Depression Talk

In the eyes of many aspiring artists, Nicholas Hughes had a pedigree unmatched. The son of British Poet Laureate Ted Hughes and Sylvia Plath, he was one year old when his infamous tortured poet mother commited suicide by sticking her head in a gas oven.

46 years later, Nicholas Highes’ body was discovered in his Alaskan home. He’d hung himself. His surviving sister, Freida, who also suffers from depression, claims that Nicholas was battling depression at the time and apparently was the one to discover the body when she arrived for a visit to her brother. He never married and did not have children. He was a professor of “fisheries and ocean sciences”, with a real love for the outdoors and took up pottery as a hobby.

This Is What Depression Does To You

Although he kept very quiet and tried to stay away from the public eye and his parents’ fans, by all accounts Nicholas Hughes became a successful and highly respected fellow. But no matter how brilliant or logical you are, depression does have a way of making you unable to see your situation clearly.

So, if you know someone who has had depression in the past and yet seems all right, still check up on them from time to time. In depression, setbacks are inevitable. There isn’t just one overnight cure and then you’re free from it for the rest of your life.

Suicide Warning Signs

Indications that someone is thinking about sucide include:

• Giving away prized possessions
• Becoming more and more isolated
• Talking about death or dying
• Sudden weight loss or weight gain
• Not finding any joy in any activity, even those things the person usually loves

Seroquel (quetiapine) is an antipsychotic made by British Big Pharma giant AstraZeneca. It’s their second biggest cash cow (only behind Nexium). It’s been out for over ten years now and has helped a lot of people with the manic phase of bipolar disorder and schizophrenia. AstraZeneca is hoping the FDA will allow Seroquel to be used for major depression and general anxiety disorder (GAD). It is perscribed to some people for those conditions, but strictly on an off-label basis.

Just one snag — many people takng Seroquel gain weight. Lots of weight — as in, now they have Type 2 diabetes weight. And just last week, it has been discovered that AstraZeneca knew of this side effect and decided not to mention anything about it.

Oops.

But Seroquel Works For Me

If you are already taking Seroquel and know you have been able to better manage your symptoms on it, please do not go into a panic over this bit of news. I’m sure your doctor has told you about the importance of regular exercise and eating a low-fat diet. You just need to keep that up while on Seroquel — or many other drugs that have been known to cause weight gain.

Don’t just stop taking Seroquel cold turkey. The withdrawl symptoms can be painful, including headaches, dizziness and a return of panic attacks.

How Does It Cause Weight Gain?

FIrst off, not everyone on Seroquel gains weight. But it can make you sleepy and make you hungrier than usual. I couldn’t find any numbers about what percentage of people taking Seroquel gain a lot of weight.

So, if you stay active and eat lower-calories fresh foods instead of always turning to processed foods and sweets, then it’s theoretically possible to keep the weight gain to a minimum.

Better to be fat and peaceful than to be thin and suicidal.

Bestselling author Dr. Andrew Weil claims that for overall health, you shouldn’t watch the news on TV except for local news, because it’s too depressing. According to a Pittsburgh University study on teens, they back up Dr. Weil’s claims, but add that watching any TV may contribute to developing depression.

Study Specs

The study followed 4,140 teenagers and looked at how long they watched TV, played computer games, listened to the radio and if they were eventually diagnosed with depression. The study started with interviews in 1995 and again in 2002, when the teens were in their 30’s. All of the teens participlating in 1995 were not diagnosed with depression. Years later, 7.8% were.

The study highlighted that it was the TV watching group that were later diagnosed with depression, not the radio-listening group or the computer-games playing group. The other groups still watched TV, but about a half hour less each day than the TV watching group, who watched TV an average of 2.3 hours per day.

The Practical Upshot

The study acknowledges that there could be many other factors why 7.8% of the teens became depressed. One of those could be that the kids did not get enough sleep because they were watching TV instead. Not getting enough sleep can get anyone depressed. That’s why sleep deprivation is considered torture in some countries.

