Depression (Clinical)

[Michaelangelica]

ABC Radio National's The Law Report

Broadcast: 8.30am on Tuesday 25 March 2008 (repeated after the 8pm news)

Also Available for Download on your Ipod at http://www.abc.net.au/rn/lawreport/default.htm

 

This week: Lawyers and Depression

 

Lawyers are a compeditive, status conscious, high achieving bunch. But they are currently clutching a first place trophy - that nobody wants.

 

Surveys of professionals in both the USA and Australia put lawyers at the top the list - when it comes to incidence of depression. Why? Is it the type of person attracted into the industry? Is it the job itself? Or is it the way that legal workplaces are organised?

 

Visit our web page at for summaries, transcripts and to hear recent programs. http://www.abc.net.au/rn/lawreport/default.htm

[Michaelangelica]

Innovation & melancholia

 

The primitive visionary as the first avant-garde melancholic:

 

"This gene, this melancholy gene, has proved the code for innovation... We can picture this in the primitive world. While the healthy bodies of the tribe were out mindlessly hacking beasts or other humans, the melancholy soul remained behind brooding in a cave or under a tree. There he imagined new structures, oval and amber, or fresh verbal rhythms, sacred summonings, or songs superior to even those of the birds. Envisioning these things, and more, this melancholy malingerer became just as useful for his culture as did the hunters and the gatherers for theirs. He pushed his world ahead. He moved it forward. He dwelled always in the insecure realm of the avant-garde."

from a great blog

notes from somewhere bizarre

[Michaelangelica]

Depression MCI (Mild cognitive impairment,) and Alzheimer's

Physician's Postgraduate Press, Inc. - Login

[Michaelangelica]

[Michaelangelica]

Can Singulair Cause Depression?

In the Spotlight | More Topics | Top Picks | A-Z Drug Finder |

from Nancy Schimelpfening

On March 27, the FDA issued a safety alert regarding the asthma medication Singulair. The FDA is investigating consumer reports over the past year regarding depression and suicidality in patients using the drug. It is not known at this point whether there is a causal link, but the FDA will release the results of their investigation when more is known.

 

Do you use Singulair? What has been your experience? Join the Discussion

 

On March 27 the FDA issued a safety alert regarding the asthma medication Singulair (montelukast)...read more

Can Singulair Cause Depression?

[Biochemist]

This week: Lawyers and Depression

 

Lawyers are a compeditive, status conscious, high achieving bunch. But they are currently clutching a first place trophy - that nobody wants.

 

Surveys of professionals in both the USA and Australia put lawyers at the top the list - when it comes to incidence of depression.

Hey, this is really GOOD news. If we can just find a way to give lawyers the means to "act on" their depressed state, we could decrease the number of lawyers!!!!!

[Michaelangelica]

LOL

 

Famous people with depression

Famous People With Depression

 

How Antidepressants Work

How Antidepressants Work

 

Cortisol and Depression

FAQ: Cortisol and Depression

This, I think, will become an incresing area of study on depression.

[shadetreecountryboy]

I agree. I think I will take a walk today if I am able. 13 orthapedic surgeries and isolation sometimes dictate what my daily activities are but I know the difference between "clinical" and just plain ole' "down". I am "down" now, but I still go to school part time and I am able to think good enough to make an "A' in PHY/SCI.,"A' in sociology, and a "B' in psych. And ,heck, I have not been to school since the roaring '70s!"yeeeeHaaww"!

Yeppers, I like, toatolly agree mon.

Good reading.

Peace, shadetreecountryboy

[Michaelangelica]

More lovely cartoons here

Untitled Document

"The only thing we have to fear is fear it'self - nameless, unreasoning, unjustified, terror which paralyzes needed efforts to convert retreat into advance."

---- FDR - First Inaugural Address, March 4, 1933

"One of the things which danger does to you after a time is -, well, to kill emotion. I don't think I shall ever feel anything again except fear. None of us can hate anymore - or love."

---- Graham Greene - The Confidential Agent (1939)

Fear Quotes

[shadetreecountryboy]

Good day Michaelangelica,

I love the cartoon of the "bi-polar"bear. The fear quote is sadly the reality of our "STATE' of the union.

May I have tour permission to use the cartoon? My friend with a PHD.PSYCH would love to have it so he can put it on his file cabinet with all the others for the nurses to see.

I have had 2 near death experiences. If you would like to hear them let me know.

