Illness and Depression

Depression often tags along with another serious illness such as heart disease, stroke, diabetes, cancer, Parkinson’s Disease and more.  So often doctors will treat the illness but not treat the depression which follows along. This is sad because if you are so dejected and pessimistic about being sick, chances are your recovery won’t be the best.

Cancer Can Scare You to Death

Millions of people are living with a current or past diagnosis of cancer. Just the word ‘cancer’ causes people to panic, become overcome with fear of dying, and think they are forever ruined. There is an immediate fear of death, life plans upset, change in lifestyle, medical bills to face, and a fight to survive.  So often your doctor, your family, friends, and cancer specialists think that it is normal for you to be depressed when you have cancer and don’t think it needs to be treated.  But how can you really participate in your treatment plan if you are expecting the worst, and knowing it will happen?

I have sat with people and their families when the diagnosis of cancer is given. The reaction is always disbelief, even if the person was suspecting this to be true. I have held the hand of women who have been told that their husbands have prostate cancer, lung cancer, brain cancer, and many more.  I have sat silent with husbands who have just been given the news that their wife has breast cancer, uterine cancer, pancreatic cancer, and ovarian cancer.  Men tend not to talk but their pain can be felt through the looks on their faces. Cancer scares people and sometimes it scares them to death before their time.

Depression can and should be treated right along with any treatment for cancer. Antidepressant medications are usually well tolerated but there may be some side effects and problems with other medications taken.  It is very important to make it clear to your doctor that you need help for your depression as well as your cancer. It is also very important that if you are the husband, wife, sibling, or child of someone who is dealing with cancer to do the same thing. Please ask your doctor for antidepressant medication if you are suffering with cancer and are depressed.

Depression Can Break Your Heart

People with heart disease tend to suffer from depression more than healthy heart people. Flip that coin and people with depression are at greater risk for getting heart disease. If you have heart disease and are depressed you have a bigger risk of death after a heart attack. After having heart surgery, it’s very important to follow through with necessary rehabilitation.  This is more difficult for someone who is depressed. Depression can increase blood pressure and affect clotting.  It can also lead to elevated insulin and cholesterol levels.  It can increase stress hormones, those fight or flight impulses we have when faced with danger. Again, a chemical imbalance in the brain sends the wrong messages to the body. Depression and heart disease are deadly companions and can lead to each other. They are a frightening hand in glove combination.

Despite the real connection between these two dangerous illnesses, depression often goes undiagnosed and untreated. Persons with heart disease, their families and friends, and even their doctors and cardiologists may miss depression’s warning signs. And when treatment is given it is often not enough. They think that these feelings just go along with heart disease.  When my husband had emergency open heart surgery, there was never any discussion about depression which went along with heart problems.  I was on top of it and worked to make sure my husband was able to get all the support he needed. Others may not know what to do and they get no help from the doctors.

The impact of depression and heart disease is enormous. Depression is the leading cause of disability and heart disease is by far the leading cause of death in the US. One in three Americans will die of some form of heart disease. So it is very important that we all become aware that depression and heart disease are associated with sickness and death and proper treatment must be given. Newer anti depressants don’t have the negative complications that the previous ones did.

Treatment for depression helps you manage heart problems better and have a better quality of life. It should be made very clear to people with heart problems complicated by depression that exercise is one of the best treatments for both.

Treatment for depression helps people manage both diseases, making survival and enjoyment of life possible. Keep your heart and mind safe and sound. Total health is in your future.



Thanks to John Samson for contributing this article to our Depression blog:

Treating Adolescent Depression

Depression is a very widespread problem today affecting one in four women and one in eight men. Many people are aware of the many symptoms of depression, including feelings of hopelessness or helplessness, obsessive negative thoughts, loss or gain in appetite, insomnia or an increased need for sleep, social withdrawal, irritability and loss of memory or concentration, and recurrent thoughts of death or suicide. It is tempting to think that depression is sadness and the causes of depression will simply disappear and the negative feelings will subside. However, the causes of depression are not so simple, and while a negative event may trigger depression, the causes of depression are not external factors alone. Many of the causes of depression are issues with the sufferer.

Causes of depression are 40 – 70% hereditary and children of depressed children are more likely to be depressed. This would mean that the potential for depression lies in one’s genetic makeup, and a stressor may trigger a latent potential for depression. However those who dispute heredity as one of the causes of depression cite other true observations that those who live with depressed individuals are more likely to be depressed, and a depressed parent may lack parenting skills or the necessary energy or patience to deal with a child properly, and may be one of the causes of depression. It is hard to know who really wins the nature versus nurture argument, but once we learn more about the role heredity plays among the causes of depression, the better we will understand how genes have an impact on our moods.