But you can stop TV watching a couple of hours before bed or watch rather goofy, fluffy entertainment like late-night talk shows instead of action movies. Sometimes, watching a really boring documentary can help you drift right off.

You can’t isolate yourself from what’s going on in the world. Also, when you have depression, ANYTHING can set you off. It doesn’t have to be TV. Watch TV, even if you are depressed.

If you aren’t worried about climate change, then you really should be worried about your mental health. But for those who know and personally experienced the devastating effects of climate change (such as species die-offs, diappearance of glaciers, Spain turning into a desert, and do on), depression is common and actually healthy.

Certainly, you can obssessively worry about anything, but in this post, we’ll just stick with worrying about climate change.

Denial Is Unhealthy

Truth hurts — that’s why many people don’t try to find it or accept it once they have found it. We are creatures of habit and try to get through life being as lazy as possible. So, many people have become global warming deniers and for some reason most of them seem to live in America.

Global warming isn’t something shockingly new. Scientists have been giving warnings since the late 1980’s. And hearing any news related to global warming can certainly be depressing.

But ignoring the problem is not an option (unless you want the Earth to become a lifess rock). Just like ignoring major depression is unhealthy, so is ignoring global warming. If you have depression and are worried about the environment — good.

Dealing with Worry

Climate change is a normal thing to be worried about. Convinced that a piano is going to fall out of the sky onto your head whenever you leave your house is not a normal thing to worry about. That would be paranoia. Worry can certainly become paranoia, but it doesn’t have to be in the depressive.

Being concerned or worried shows you actually give a damn. When you’re depressed, you’re really locked into your head. Worrying about the environment means you are thinking beyond yourself.

Then endorse yourself for the worry but then you need to work on your mental health to help do work for the environment in whatever way you choose. You can use the worry to help motivate you to not only get beter, but find a meaning to your life.

Hope this helps.

“A man is the sum of his memories” — Dr. Who

What date is it today? Did we just fast forward in time to April Fool’s Day? Actually, no. The blogosphere is jumping about a Dutch study that shows that the use of beta blockers could help people forget bad memories. The study notes that this is still all theory and that more research needs to be done.

If bad memories were fuel, then in a depressive, bad memories would be like nuclear power — complete with waste you can’t get rid of. But, if later research shows that beta blockers like propranolol can help you forget traumatic events, is it a good idea to take a pill to get rid of those memories?

The Value of Bad Memories

Bad memories — even traumatic memories — can be helpful to a person in the long run. It helps teach a person how to avoid or survive such events, should they ever crop up again. But they are oppressive when they repeat over and over again and you can’t shut them off or all you can think about are those bad memories to the point where they block out all good memories.

Part of dealing with depression or trauma is learning how to deal with the memories. Otherwise, you haven’t really progressed in your mental health. You can ease the symptoms, but until the root cause is dealt with, there won’t be a cure.

The Fire

In August of 2005, I saw my home burn down. It is not a memory I cherish and many days I would like to forget it. But it has become part of my personality that I survived a fire and kept my dog safe, too. If the beta blockers should prove to block bad memories, count me out. Getting rid of my bad memories also gets rid of parts of myself.

The BRODEAN study has begun at UT Southwestern Medical Center. A first volunteer has been given an implant hoped to help lessen or cure major depression. BRODEAN is short for BROdmann Area 25 DEep brain Neuromodulation. Impressive. What does that Mean? It means people are volunteering for surgery to implant this tiny device that promotes deep brain stimulation (DBS).

See what major depression does to you? You get so desperate that you’ll volunteer for anything in order to get relief.

