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Mental Health News for
August
2008
Depression News, Polls and Quotes
As part of the
main
Information Centre,
this section of the website is intended to provide month-by-month news
about depression, anxiety and other related health concerns.
Archives from
previous months are available, and all polls from previous months remain
active if you should wish to vote.
If you would
like to help us to produce
next month's news, polls and quotes, please click on the links by each
applicable section and fill out the accompanying form.
Quotes and Philosophical Thoughts for August 2008:
>
"I must not fear. Fear is the mind-killer. Fear is the little-death that
brings total obliteration. I will face my fear. I will permit it to pass
over me and through me. And when it has gone past I will turn the inner
eye to see its path. Where the fear has gone there will be nothing. Only I
will remain." - Frank Herbert
>
"If everyone feels fear when approaching something totally new in
life, yet so many are out there "doing it" despite the fear, then we must
conclude that fear is not the problem. The real issue is holding on to the
fear." - Susan Jeffers
>
"I start to feel like I can’t maintain the facade any longer, that I
may just start to show through. And I wish I knew what was wrong. Maybe
something about how stupid my whole life is. I don’t know. Why does the
rest of the world put up with the hypocrisy, the need to put a happy face
on sorrow, the need to keep on keeping on?... I don’t know the answer, I
know only that I can’t. I don't want any more vicissitudes, I don't want
any more of this try, try again stuff. I just want out. I’ve had it. I am
so tired. I am twenty and I am already exhausted." - Elizabeth
Wurtzel
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“A lot of what passes for depression these days is nothing more than a
body saying that it needs work.” - Geoffrey Norman
>
“They say they don't know when but a day is gonna come. When there won't
be a moon and there won't be a sun. It will just go black. It will just go
back to the way it was before.” - Conor Oberst
Suggest A Quote
Unique biochemical crosstalk that enables a fetus to get nutrition and
oxygen from its mother's blood just may cause common postpartum blues,
researchers say. That crosstalk allows the mother's blood to flow out of
the uterine artery and get just a single cell layer away from the fetus'
blood, says Dr. Puttur D. Prasad, biochemist in the Medical College of
Georgia School of Medicine.
In spite of the range of medications now available, major depression
remains a challenging disease to treat. Only about half of adult patients
respond to the first antidepressant they try, with only one-third
achieving remission, reports the August 2008 issue of the Harvard Mental
Health Letter. Most adults will try two or more medications before finding
one that alleviates their depression.
Although maternal suicide after giving birth is a relatively rare
occurrence, suicide attempts often have long-lasting effects on the family
and the infant. In a study published in the August 2008 issue of the
American Journal of Obstetrics & Gynecology, researchers compared two
populations of mothers and found that a history of psychiatric disorders
or substance abuse was a strong predictor of post-partum suicide attempts.
Depression is associated with decreased binding of serotonin 5 HT1A
receptors. Receptors must be targeted to the appropriate membrane domain
function properly, and although trafficking mechanisms have been
elucidated for some receptors, little is known about how serotonin
receptors are targeted to dendrites. Because the C terminus of 5 HT1A
receptors is required for targeting, Carrel et al.
Voluntary physical activity does not appear to cause a reduction in
anxiety and depression, but exercise and mood may be associated through a
common genetic factor, according to a report in the August issue of
Archives of General Psychiatry, one of the JAMA/Archives journals. In the
general population, regular exercise is associated with reduced anxious
and depressive symptoms, according to background information in the
article.
Researchers have spent decades probing the causes of depression,
schizophrenia and insomnia in humans. But a new study in this week's PLoS
Biology may have uncovered key insights into the origins of these and
other conditions by examining a most unlikely research subject: worms. The
project, which was led by Oklahoma Medical Research Foundation scientist
Kenneth Miller, Ph.D., examined the way eye-less microscopic worms known
as C.
Depression causes patients with advanced cancer to die sooner than they
should, say scientists at the University of Liverpool. In a six-month
study patients who were found to be depressed had a 7% increased chance of
dying and this percentage increased depending on the severity of the
depression. Depression is common in patients with advanced cancer and in a
significant number of patients it is persistent.
The mammoth increase in the United States' prison population since the
1970s is having profound demographic consequences that disproportionately
affect black males. "This jump in incarceration rates represents a massive
intervention in American families at a time when the federal government
was making claims that it was less involved in their lives," according to
a University of Washington researcher who will present findings Sunday
(Aug.
Researchers have pinpointed a mechanism in the brains of mice that
could explain why some human mothers become depressed following
childbirth. The discovery could lead to improved treatment for postpartum
depression. Supported in part by the National Institute of Mental Health,
of the National Institutes of Health, the study used genetically
engineered mice lacking a protein critical for adapting to the sex hormone
fluctuations of pregnancy and the postpartum period.
