Talking to a Man about Depression

I discussed earlier how the mental health community is beginning to accept the idea that men tend to exhibit depressive symptoms differently than women. Instead of feeling sadness, a man may feel angry or irritable. Instead of losing interest in activities he previously enjoyed, a man may drink too much or engage in risky behavior. Now that it's easier to recognize depression symptoms in a man we know, our next step is to talk to him about it. However, that's easier said than done. I was involved with a man who went through bouts of depression. It was understandable - he had had a rough childhood and had a parent who was mentally ill. I knew when he was going through a bout - he would drink heavily. But when I would bring up the topic, he would insist that he wasn't depressed - he was just "in a funk."...  Read More   |   Discuss   |   Suggest An Article

Folate and Deplin: Effective Treatments for Depression?

For almost 40 years, it has been suspected that folate plays a role in depression. We have a general sense that low folate can cause depressive symptoms, and that treatment with folate (of low folate patients) can help, but it is still debatable whether or not folate supplementation helps people who are not otherwise deficient. Additionally, it is known that some medications, especially seizure meds such as valproate, carbamazepine and to some degree lamotrigine, reduce the amount of available folate. (And so it is always a good idea to be taking a folate supplement if you are on these meds.) Recently, a new drug l-methylfolate (trade name Deplin), a shortening of the proper name l-methyltetrahydrofolate (MTHF), has been investigated for the treatment of depression. Why? Because folate itself is converted to MTHF, the active chemical that actually produces the results in depression... Read More   |   Discuss   |   Suggest An Article 

Psychotherapy for All: An Experiment

SIOLIM, India At the faded one-story medical clinic in this fishing and farming village, people with depression and anxiety typically got little or no attention. Busy doctors and nurses focused on physical ailments — children with diarrhea, laborers with injuries, old people with heart trouble. Patients, fearful of the stigma connected to mental illness, were reluctant to bring up emotional problems. Last year, two new workers arrived. Their sole task was to identify and treat patients suffering depression and anxiety. The workers found themselves busy. Almost every day, several new patients appeared. Depressed and anxious people now make up “a sizable crowd” at the clinic, said the doctor in charge, Anil Umraskar... Read More   |   Discuss   |   Suggest An Article

Antidepressant Success may Vary by Race

Black and Hispanic adults with depression may not do as well on drug therapy as whites do, a study suggests. Researchers found that among nearly 2,700 U.S. adults receiving an antidepressant for major depression, African Americans and Latinos had lower success rates than their white counterparts. Much of the racial gap was related to the fact that the minority groups were, in general, more disadvantaged and in poorer overall health, the researchers report in the journal Medical Care. "We found that these two groups tended to be more disadvantaged socioeconomically, had more medical problems, less education and higher unemployment rates," lead researcher Dr. Ira M. Lesser explained in a statement... Read More   |   Discuss   |   Suggest An Article