Not Exactly Brain Surgery

What makes BRODEAN different from other types of brain surgeries? Instead of trying to bore a hole in your skull to stick in an electrode, and then connecting you to a seperate machine, everything you need is stuck inside of you. It’s sort of like a pacemaker for the brain (at least, that’s what Time says). This is how UT Southwestern’s Tony Whitworth, M.D. describes it:

The Libra DBS system’s generator or ‘battery’ is implanted near the collarbone and connected to small electrical leads placed at specific targets in the brain. The implantation surgery takes about two to three hours. Patients typically are able to go home one or two days after the procedure

With everything in place, the Libra DBS system generator delivers mild elecrical current to a particular area of the brain that gets quite active in major depressives called Broadmann Area 25.

No, I don’t get it, either.

Originally For Parkinson’s Disease

DBS first appeared on the medical scene in the late 1980’s as a treatment for Parkinson’s Disease. IT’s also being used as therapy for other neurological disorders that often involve trembling as well as trying to help rehabilitate drug addicts.

Very nice — but stay away from my head. After years of reading Stephen King, I just see too many ways this could go haywire…so to speak.

Sometimes, these studies make me scratch my head. We know that high cholesterol can kill you, whether you have depression or not. Now, new research published in the Journal of Psychiatric Reasearchhas come out stating that in men diagnosed with drepression, low cholesterol can kill you, too.

According to this, the way the combination of low cholesterol and depression kills men is by making them commit suicide or taking a drug overdose or engaging in more risky behaviors that may lead to a premature death.

Damned if you pig out and damned if you don’t, huh?

What Is Low Cholesterol?

The article defined low cholesterol in men as “165 milligrams of cholesterol per deciliter or less”. The normal number is 200 milligrams of cholesterol per decileter.

When it comes to cholesterol, there is such a thing as getting the level too low. Low cholesterol is thought to perhaps play a role in making a person more predisposed to cancer. In pregnant women, it can lead to misscarriage or low birth weight.

For most people in North America or the UK, the dangers of getting low cholesterol are a moot point because of the high calorie, high-cholesterol diet. Because of the high price of food, people are choosing to get fatty calorie-laden food to help them get through the day. But, somehow, some folks still have low cholesterol.

Study Specs

The article was researched and written by the Geisinger Health System in Danville, PA. It looked at about 4500 veterans from Vietnam and followed up on what happened to them since 1985, with 2000 as a cut off date to begin coallating data. Veterans with both depression and low cholesterol were found to be seven times more likely to die a premature death than other veterans.

Of course, being a veteran may have had something to do with the high suicide rate, too, but for some reason, that point was glossed over.

America has a fatal fascination with trainwrecks, which may explain why the Republican party was in power for so long. The latest trainwreck is Nadya Suleman, a mentally ill woman in California who recently gave birth to octopulets — and yet already has six children. Not only that, Nadya lives with her parents (although they have threatened to kick her out), is unemployed and does not have a partner to help her raise this vast herd of rugrats.

She didn’t even get pregnant the old fashioned way. She went to an as yet anonymous California fertility clinic, which must have cost tens if not hundreds of thousands of dollars, which the American public will have to pay for because it’s inevitable that all of the children will be taken away from this Angelina Joile-wannabe.

And the odds are that all of the kids have inhereted their mother’s mental illness. Which means they will most likely grow up to commit suicide or at least be freaking miserable.

“I Can Be There For My Kids”

Suleman’s argument for having 14 kids while unemployed and living with her parents is that she can “be there for her kids”. Can someone throw this woman in a hospital and at least sterilize her, let alone get her some good mood stabilizers so she can see that she is completley insane?

Anyone remember their own childhood? The greatest thing was when the parents left you alone. You could run wild. It was what most kids pray for. “Please, God, let my parents get stuck in an elevator shaft for the weekend. I want to party.”

Not Usual Of Mental Illness

Most people with a mental illness like depression are not so whacknoodle. They can actually hold down a job, take care of many commitments and do not have 14 kids on purpose. Nadya Suleman is NOT a poster child of mental illness. She’s a poster child for abortion.