Autopsies usually point to a cause of death but now a study of brain
tissue collected during these procedures, may explain an underlying cause
of major depression and suicide. The international research group, led by
Dr. Michael O. Poulter of Robarts Research Institute at The University of
Western Ontario and Dr.
Recent media coverage has questioned the prescription and safety of a
class of antidepressants called Selective Serotonin Reuptake Inhibitors (SSRIs)
in children and adolescents. "General practitioners are a critical part of
the mental health care system in Australia and are often the first point
of contact in the health system for people with mental health concerns.
Senate Democrats on Monday failed to advance legislation (S 3297) that
combined 34 bills that Sen. Tom Coburn (R-Okla.) has blocked, CQ Today
reports. The package included disease specific research measures,
environmental protection legislation and measures aimed at bolstering
foreign economies. Language from a measure (
In a first, scientists from Weill Cornell Medical College and Columbia
University Medical Center have described the specifics of how brain cells
process antidepressant drugs, cocaine and amphetamines. These novel
findings could prove useful in the development of more targeted medication
therapies for a host of psychiatric diseases, most notably in the area of
addiction.
Virginia Commonwealth University is part of an international research
team that received a Wellcome Trust Foundation grant totaling more than
$2.8 million to identify the genetic variants that have an impact on the
risk for recurrent major depression.
In a new twist on the Confucian ideal of filial piety, a study finds
that the assistance of daughters-in-law - but not their own children -
helps mitigate depression among older people in China. This is
particularly true in rural areas, where elders may rely more heavily on
family to be support providers.
Pfizer's erectile dysfunction medication Viagra can improve sexual
function for some women who take antidepressants, according to a study
published Wednesday in the Journal of the American Medical Association,
the Baltimore Sun reports (Kohn, Baltimore Sun, 7/23).
Prescriptions filled for antidepressant drugs increased from 154
million in 2002 to 170 million in 2005, according to the latest News and
Numbers from the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality. Among the
prescriptions (not including refills) which were written after patients
talked with doctors in-person or over the phone.
Adolescent girls who had a serious school failure by the 12th grade -
being expelled, suspended or dropping out - were significantly more likely
to have suffered a serious bout of depression at the age of 21 than girls
who did not have these problems. New research published this week in the
Journal of Adolescent Health showed that girls who had early conduct
problems in elementary school also were at increased risk for depression
in early adulthood.
The Royal College of Psychiatrists welcomes this detailed review of NHS
acute inpatient mental health services by the Healthcare Commission. It is
encouraging to see that two-fifths of trusts exceeded the minimum level of
service provision. However, it is disappointing that no trusts were scored
excellent on all four of the key criteria against which performance was
assessed.
Targacept, Inc. (NASDAQ: TRGT), a clinical-stage biopharmaceutical
company developing a new class of drugs known as NNR Therapeutics™, today
announced that it has initiated a Phase 2b clinical trial of TC-5214 as an
augmentation therapy in subjects with Major Depressive Disorder (MDD).
TC-5214 is a broad spectrum neuronal nicotinic receptor (NNR) antagonist
and represents a promising new mechanism in development for the treatment
of MDD.
A team of Scottish researchers have shown that cancer patients offered
a depression care intervention - delivered by specially trained oncology
nurses with no previous psychiatric experience - showed improvements in
symptoms of depression compared to patients offered usual care. The
beneficial effects of the "Depression Care for People with Cancer" package
(DCPC) were found to be sustained at 12 months follow-up, to the surprise
of the investigators.
Hoping to answer a question raised by the Sequenced Treatment
Alternatives to Relieve Depression (STAR*D) study, UT Southwestern Medical
Center researchers have designed the Combining Medication to Enhance
Outcomes of Depression (CO-MED) trial to test multiple-medication
treatment of depression. "We are trying two active, Food and Drug
Administration-marketed antidepressant medicines available by prescription
from your local drugstore," said Dr.
New data from a study of patients with treatment-resistant depression
who underwent deep brain stimulation (DBS) in the subcallosal cingulate
region (SCG or Cg25) of the brain shows that this intervention is
generally safe and provides significant improvement in patients as early
as one month after treatment. The patients also experienced continued and
sustained improvement over time.
Patients with accident or trauma related chronic pain often have
post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) and depression. What isn't clearly
known, however, is how PTSD relates to mood disorders and pain severity in
chronic pain patients. University of Michigan researchers examined the
contribution of PTSD to the pain experience, functional disability and
frequency of depressive symptoms.
The Health Department today announced a new online campaign to engage
teenagers grappling with depression, drugs, and violence, and to encourage
them to seek help. NYC Teen Mindspace, posted on MySpace, is the agency's
first effort to promote health through Web-based social networking - a
medium with great potential because of its popularity with young people.
To see the campaign, visit www.myspace.
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