Tuesday, May 17, 2011
Found: The rogue gene that could make you prone to depression
They have discovered flaws in people’s DNA which may make them more likely to get the condition.
It is hoped that their findings eventually lead to the development of better treatments for the disorder which is notoriously difficult to manage.
Read more:
Tuesday, February 08, 2011
Depression: Here's a gene that may make some folks more susceptible
But what are the genes involved? A study in the journal Archives of General Psychiatry implicates one. It directs the formation of a small peptide in our brains, Neuropeptide Y.
Neuropeptide Y is found all over the place in our brains, and prior studies had shown that the levels in our bloodstreams and spinal fluid seem to correlate with how resilient we are to life’s stresses: the more NPY, the more resilient.
Read more . . .
Wednesday, May 23, 2007
Early, Quality Child Care Linked to Less Depression
Children of low income families benefit from quality educational child care as the involvement appears to protect children against the negative effects of their home environments.
The early intervention, for young children from infancy to age 5, appears to make a difference in decreasing symptoms of depression in early adulthood.
The report, from the FPG Child Development Institute (FPG) at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, uses data from the Abecedarian Project, a longitudinal study begun in 1972 in which 111 high-risk children were randomly assigned to early educational child care from infancy to age 5 or to a control group that received various other forms of child care.
The study is published in the May/June 2007 issue of the journal Child Development.
Read more . . . .
Tuesday, January 30, 2007
Depression amid Chronic Disease
Receiving the diagnosis of a chronic disease or cancer is a traumatic, life-changing event. Unfortunately, the mental health effect of the incident is often obscured by attention to the physical disorder and the inability to determine “appropriate sadness” from clinical depression.
Researchers have developed a new tool to detect depression that will improve patients’ ability to come to terms with their disease.
Depression affects 25 percent of patients with advanced cancer – the stage at which the disease has begun to spread from its original tumor. At this stage, depression is difficult to diagnose as symptoms can be confused with a patient displaying ‘appropriate sadness’ – feelings which commonly result from suffering a terminal illness.
Accordingly, a University of Liverpool research team has created a method of testing for depression so clinicians can introduce additional treatment to enable patients to cope with the cancer more effectively. The tool could also be applied to sufferers of other serious illnesses such as Parkinson’s Disease and chronic heart disease.
Based on a screening system originally developed for sufferers of post-natal depression, the new tool - known as the ‘Brief Edinburgh Depression Scale’ (BEDS) - includes a six-step scale that assesses a cancer patient’s mental condition. The test includes questions on worthlessness, guilt and suicidal thoughts.
Read more . . .Wednesday, January 24, 2007
Seek Help if “SAD”
Many believe feeling down or gloomy during the winter months is just a part of life. In fact, a decline in sunlight has been linked to development of seasonal affective disorders (SAD). In a new study, some researchers now believe developing SAD can be a subtype of major depression and should be treated as such.
Lead author Stephen Lurie, M.D., Ph.D., an assistant professor of Family Medicine at the University of Rochester Medical Center, also noted that SAD is sometimes missed in the typical doctor’s office setting.
“Like major depression, Seasonal Affective Disorder probably is under-diagnosed in primary care offices,” Lurie said. “But with personalized and detailed attention to symptoms, most patients can be helped a great deal.”
New, preliminary studies link SAD to alcoholism or Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD). However, not all people with SAD will have ADHD, according to the review article for the American Academy of Family Physicians.
Read more . . .Interesting. . . SAD and ADHD are linked.
Wednesday, January 17, 2007
Spouse's Personality May Be Hazardous To Your Health
Science Daily — To the long list of things to consider when choosing a mate, there is now evidence suggesting that your spouse's personality can have a major influence on your own ability to recover from - and perhaps even survive - a major challenge to your health.It is a finding drawn from a study by a team of researchers including John M. Ruiz, an assistant professor of psychology at Washington State University, as well as Karen A. Matthews and Richard Schulz, at the University of Pittsburgh, and Michael F. Scheier with Carnegie Mellon University.
The study involved 111 coronary artery bypass patients and their spouses. The researchers assessed aspects of personality, symptoms of depression, and the marital satisfaction of each patient and his spouse prior to, and 18 months following, surgery.
The main finding was that within couples, the personality of one person predicted the depression level of their partner 18 months later. The results were published in the most recent issue of the Journal of Personality and Social Psychology.
"We've known for some time that a patient's personality and mood before surgery influence their own mental and physical recovery following surgery," Ruiz said. "We also know that a partner's personality and mood can affect us in the short term. What this work shows is that a partner's personality traits are also important determinants of our own long-term emotional and physical recovery from a major health challenge."
The research demonstrated that a patient married to a generally neurotic and anxious spouse was more likely to report symptoms of depression 18 months after surgery.