According to a recent study from the Gregorio Marañón University Hospital in Madrid and the Network of Centres for Biomedical Research in Mental Health Networks (CIBERSAM), adolescents with schizophrenia or Type 1 bipolar disorder have less grey matter in their brains than do people without these mental illnesses.

Grey matter (which is literally grey) is the area of tightly packed varities of nerve cells and recptors cells that are thought to be responsible for a lot of bodily functions, including memory, senosry perceptions and emotions. Considering that people with bipolar disorders are often plauged with short-term memory lapses, this finding may not be much of a surprise.

Study Specs

The study looked at 121 kids aged 7 - 18, but did not specify how many had schizophrenia, bipolar disorder (manic depression) or were acting as controls. The had MRIs to find any differences in their brains and –wala — something was found.

(Unfortunately, I could not find just how much of a difference in grey matter there is. Sorry.)

So, What Does This Mean?

It is not known why the adolecents with Type 1 bipolar disorder or schizophrenia had less grey matter. It’s also not known if the illness causes the lack of growth in grey matter, or if the lack of grey matter is the cause of the mental illnesses.

It’s hoped that this study can help make diagnosing schizophrenia or Type 1 bipolar disorder easier. For example, the National Insititue of Mental Health reports that 5.7 million Americans are bipolar, but it’s thought that there are many millions more who are misdiagnosed or do not go to a doctor for treatment.

Yet another in the “did they really need to do a study on that” department:

According to the UK’s National Health Services (NHS), the group of people in the UK with a spike in depression are middle-aged women. The study stops in 2007 and mostly compared numbers from 1993. It id d not give a total number count or take into account the total rise in the UK’s population from 1993 - 2007:

• For UK women aged 45 - 54, one in four will have a diagnoseable depressive illness. That’s up 21% since 1993.
• For UK women aged 55- 64, there was a 4% increase from 1993.
• 20% of all UK women, any age, had a diagnoseable depressive illness.

The study also notes that middle-aged people were most likely to commit suicide.

It’s A Man’s World

UK men also had a rise in depression numbers, but not very much. Of course, men may not seek treatment as much as women. The only group of men who had a rise in numbers were those who had just gone through a divorce. Those who had a divorce years ago, however, were peachy keen. (Very small joke there).

However, it is far easier to get prescription medications like antideprssants in England than it is in America. Also, getting to see your primary doctor is less expensive than in the America. A British man is not so proud or so daft as to ignore getting available help as an American man would.

Is It Just In the UK?

The numbers coming from the NHS reflect a global trend. Of course, in some countries, a woman can’t say she is depressed. She says she has a stomach ache or some other physical symptom. But in America, according to a CBS news report, more middle aged women are depressed than ever, or at least, are willing to admit it.

At middle age, you feel the pressure to make something of your life before it’s too late. By the time you become a senior, you realize making something of your life really doesn’t matter and you set about making the best of the time you have left. Well, that’s my opinion anyway.

According to a new study from the University of Toronto, all that’s needed to reduce postnatal depression by half is a good, long heart-to-heart chat. The study suggests the chat could be with a nurse, but also could be from another woman who survived pregnancy and childbirth. This heart-to-heart didn’t have to be face-to-face, but could be done by telephone.

Of course, a 100% way to prevent postnatal depression is not to get pregnant, but that blatantly obvious fact was not addressed in the study.

How The Study Worked

The study followed 701 Candian women through the web from their late term stages until 12 weeks after giving birth. The study noted that they originally has 21,000 pregnant women volunteer, from which they selected the 701 that fit the criteria as high-risk for getting postnatal depression. Just what are they doing in Canada, eh? (Sly wink).

Some of the 701 recieved the usual postnatal care while some others received phone calls referred to as “peer support”. About 80% of this group said they were satisfied with the peer support they were given and would recommend it to a friend. Certainly, there must be more things to do in Canada other than get pregnant.