Whether causes of depression are hereditary or not, there is a physiological basis for the problem, which refutes claims that depression is nothing more than a bad mood that will pass. Low serotonin levels have been shown to be one of the causes of depression, and loss of neurotransmitters in the hippocampus has also been identified as one of the causes of depression. Seasonal affective disorder is also one of the causes of depression, and it has been shown that those who are deprived of light and warmth in the wintertime and become depressed as a result are not merely suffering from the “winter blues” but have a problem caused by the shorter days and longer nights. Seasonal effective disorder can develop into full blown depression if it not treated as one of the series causes of depression. Hormones may also play a role as one of the causes of depression, especially among those women who suffer from Pre Menstrual Syndrome or post-partum depression. In fact, while one out of every four women suffers from depression compared to one in every eight men, this discrepancy disappears among women who have undergone menopause, when there are lower levels of estrogen. More study is needed to determine whether these hormonal fluctuations are actual causes of depression, or merely triggers.

Losing one’s job, getting a divorce or a death in the family may not be actual causes of depression, but they can trigger the problem in those who have a predisposition for the problem. Certainly, such events can cause sadness and a feeling of worthlessness, but if these feelings are not persistent, they are normal aspects of the grieving process and are not causes of depression. However, if the negative feelings are prolonged and obsessive, they may be triggers in setting off depression. There are some physical aliments which are included among causes of depression. Hepatitis and heart conditions can be causes of depression, in addition to Aids and other illnesses which cause weakness and fatigue.



Thanks to Juliet Cohen for contributing this article to our Depression blog:

Treating Bipolar Depression

Some people call it the ‘pits’ and some people call it the ‘blues’ and some just call it ‘feeling down in the dumps’. But whatever you may call it, being depressed is a terrible feeling.

The most common types of depression are:

Major Depression, which is characterized by a sad mood, sleep disorders, and a decreased or absent appetite. Often when a person is in a major depression, the person feels a complete lack of drive and motivation and the sufferer lacks the desire to do anything in life. Some people are completely disabled by depression, and some even consider suicide.

Dysthymia: This is a less severe type of long term depression that typically does not completely disable the individual. But it prevents the person from feeling motivated and functioning at optimum levels. Sometimes people who are suffering with Dysthymia also suffer from Major Depression, and when this occurs it is called double-depression.

Manic Depression is also called Bipolar Disorder. This type of depression is not as common as Dysthymia or major depression. It involves cycles of a manic state, alternated with a depressed state. This is often a long term recurring disorder. Sometimes the mood swings occur suddenly. But generally speaking, they tend to be gradual.

There are many variations of depression; the types described here are only three of the most common.

Some of the symptoms of depression include:

Sadness; anxiety; pessimism; insomnia and other sleep disorders; feelings of worthlessness; guilt; restlessness; pain; fatigue; weight loss; headaches; and thoughts of suicide.

Sources of Depression:

As previously stated, there are several types of depression: Major Depression; Manic Depression; and Dysthymia being three of the more common forms.

Many types of depression are hereditary. Living in a stressful environment can lead to depression. A traumatic experience such as a serious loss, relationship problems, or financial trouble can also lead to depression.

Women are twice as likely to suffer from depression as men are, but scientists do not know why.

If you suffer from depression, you will want to seek the advice of your physician. He may prescribe medication for you. But keep in mind that every medication has side effects.

Wouldn’t it be phenomenal if you could regulate and eliminate your depression just by having certain thoughts? I know that this sounds too good to be true, but very often, various types of depression are caused by thinking negative thoughts.

Don’t believe me? Then try it out! It’s really quite basic and simple. Just imagine something that you feel is very troubling or sad. Go ahead, think about it right now! Then come back to this article.

Okay, so what happened? If you really focused and visualized the sad situation, you began to feel sad and a little depressed. And the longer you allow yourself to remain in that thought pattern, the sadder you will feel. As you stay in sad thoughts and keep feeling sadder, you lead yourself into a gradually intensifying depression.

The good news is that if you focus on a happy thought, then you will displace that sadness and depression and have happy feelings instead.

Listen closely now, because here are the keys to eliminating your depression: Our persistent thoughts spring forth from the unconscious mind. These are the thoughts that we find ourselves automatically thinking about during the day.

If the persistent thoughts that keep recurring in your mind are about your problems or sad experiences, then you raise your levels of anxiety, stress, and depression.

But here is the ‘Light at the end of the tunnel’: Since hypnosis can be used to alter our unconscious thoughts, NLP and self hypnosis stress management CDs will rapidly alter the way that you think, feel, and behave. The interesting thing is that the exact same techniques that work for stress management also work just as well for eliminating depression!

Now I’m going to tell you exactly how and why it is going to happen. Hypnosis is a natural state of mind. Specifically, it is the Alpha state of consciousness. We go through the Alpha state as we are falling asleep at night. And we go through it again as we wake up in the morning. We also enter the Alpha state when we are daydreaming and imagining.