Ignorance leads to fear, fear leads to anger and anger leads to violence. History tends to prove this hypothesis.

Peace,

shadetreecountryboy.

[Monomer]

Deep Brain Stimulation Helps Severely Depressed

 

The treatment is deep brain stimulation (DBS), which is used for some people with Parkinson's disease, and researchers found that it cut depression symptoms by 50 percent for about half of those treated.

 

Deep brain stimulation requires minimally invasive surgery to place electrodes into specific parts of the brain that are believed to be malfunctioning. Once in place, the electrodes emit tiny, adjustable, electrical pulses that block dysfunctional activity in the brain. It's been used for about 20 years in the treatment of Parkinson's disease. Rezai added that the current group working on DBS and depression, which includes researchers from Brown University and Massachusetts General Hospital as well, has also had success using DBS to treat obsessive-compulsive disorder.

 

In the current study, 15 people suffering from severe depression for at least five years who weren't helped by other forms of treatment received DBS implants. Six months later, 47.1 percent had at least a 50 percent reduction in their depressive symptoms, based on a commonly used depression scale. At one year, that number was 50 percent.

 

Even patients who didn't meet the 50 percent reduction criteria used as an endpoint in this study still experienced some symptom reduction, according to Rezai, who added that all of the participants said they would undergo DBS again.

[Michaelangelica]

Monomer, Would you trust someone to stick electric wires in your brain?

I assisted with ECT when nursing, that was terrifying enough for me.

My family have strict instructions to poison me if I

1 get Alzheimer's

2 Need ECT.

This sounds like a better option?- horse medicine!

 

Night club drug could ease depression: scientists

Fri May 2, 2008 6:07pm EDT

 

LONDON (Reuters) - Scientists have unraveled how a horse tranquilizer and hallucinogenic night club drug known as "Special K" can ease depression, researchers said on Friday.

 

Ketamine, which can also cause feelings of detachment, could pave the way for new treatments for people suffering from depression, the researchers added.

Their study, published in the Archives of General Psychiatry, found ketamine restores to normal the orbifrontal cortex, an area of the brain located above the eyes that is overactive in depressed people.

Night club drug could ease depression: scientists | Science | Reuters

Doesn't alcohol do the same to the frontal cortex?

That's where they give you lobotomies and the source of inhibitions and social control??

 

A VERY small sample, no other exercise controls (walking, bike riding, gym), but interesting nevertheless.

Yoga Increases GABA Levels in Brain

DateJune 25, 2007AuthorBy Sudip Ghosh, MDgravatarcloseSudip Ghosh, MD Name: Sudip Ghosh

Site: Brain Blogger | Topics from Multidimensional Biopsychosocial Perspectives

See All Articles by Author (42)

About: Dr. Ghosh is a surgeon at the University of Manchester, UK and a medical writer.Comments8 Comments

 

Neuroscience_Neurology2.jpgThe ancient Indian practice of yoga literally means to “bridge” the mind and the body, integrating it, aimed towards attaining a state of wholeness. Scientific studies have in the past demonstrated its psychological benefits, and improvements in quality of life studies.

 

A new pilot study carried out at Boston University School of Medicine and MacLean Hospital, at the Department of Psychiatry, Harvard Medical School, show that yoga causes a rise in gamma aminobutyric acid (GABA) the primary inhibitory neurotransmitter in the brain.

 

Low GABA levels are thought to contribute to the two commonest psychiatric illnesses prevalent in the world, depression and anxiety. Treatment of these conditions is carried out by drugs which raise GABA levels. The study used magnetic resonance spectroscopic imaging, which is a new technique that allows us directly to visualize neurotransmitter concentrations in the brain. Several centers across the world are evaluating whether such imaging can be used to diagnose and track improvements following treatment of a variety of psychiatric disorders.

 

In this study, a group of eight subjects who performed Yoga for an hour were scanned, and compared to a group of eleven who just did reading, but no yoga. A 27% increase in brain GABA levels in the yoga group was noticed immediately afterwards, compared to none in the ‘reading’ group.

Yoga Increases GABA Levels in Brain | Brain Blogger

[Monomer]

Monomer, Would you trust someone to stick electric wires in your brain?

I assisted with ECT when nursing, that was terrifying enough for me.

 

It would have to be the *last* resort after *nothing* else worked and I was that desperate. But yoga for depression sounds interesting. When I've got a chance I'll look into that more.