About Postnatal Depression

All kidding aside, postnatal depression is a serious problem in women. Perhaps the most famous woman in the world who suffered from this was Brooke Shields. But, according to the BBC, one in ten women who give birth develop postnatal depression.

The ususal way to treat postnatal depression is with antidepressants under the care of a doctor or gyneologist. The symptoms can last from a few weeks until two years after the birth. Many women with postnatal depression won’t seek treatment because they don’t think they can be treated.

Eli Lilly has been a BAAAAAAD company

Eli Lilly, maker of the antipsychotic drug Zyprexa, has agreed to pay $1.42 billion in a settlement over how they marketed Zyprexa in September 1999 to March 2001.  Eli Lilly sent out significant advertising materials and promotions to doctors using a fictious senior pateint named Martha.  Her problem?  Not being able to sleep well and having some trouble remembering things. 

However, Zyprexa is not approved for use in treating dementia or Alzheimer’s.  Also, Zyprexa in the elderly is reported to increase symtpoms of seniors with dementia getting a stroke. 

Whoops.

If You’re Not A Senoir, Don’t Worry

If you aren’t over 60 and have been prescribed Zyprexa for anxiety or depression, then you really don’t need to worry if you are taking the drug unnecesarily.  What Eli Lilly did here was promote an off-label use for their drug. 

Asking your therapist or doctor “What is this drug?  What is it for?”  is always a good idea.

Off Label Uses of Drugs

Many doctors do prescribe drugs for off-label uses.  I’m on one, verapamil, which is approved for lowering high blood pressure but not approved for what I take it for — migraine prevention.  In one sense, it is up to the doctor to make the decisions in prescribing medications for their patients.

However, the marketing for drugs to doctors has been amazingly intense, although this has died down in the last couple of years, but certainly could swing a doctor’s decision to choose which brand-name medicines to prescribe.   

It is possible that Zyprexa (or any other antipsychotic) will no longer be prescribed to anyone over 65, but I haven’t been able to find anything to back up that rumor.

Keep in mind that a lot of people with mental illnesses have been helped with Zyprexa.  If you have any concerns about Zyprexa or any medication you are taking, please contact your doctor or therapist.

Oh, great. I have a hard time remembering names as it is, because depression can make your concrentration fuzzy and now the self-help mental health program I’ve touted on this blog recently is undergoing a radical name change. A few years ago, they had a minor name change from Recovery, Incorporated to Recovery International but this name name change is a whopper — RI will now be (drumroll please):

Abraham Low Self-Help Systems.

Why the Name Change?

RI — no, wait, I guess it’s ALSHS now — has been vague on why the radical change of names and eventually, overhaul of the website. Even long-time members (like my Mom) are still scratching their heads over the decision from the Chicago-based headquarters. Most of the long-term members that I’ve talked to (oh, about five) say they are going to ignore the name change and call the group meetings “whatever they darn welll feel like”.

There is one possible reason for the name change — the word “recovery” does allude to addiction recovery, rather than recovery from anxious thughts and being a prisoner from your depression symptoms. Sooner rather than later, an alcoholic or drug addict wanders into a meeting, not realizing what it’s all about.

Other Groups With Recovery In The Name

There are many non-profit (and for-profit) organizations that use the word “recovery” in their name. These include:

• Christian Recovery International: This is a faith-based addiction program with another for vicims of abuse. Abraham Low Self-Help System is not affiliated with any religion and discourages any talk of religion or politics at the meetings.
• Abortion Recovery International: clueless fools who have no lives, so they have to browbeat others into feeling bad about theirs in order to feel morally superior. That’s my opinon. I’m pro-choice and anti-organized religion, if you can’t already tell.
• Crisis Recovery International: which includes a variety of service projects, including mental health help.

Did they really need to do a study on how many college-age Americans have personailty disorders? I think we already knew the results to this one. According to a study funded by the National Institutes of Health, the American Foundation for Suicide Prevention and the New York Psichiatric Institute, every one in five college students has a personality disorder to the extent that it screw up their ability to try and lead a normal life.

