreal and McGill University who has long studied the link between
depression and cardiovascular disease.
The biochemistry. But depression also acts on the body's systems in
ways scientists are only beginning to understand. Extra stress hormones
are produced, for example--along with chemicals that trigger
inflammation. When the hormone cortisol is secreted in response to
stress, the body's blood glucose level rises to provide a burst of
energy. A depressed brain's constant signal that it's under stress and
needs more energy complicates the body's regulation of blood sugar.
Might this explain why depression seems to both trigger and exacerbate
diabetes?
A stress response may set depressed people up for cardiovascular
disease, too--or aggravate it. When the blood-clotting system gets ready
for impending injury, sticky cells called platelets go on high alert to
slow down bleeding. In depressed people, one study showed, the platelets
are more apt to be in this state of readiness. The problem: Clotting is
what causes heart attacks and strokes. Chemicals called cytokines flood
the bloodstream, as well. These messengers from the immune system cause
inflammation, which makes blood vessels thicken and artery-hardening
plaques form.
Researchers have also noted another stress reaction: The heart
muscles of depressed patients lose flexibility. A normal heart
transitions easily between its resting and beating states; more rigid
muscle is less able to respond to the changing demands of the body for
blood and oxygen. A study published last month in the Journal of the
American College of Cardiology found that mental stress caused a more
dramatic decrease in blood flow to the heart muscle--or ischemia--than a
stress test on a treadmill. All told, stress and depression probably
explain "close to 30 percent of the total risk of heart attacks,"
estimates David Sheps, professor of medicine and associate chief of
cardiovascular medicine at the University of Florida.
It's way too soon to make the leap that depression is a direct cause
of heart disease akin to smoking or high cholesterol, or that
treatment--like quitting cigarettes--can reverse the damage or save
lives. Indeed, two big recent studies have failed to show that heart
patients live longer when they undergo therapy or take antidepressants.
But medicine is intent upon dealing with the mental health of cardiac
patients anyway, because people who are not depressed are more likely to
lead heart-healthy lives; they exercise, take their medicines, lose
weight, and stop smoking. "If you are a patient with heart disease, you
need to know what your cholesterol level is, what your blood pressure
is, and what diet and exercise program you will need to prevent a second
heart attack. You should add to that list whether or not you are
depressed," says Richard Stein, director of preventive cardiology at
Beth Israel hospital in New York.
The majority of people who have survived some sort of heart event
are, at least for a while. Some 65 percent of heart attack survivors are
estimated to fall into depression, for example. According to Mended
Hearts, the oldest and largest support group for people with heart
disease, about 70 percent of patients who have gone through heart
surgery, which often follows a heart attack, get depressed during the
first year, and about a third continue to suffer from debilitating
depression.
"I was just inside this ugly tunnel," says Dale Briggs, a Mended
Hearts executive and an insurance fraud investigator from Fresno,
Calif., who had a valve replaced in his heart 12 years ago at age 48 and
was overwhelmed by the emotional consequences. He couldn't sleep,
watched television for hours on end, and found it impossible to exercise
or eat properly until his doctor prescribed medication and his
depression lifted.
Brain drain. The research linking depression to dementia is still in
its infancy and has raised more questions than it has answered. One
study published in February, by researchers at the University of
Pittsburgh, found that adults with symptoms of depression scored a bit
lower on cognitive tests than those who were not depressed, a finding
that is consistent with extensive previous research on the way
depression contributes to cognitive impairment. But only about 13
percent of the patients who eventually developed dementia were
depressed.
At the same time, though, another group of researchers reported that
the brains of Alzheimer's patients with a history of depression had more
of the disease's characteristic tangles and plaques in the
hippocampus--the area largely responsible for memory--than those of
other patients. Moreover, their medical records indicated that they had
succumbed more rapidly to the ravages of the illness. "About all we do
know with certainty," says Michael Rapp, a resident at Mount Sinai
medical school and one of the authors of the Alzheimer's study, "is that
the biggest risk factor for Alzheimer's disease is old age."