"In other words, the spouse's personality - quite independent of the patient's own personality - exhibited a major influence on how well the patient was feeling and progressing towards recovery," he said.
Depression is an important consideration in the treatment of cardiac patients as it is increasingly recognized as a significant risk factor in heart attacks and death.
"Our study suggests that there's a distinct possibility that the spouse's personality can increase depression which may then lead to these negative physical outcomes. It's an issue we will be looking at as we continue to follow these patients and as part of new studies here at WSU."
The study also focused on how the spouses of patients coped over the course of the study.
"Spouses are often times a major source of daily care and take on many of the roles that the couple may have previously shared," Ruiz said. "We found that the same effects seen for patients also applied to spouses. Those spouses who cared for a person who was generally neurotic and anxious were more likely to report symptoms of depression as well as high levels of caregiving burden and strain a year and a half later."
"We don't really understand what it is that a spouse with these negative personality traits is doing to cause this depression in their partner," he said. "Are they creating more stress, being less helpful, or burdening a person who is already having a difficult time with their own needs? It's a question that needs more study."
Ruiz notes that not all of the findings were negative. Optimism in one spouse appeared to have beneficial effects for the partner.
"Spouses caring for an optimistic, as opposed to a pessimistic, patient reported fewer depressive symptoms and significantly less burden and strain over time."
But Ruiz points out that we are hardly helpless when it comes to our spouse's personality and how it affects us. He said there is a "silver lining" in the findings, which suggests that a person's degree of satisfaction with their marriage is a key influence.
"Being married to a neurotic, anxious person was only harmful for those who were unhappy in their marriage," Ruiz said. "For those happy in their marriage, spouse neuroticism appeared to have little influence. Hence, the findings highlight the importance of personality in marriage and health, but also support the notion that 'love conquers all."
Tuesday, January 16, 2007
Better than Prozac
If you walked into your therapist's office and he told you to stop taking Prozac and start eating more fish, you'd probably think he was crazy. But a study has found that a combination of common food components might be as effective in treating depression as traditional drugs.
Scientists at Harvard-affiliated McLean Hospital looked at how uridine and omega-3 fatty acids could prevent depressive-like symptoms in laboratory rats. They found that each substance has antidepressant-like effects but together they are more effective than either is alone. It's a case of one plus one equals three.
Despite their powerful therapeutic effects, both uridine and omega-3 fatty acids are naturally occurring ingredients found in ordinary foods. Cold-water fish such as salmon and sardines are rich in omega-3 fatty acids, as are walnuts. Molasses and sugarbeets are good sources of uridine.
Researchers tested the two agents on rats that were forced to swim, a situation from which it was impossible to escape. It creates severe stress that induces a depression-like state of inaction and immobility. The stress, mediated by hormones, activates genes in key brain regions known to influence activity levels and mood.
When fed alone to rats, uridine had an immediate effect in relieving depression,; the rats became less immobile in the forced swim test. Omega-3 fatty acids also reduced indicators of immobility, but it took a solid month of steady consumption of dietary supplements containing omega-3 fatty acids for the animals to show signs of improved mood.
Researchers then performed another experiment in which they fed the rats normally ineffective amounts of uridine with supplements containing omega-3 fatty acids. After ten days of treatment, rats showed signs of reduced immobility, increased swimming and increased climbing.
No one is sure why the combination of uridine and omega-3 fatty acids is so effective at relieving depression, but the researchers have some theories. Uridine affects the synthesis of nerve cell membranes and their fluidity, which in turn has an impact on all transactions that must take place.
In addition, uridine influences the levels of neurotransmitters such as dopamine and norphinephrine. Both are important brain chemicals that effect mood, moobility and general arousal.
Omega-3 fatty acids are also known to affect the fluidity of nerve cell membranes. They may be affecting the ability of serotonin to dock at the cell membrane, the first step before it unloads its cargo. Serotonin is a neurotransmitter which plays an important role in depression, bipolar disorder and anxiety.
Indeed, it is possible that uridine and omega-3 fatty acids act like a good song and dance act. Uridine may rev up membrane synthesis and then the omega-3s are on hand to slip smoothly into the nerve cell membranes. There they can facilitate a whole range of processes, including improving the action of serotonin.
Membrane fluidity may be especially important for mitochondria, the little energy factories found inside all cells of the body, including nerve cells. Omega-3 acids seem to boost the flexibility of mitochondrial membranes while uridine delivers raw material for the mitochondrial furnace.
Tuesday, October 10, 2006
Still Feeling Crappy
Found an article about Reasons to Have Sex that I thought was interesting. One of the reasons supports what I have claimed all along, that sex--specifically intercourse--helps me moderate my moods. LOL You know, they just need to stop wasting money on studies and come and ask me what *I* think. ::giggle::