College age students studied had ages ranging from 19 - 25. (And yes, you can start college or uni much younger or older than that). The study interviewed 5092 college kids in order to get their findings. The interviews were done in 2000 and 2001 and apparantly the kids must have talked a long time, because the findings only came out this week. The study only looked at college kids. So, the study doesn’t mean the one in five Americans have personality disorders (which may be mistakenly implied), just one in five college age kids.

What’s a Personailty Disorder?

There is a lot of quibbling over just what constitutes a personality disorder and I’ll admit up front my opinion — if you are alive, you probably have a personailty disorder. Here’s the Mayo Clinic’s definition of a personality disorder:

“Personality disorder is a general term for a type of mental illness in which your ways of thinking, perceiving situations and relating to others are dysfunctional.”

The study included a variety of mental conditions under the heading “personality disorders”. These include bipolar disorder, depression, obsessive compulsive disorder, phobias, alcoholism or drug abuse. There is some debate in medical and social care circles as to whether alcoholism or drug abuse is a personality disorder, but the study includes them. I’d consider alcholics and drug abusers to be mentally ill, but then again, I’m not a doctor (but I am mentally ill).

The Practical Upshot

The finding of so many young Americans with personality disorders isn’t what’s disturbing. It’s the study’s findings than only about 25% of college kids with these problems actually go get help. It seems a lot of the kids didn’t get help because they didn’t want to be branded as crazy.

I remember college. It was the one place where you never had to worry about being crazy because everyone else was, too.

All kidding aside, most college campuses (even community colleges) have counseling services free or low cost for their students. The good news is that at least there is someone for college-age kids to talk to. You can also call 1-800-SUI-CIDE or 1-800-273-TALK for someone to talk to if you don’t go to college.

I’m sick, it’s pouring rain out and I turn 39 on Tuesday (whee — one more year closer to death). No, I’m not in the best of moods and yes, I did remember to take my Prozac. But there is a lot of news about depression on the web, especially on 451 Press, so, even if I’m too cranky to write a detailed post, we can still get a heapin’ helpin’ of steamin’ depression news. Let’s get the mouse clicking. Enjoy.

• Depression Can Hamper Glucose Control in People With Diabetes from Diabetes Health Talk mentions recent study results done with veterans — of war and diabetes. If you have diabetes, this report isn’t meant to make you feel more depressed, just more aware. There is a theroy put out by Dr. Andrew Weil that people with diabetes may be more evolved, because their bodies are forcing you to eat healthier, so chew on that.
• An update on new antidepresant in the works, Seroquel XRTM is at Medical News Today. I’ll let you right now, they do not mention how much this drug will cost when it finally hits pharmacy shelves. I bet AstraZeneca is just drooling over this one.
• Overworked, Vacation-Starved America Ranks #1 in Depression, Mental Health Problems from Encouraging Health. All together now — U! S! A! U! S! A! This shows you that America is NOT the greatest country in the world — not there IS a greatest country in the world. Perhaps realizing that will help Americans not be so depressed. (Yeah — RIGHT!)
• The Darwin Awards. I can’t recommend this site highly enough to anyone with major depression. Will even get the most morose laughing. That’s good enough of an excuse to get out of bed.
• Heart Disease Patients May Not Benefit From Depression Screening from Science News Daily. This kinda contradicts a report put out earlier this week recommending depression screening for anyone who has been diagnosed with heart disease. But hey, what could it hurt? When it comes to diseases, they are cheaper buy the dozen, aren’t they?
• Prescribing Prozac for Dogs and Cats from National Public Radio. We are not the only species that gets depression. Dogs and cats can get it, too, usually in the form of post-traumatic stress disorder. Pet Prozac is meat-flavored though. How about chocolate flavored Prozac for humans?