What also seems certain, however mysterious all these connections may
be, is that mental health can no longer be considered a separate issue.
Realizing that there may be links between his mental and physical
illness has brought Bryce Miller some peace with a body that has often
confused him. "When they stuck my finger 15 years ago and found out that
I was diabetic, it never occurred to me that my depression had something
to do with it," he says. "But now it just seems so clear: The brain is
always connected to the body."
COPYRIGHT 2006 All rights reserved.
This material is published under license from the publisher through
the Gale Group, Farmington Hills, Michigan. All inquiries regarding
rights should be directed to the Gale Group.
Anxiety, depression impacts lives of young adults
University Wire; 4/4/2006; Nedda Pourahmady
(Daily Kent Stater) (U-WIRE) KENT, Ohio -- Anxiety and depression are
becoming more common among young adults. More than 40 million Americans
are diagnosed with anxiety disorders annually, and about 7 percent of
these people include college students, said Gina Mangiaracina, program
and public relations manager for Anxiety Disorders Association of
America.
Anxiety disorders can be placed into six categories including
generalized anxiety disorder, panic disorder and social anxiety
disorder, she said.
Treatments for anxiety and depression include cognitive behavioral
therapy, medication or a combination of the two, Mangiaracina said.
"Treatments vary from person to person and depend on the type and
severity of the disorder," she said.
Bijan Bastani, psychiatrist for NorthCoast Clinical Trials, Inc., in
Beachwood, Ohio, said the first step in treatment of depression is to
diagnose it correctly.
"The disorder needs to be explored, whether it is just depression,
bipolar depression or secondary depression due to substance abuse or
other medical conditions," he said.
A person must first distinguish depression either as a mere symptom
or the actual illness itself, Bastani said.
"Just being unhappy or frustrated because of an external stress or an
event does not mean an illness," he said. "What constitutes an illness
is the persistence of a depressed or sad mood, at least for two weeks
for the most part of the time."
Bastani said younger adults may not be psychologically sophisticated
enough to know they're exhibiting symptoms of depression.
"They may show loss of interest in academic, social and other
activities," he said.
Steve Ross, sophomore computer science major, said his
manic-depression has had a huge impact on his social life.
"There are times where I don't want to be around anyone, don't feel
like doing anything, can be very ornery and easily tempered," Ross said.
Bastani said stress, caused by such occurrences as being away from
home or academic demands, may be a risk factor for developing
depression.
Ross said the hardest part about the disorder is that many times he
feels a certain way for no particular reason.
"There is no way to control how I feel, but there are ways to control
how I react to it, or how I can let other people perceive me," Ross
said.
Younger adults may be born with genetic vulnerabilities for getting
depressed, Bastani said.
Moreover, Bastani said drug and alcohol use or abuse may play a major
role in depression.
"Friends and roommates should be aware of each other's behavior,
support and help to be referred to appropriate treatment facilities,"
Bastani said.
Ross said he has learned to deal with his manic-depression naturally.
"I have read and experienced many times where people have used
harmful things to deal with the disorder such as drugs and alcohol,"
Ross said. "Fortunately, I have been able to stay clear of all forms."
Bastani said psychotherapy is used to treat anxiety and depression,
and there are several medications used to treat depression, such as
Prozac and Zoloft.
Bastani said it is important to take depression seriously and to
search for proper diagnosis and treatments.
"It is a serious disease and has significant morbidity and
mortality," Bastani said.
For more information on depression or anxiety, visit Psychological
Services in the DeWeese Health Center, or call (330) 672-2487.
(C) 2006 Daily Kent Stater via U-WIRE
This material is published under license from the publisher through
ProQuest Information and Learning Company, Ann Arbor, Michigan. All
inquiries regarding rights should be directed to ProQuest Information
and Learning Company.
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