Lost a loved one? Get over it in 2 weeks! The new DSM-5 has deleted bereavement, feelings of deep sadness, loss, sleeplessness, crying, inability to concentrate, tiredness, and no appetite. If these symptoms continue for more than 2 weeks after the death of a loved one, the diagnosis is you have a depression, rather than a normal grief reaction.
The editors of the Lancet strongly disagree with the APA, “Medicalising grief, so that treatment is legitimised routinely with antidepressants … is not only dangerously simplistic, but also flawed. The evidence base for treating recently bereaved people with standard antidepressant regimens is absent. In many people, grief may be a necessary response to bereavement that should not be suppressed or eliminated…. Building a life without the loved person who died cannot be expected to be quick, easy, or straightforward.”
(Source: thelancet.com)
The cost of treating chronic disease (cancers, diabetes, heart disease, hypertension, stroke, mental disorders, and pulmonary conditions) costs billions of dollars a year, putting an incredible burden on our country’s health-care system.
This map shows how much was spent treating chronic diseases cost in each state in 2003 (the last year for which data is available) and how much those costs are projected to balloon by 2023 without a change to the way our health-care system approaches these conditions.
USA & France highest depression rates. At 19.2%, the U.S. had the second highest lifetime rate of depression. Only France, at 21%, had a greater frequency of the disease. Among the high-income countries, Japan, Germany, Italy, and Israel reported the smallest percentages, ranging from under 7% to 10%.
The researchers also measured the rates of depression that occurred in the year preceding the survey.
This post of is for G Wiatr expecting his second son and for any new Dad.
An analysis finds that 10% of men suffer serious depression at some point between a pregnant partner’s first trimester and one year after childbirth. Stress and sleep deprivation can be factors.
The study, published in the Journal of the American Medical Assn., found that 10.4% of men experienced serious depression at some point between his partner’s first trimester and one year after childbirth, more than double the depression rate for men in general. American men were more likely to experience prenatal or postpartum depression compared with men in other countries, 14.1% in the U.S. compared with 8.2% internationally.
“It’s viewed as a disorder of motherhood. It’s not viewed by health professionals and the public as a problem in fathers,” said James F. Paulson, the lead author of the study and an assistant professor of pediatrics at Eastern Virginia Medical School in Norfolk.
But depression in either parent can affect both the couple’s relationship and the child’s development, Paulson said, adding that further study is needed.
Scientists have discovered a gene regulator mechanism that helps to explain resilience to stress, vulnerability to depression and how antidepressants work. The new findings, in the reward circuit of mouse and human brains, have stimulated the search for compounds that boost deltaFosB.
The power switch inside brain cells called neurons is a transcription factor. DeltaFosB turns multiple genes on and off, triggering the production of proteins that regulate cell activities.
“We found that triggering deltaFosB in the reward circuit’s hub is both necessary and sufficient for resilience; it protects mice from developing a depression-like syndrome following chronic social stress,” explained Eric Nestler, M.D., of the Mount Sinai School of Medicine, who led the NIH funded research team.
“Antidepressants can reverse this social withdrawal syndrome by boosting deltaFosB. Moreover, deltaFosB is conspicuously depleted in brains of people who suffered from depression. Thus, induction of this protein is a positive adaptation that helps us cope with stress, so we’re hoping to find ways to tweak it pharmacologically,” added Nestler.
Nestler and colleagues report the findings that inspired the hunt online May 16 2010 in the journal nature neuroscience.
New name but an old problem, anxiety and depression. Researchers in Australia call it presenteeism. The opposite of absenteeism, when workers take sick days for being unwell.
Presenteeism is when employees continue turning up to work but their productivity and effectiveness is reduced.
In this economy one can’t afford to miss a day of work. People aren’t stupid. One still needs to pay they bills even if you’re blue and anxious. Some might call it a normal effect to this global economic mess! Other call it a faith stretching exercise either way here’s some good advice by Guardian Online’s Emer O’Neill
Laughter provides
- an excellent cardio workout called ‘internal jogging’ where one minute of laughter can increase the heart rate that takes 10 minutes to achieve on an exercise machines.
- a natural facelift toning and firming the facial muscles.
- a non-violent method for the release of emotions. This cathartic benefit helps to deal with current emotional problems and can also release old emotions that are stored and poisoning our systems and ability to perform.
- strong emotional bonds with other people with whom you laugh. The group ‘resonance’ like a human wave of emotions that are spread from person to person.
- an antidote for depression
- a tool for one to be present in the moment a place where one is not able to worry because worry is always about real or imagined past or future events.
BRAIN FOOD: water
70-80% of brain tissue is water. Dehydration is a source of decreased production of energy in the brain.
Both depression and chronic fatigue syndrome are linked with dehydration. Some have discovered that they feel more “clear-minded” by staying well hydrated.