[Turtle]

 

Love the cartoon; it's killin' me. :confused: :shrug:

 

Check this out (bolding mine): :shrug: >>

 

Does the Earth's magnetic field cause suicides?

Many animals can sense the Earth's magnetic field, so why not people, asks Oleg Shumilov of the Institute of North Industrial Ecology Problems in Russia.

 

Shumilov looked at activity in the Earth's geomagnetic field from 1948 to 1997 and found that it grouped into three seasonal peaks every year: one from March to May, another in July and the last in October.

 

Surprisingly, he also found that the geomagnetism peaks matched up with peaks in the number of suicides in the northern Russian city of Kirovsk over the same period.

...

Psychiatrists too have noticed a correlation between geomagnetic activity and suicide rates. A review of 13 years of South African data on suicides and magnetic storms in South African Psychiatry Review, vol. 6 p. 24) suggested a link.

 

Geomagnetic storms – periods of high geomagnetic activity caused by large solar flares – have also been linked to clinical depression.

 

Does the Earth's magnetic field cause suicides? - health - 24 April 2008 - New Scientist

[Michaelangelica]

Glad you all like The bi Polar Bear?:). Check out the site some great toons there.

Untitled Document

Laughing keeps us sane.

 

Electromagnetic fields!! The earth's own ECT or deep brain stimulation??

;) :) :shocked:

I know when I worked as a Psychiatric nurse, a life time ago, none of us would do overtime shifts in the admissions ward when there was a full moon.

It was a madhouse with police rolling up with another raving crazy person every 15 minutes.

I have seen research that says this moon/madness link is crap- pure urban myth.

Still, we all believed it , and acted on it.

:moon: :thumbs_do :moon:

A beautiful little show tonight on ABC TV about a man saving chickens and chickens saving a man.

Highly recommended even if you are not into chooks (as I am/was)

It is available free to download. It runs for about 25 mins.

EnhanceTV >> Study Guides >> Rare Chicken Rescue

 

Rare Chicken Rescue

Rare Chicken Rescue Join Queensland farmer Mark Tully on an epic "chicken chase" to save rare breeds of poultry. After a long battle with depression, Mark is now on a mission to protect the endangered chickens to which he owes his life. He begins an epic 'chicken chase' fuelled by a determination to find 'lost' breeds of poultry before they are gone forever.

 

This program will have interest and relevance for teachers and students at secondary and tertiary levels. Curriculum links include English, Media, Health Sciences, General Science, Biology, Health and Personal Development.

 

 

Produced by Film Australia

Author Lynne Kelly

Learning Areas English, Health & PE, Media Studies, Science & Technology,

Price: Free

 

Options

 

 

EnhanceTV :: Study Guides :: Rare Chicken Rescue

 

There is/was a Domestic Fowl Trust in England (near Stratford -on-Avon?)

It had the most marvellous collection of unusual chickens, ducks and turkeys I have ever seen anywhere.

Fabulous place.

:lol:

 

Deep Brain Stimulation (Video)

Deep brain stimulation - which involves implanting tiny electrodes in areas of the brain with abnormal function in order to stimulate these areas and block the abnormal activity - has been explored in recent years as a promising new treatment for depression...read more

Deep Brain Stimulation: Promising New Depression Treatment (Video)

 

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AT:

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[Michaelangelica]

Monomer

My 90 year old mother-in-law did Yoga for years, she also danced.

She still stuns new doctors with her flexibility and fitness.

Bored Doc: Bring you right leg up as far as you are able dear.

Nan: Brings right leg up past he head so she resembles the letter "I"

Doc; My God woman! How can you do that?

 

 

Some info on depression in the sick, old mentally ill and those with diabetes

One in Six people will have a depressive episode during their life time

The Journal of Clinical Psychiatry | CME Institute | MedFair | The Primary Care Companion

Physician's Postgraduate Press, Inc. - Login

[Monomer]

Monomer

My 90 year old mother-in-law did Yoga for years, she also danced.

She still stuns new doctors with her flexibility and fitness.

Bored Doc: Bring you right leg up as far as you are able dear.

Nan: Brings right leg up past he head so she resembles the letter "I"

Doc; My God woman! How can you do that?

 

I think the key to aging without getting "old" is to keep active - physically and mentally.

 

I wonder if pilates would be as effective as yoga in treating depression because it's also supposed to be a joining of the mind and body. It seems that more people are doing pilates these days rather than yoga.