The unconscious mind is the seat of our emotions, and it is like a computer; the input controls the output! Hypnosis therapy is a wonderful tool for reaching directly into the unconscious mind and reprogramming it to automatically divert you away from negative thoughts, and promote positive thinking. It’s a tool that allows you to bypass the consciousness to create positive expectations, which will in turn generate positive feelings. You can overcome depression by using hypnosis therapy.



Thanks to Alan B. Densky, CH for contributing this article to our Depression blog:

Test For Manic Depression

Antidepressant is used most commonly in the psychiatric medication which is used to cure or give temporary relief to the depression dysthymia. Dysthymia mean milder depression. There are several groups of medicine which mainly related to antidepressant drugs.

Antidepressants are also used to treat various other disorders other than depression. This antidepressant also aid smoking cessation. According to researcher there are two reasons to consider, that smoking can be stopped with the help of antidepressants.

The first reason can be that the depression may be an indication of nicotine removal, and stoppage of smoking can precipitates depression. Second reasons can be nicotine which may have antidepressant gist that sustains smoking for some smokers. Antidepressants can be a substitute for the smoking habits.

There are many smokers who want to quit and they are not able quit the smoking habits. There is some therapy used to stop smoking cessation such as NRT (nicotine patches or gum).There are some other option used for smoke cessation that are antidepressants drugs. These antidepressants are mainly used to reduce or cure depression.

Researchers have proved that when antidepressants used with nortriptyline and nicotine patch may help to stop smoking. There are various different types of antidepressant medication that are effective to stop smoking habits. But according to the studies conducted by the researchers has terminated that nortriptyline when blended with transdermal nicotine ensued the stop rate of smoker.

This result took place with petite effect on removal of symptoms. Many researchers have done studies to find the remedy for smoking cessation. The researchers were successful in their research and they found many remedy of stopping the smoking habit.

According to their research conducted bupropion and nortriptyline proved to be very effective to cessation. In one trail the researchers found that bupropion with nicotine patch gave slight higher cessation rate than patch alone. Even though placing a limit on smoking can reduce the death rates but is not yet totally successful.

Conclusion

After many trails and studies researcher found that all the antidepressants are not able to stop smoking habits. But there were two antidepressants which proved to be good for smoking cessation. The researchers also found that some antidepressant used to stop smoking habits had side effects on the smoker.

The use of bupropion causes side effects like insomnia. Other side effect which was found by the use of such drugs was dry mouth and vomiting. So it can be concluded that the antidepressants are successful in smoking cessation, but some time it also results into side effects.



Thanks to Paul Hata for contributing this article to our Depression blog:

Test For Manic Depression

The new antidepressant anxiety medications are mostly as effective as the older tricyclic antidepressants and monoamine oxidase with added advantage and safety factors. New antidepressant anxiety medications can be treatment wise more efficient and cost effective.

They need to be consumed for longer time following proper schedule to provide long lasting results and prevent relapse. The new antidepressant drugs are not only used to lower depression but also to treat anxiety disorders inclusive of obsessive compulsive disorder, post-traumatic stress disorder, social anxiety disorder or social phobia, panic disorder, and possibly chronic fatigue. They can also be used to treat severe disease such as schizophrenia that is not eased by use of antipsychotic drugs.

New Antidepressants Anxiety Medications Usage:

The new antidepressant anxiety medications are basically of five different types. They are Citalopram, Fluoxetine, luvoxamine, Paroxetine, and Seraline. These new drugs are the other options to tricyclic antidepressants, the non selective irreversible inhibitors of monoamine A and B (MAOIs) and tetracyclic antidepressants. These new drugs can be more efficient in controlling panic disorder, social anxiety disorder, and post traumatic stress disorder.

Panic disorder: It is basically severe anxiety behavior of relatively short duration which is mostly associated with agoraphobia. Usually, half the number of people having panic disorder may feel depression. All the new antidepressants are found to be much successful in controlling panic disorder. The dose required to reduce panic disorder is greater than normal depression dose.

Social anxiety disorder: New antidepressants are very much helpful in curing co-morbid disorders in social phobia but they are not yet totally approved. SSRIs are the recent antidepressants that are found to be useful to treat social anxiety disorder. Hence, it can take few more years to properly research and confirm whether all new antidepressants are valuable as social phobia antidepressants or not.

Post traumatic stress disorder: This kind of disorder has faced many controversies in their treatment. New antidepressants can be encouraging in controlling co-morbid depression and anxiety disorder. They cause lower risk to patient as their interaction effect with alcohol is really low. It has to be noted that new antidepressants are not still approved for usage.

Overview:

The new drugs are more effective than older drugs as they are less toxic in nature. New antidepressant anxiety medicines can be effectively used by adolescents as they are safer than TCAs antidepressants.

New antidepressants lack in anticholinergic effects that can be beneficial to people with cognitive decline. New antidepressants need to be consumed with psychological and therapeutic interventions. These new kind of antidepressants even though categorized into different classes have separate effects on individuals



Thanks to Paul Hata for contributing this article to our Depression blog:

Best Medication For Depression