Depression

The effectiveness of over a dozen popular antidepressants is under scrutiny after a review of research submitted by the FDA has revealed that the efficacy of these drugs appears to have been exaggerated by selective publication of positive research findings.

According to a review of unpublished data submitted to the Food and Drug Administration, favorable results about the drugs' benefits were selectively published while negative or questionable results went unpublished.

For most people, a significant proportion of their lives is devoted to work. Therefore, when they become depressed, not only their personal lives suffer, but their work lives. And, if you think this doesn’t have any impact on the people they work with, think again. The absenteeism rates increase, and productivity decreases when a person becomes depressed; and this definitely impacts on the other employees who many times have to pick up the slack.

Biofeedback is a technique that has been used for generations. Biofeedback enables a person to control a select biological function which is usually controlled automatically. Usually, the body dynamics which can be monitored in this manner are temperature, pulse, blood pressure, and muscle tension. The exercises one uses to control these functions are both mental and physiological and based on the premise that your brain can only perform one action at a time. For instance, it is impossible to feel rage, if your body is totally relaxed. Lamaze courses for pregnant women are built on this premise: by reducing anxiety the associated pain is also reduced.

Some people experience a serious mood change when the seasons change. They may sleep too much, have little energy, and crave sweets and starchy foods. They may also feel depressed. Though symptoms can be severe, they usually clear up. This condition is seasonal affective disorder (SAD). It usually happens during the winter. A less common type of SAD happens in the summer.

Patients living at different latitudes note that their winter depressions are longer and more profound the farther north they live. Patients with SAD also report that their depression worsens or reappears whenever the weather is overcast at any time of the year, or if their indoor lighting is decreased.

Depression is a serious medical illness that involves the brain. It's more than just a feeling of being "down in the dumps" or "blue" for a few days. If you are one of the more than 20 million people in the United States who have depression, the feelings do not go away. They persist and interfere with your everyday life.

Symptoms can include:

• Sadness
• Loss of interest or pleasure in activities you used to enjoy

Experimental medication ketamine relieves depression in just hours; points to targets for new medications

A new study has revealed more about how the medication ketamine, when used experimentally for depression, relieves symptoms of the disorder in hours instead of the weeks or months it takes for current antidepressants to work. While ketamine itself probably won't come into use as an antidepressant because of its side effects, the new finding moves scientists considerably closer to understanding how to develop faster-acting antidepressant medications -- among the priorities of the National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH), part of the National Institutes of Health.

Anti-Stigma: Do You Know the Facts?

Stigma is not just a matter of using the wrong word or action. Stigma is about disrespect. It is the use of negative labels to identify a person living with mental illness. Stigma is a barrier. Fear of stigma, and the resulting discrimination, discourages individuals and their families from getting the help they need. An estimated 22 to 23 percent of the U.S. population experience a mental disorder in any given year, but almost half of these individuals do not seek treatment (U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, 2002; U.S. Surgeon General, 2001).

Good social networks are even more important than we thought.

A new study, reported in the Archives of General Psychiatry, finds that lonely people have a significantly higher risk of developing dementia similar to that seen in people with Alzheimer's disease, than people with good social ties.

A surprising finding about the "food-mood" connection has turned up in a recent (January, 2007) study.

The study focused on consumption of comfort foods, and we don't mean mother's home-made chicken soup. The researchers defined comfort food as "a quick indulgent snack that tastes good and gives...an immediate 'bump of euphoria'."

The relationship between antidepressants and suicidality (the risk of suicidal thinking and behavior) is paradoxical. According to the U.S. FDA, antidepressant medications apparently increase the risk of suicidality in children, adolescents, and young adults up to their middle 20s, but they apparently protect against it in those 30 and older, particularly for those 65 and older.