Recently I have written on teenage depression. My last post was on the signs of teenage depression and before that I wrote about how the anti depressant Lexapro was found safe for use by teens. I find teenage depression to be the most tragic forms of depression being that it usually will affect a person’s entire life as opposed to depression that comes on later in life after the individual is established. I was in the process researching a new post when I came across this article in Psych Central.
What I found so interesting about it was that it says that the longer someone stays home after graduation the more their chances of getting depressed. Now as someone who has seen this first hand, I can say from experience that getting through school is almost impossible when suffering from depression and moving out and surviving was even more difficult.
May 13, 2008 - Edmonton- The post-university years can start out tough. The good news: it gets better. Read the rest of this entry »
Depression affects every aspect of a person’s life and nothing could be truer when it comes to teenagers. Originally research showed that up to 8 percents of teens are affected by depression, but just yesterday the government came out and reported that more than 2 million U.S. teenagers have suffered a serious bout of depression in the past year, including nearly 13 percent of girls.
Of course lower numbers are always better, but in one way this is good. Now that these numbers have been released maybe more emphasis will be placed on teenage depression. The teenage years are so important because it is then that a person’s life begins to take shape. And until now most teenage depression went untreated and most never even diagnosed.
Reasons for Teen Depression
There are many reasons that can lead to teen depression including stress from school or athletics, peer pressure, the influence of sex hormones, a disturbing event, conflicts with parents and even just the normal maturation process. Although the teenage years can be the best in a person’s life, the teenage years can bring on new situations such as the death of a friend or relative, a breakup with a boyfriend or girlfriend, or failure at school.
Adolescents with low self-esteem, that are highly self-critical, and who feel little sense of control over negative events are particularly at risk to become depressed when they experience stressful events.
A new study just released by Forest Laboratories has shown that Lexapro, one medication in a group of depression drugs classified an SSRI’s is having very good results with teens ages 12 to 17. What makes this such an important step in the battle to relieve teen depression is that back in June of 2003, the FDA (US Food and Drug Administration) issued a recommendation that paroxetine which is the generic name for Paxil not be used to treat children or adolescents with depression.
The recommendation by the FDA was a really big blow in the fight against depression because the major symptoms of depression which are sadness and loss of interest in usual activities can affect a teens entire life. What happens is that most teens who suffer from depression never get treated which eventually leads to problems at home and at school. Read the rest of this entry »
On April 19, 2008, during the 76th Annual Meeting of the American Association of Neurological Surgeons in Chicago, researchers from the Cleveland Clinic, Brown University and Massachusetts General Hospital presented results of a study claiming that deep brain stimulation may be an effective way to treat depression and Obsessive Compulsive Disorder. The research which has been ongoing for several years evolved out of the success of DBS in treating the tremors associated with Parkinson’s, dystonia and epilepsy.
Depression is considered to be the highest cause of disability worldwide by The World Health Organization, but most people who suffer from major depression do respond to therapy and medication to some degree. There is however a group of patients that are considered to have treatment resistant depression that do not respond at all. The procedure, intended for these patients will hopefully raise their quality of life and reduce their high suicide rates.
According to Psychiatric Secrets, 2nd ed., treatment resistance is frequently defined as failure to respond to an adequate trial of at least two standard antidepressants. Treatment resistant patients may also initially respond to an antidepressant, but quickly develop a tolerance to it.
Originally it was thought that it was a chemical imbalance that caused depression, now even though the chemical imbalance is still considered part of the problem researchers are looking at electrical activity in the brain as well. “Depression is a physiological disorder, and basically we are regulating the abnormal signals to brain causing the depression,” says Dr. Ali Rezai director of the Center for Neurological Restoration at the Cleveland Clinic in Ohio. Read the rest of this entry »
People begin to smoke for many reasons, including peer pressure, the pleasurable feeling brought on by nicotine and even just the desire to try out something new. And despite all the warnings it is estimated that 4000 teens light up a cigarette every day for the first time. Along with all the health problems associated with smoking there is yet another problem - DEPRESSION. Originally it was thought that depression, especially in teens brought out the need to smoke. CLICK HERE to learn more According to the National Center on addiction and Substance Abuse (CASA), led by former U.S. Health, Education and Welfare commissioner Joseph A. Califano Jr. twice as many teen smokers as non smokers will suffer symptoms of depression.
Have you ever had to do something and just the thought of doing it made you break out in a sweat and your heart begin to race? Maybe you were contemplating driving across a bridge or maybe it was a job interview, maybe it was meeting someone for the first time.
Have you ever felt the need to make sure that you locked the front door to your house after you were already down the block or worse yet maybe across town? Have you ever felt really nervous about something that other people around you thought were no big deal?
To make the situation worse, along with these feelings you probably felt very self conscious and thought “what’s wrong with me”? Did you wonder why others could cross that bridge, or speak in public or ask someone for a date?
For anyone who has ever experienced these feeling you need to understand that what you are experiencing is ANXIETY and it is estimated that there are as many as 18 million people who go through the same type of experiences when faced with similar situations.
As a matter of fact, medical professionals agree that anxiety is one of the most common medical problems today. Anxiety does not just consist of a sudden rush of emotions, like many would believe. Anxiety affects an individual on the whole. It affects how a person feels, how a person thinks, and even how a person behaves on a day-to-day basis. Read the rest of this entry »
The loss of a loved one is never easy, but losing your spouse can be especially devastating. It does not matter if the death was anticipated because of a terminal condition, or not. The sense of loss is still overpowering and can lead to bouts of depression.
The Symptoms
Depression is when a person feels sad and unhappy, and the world just plain looks gloomy. In many cases depression is short-lived and will go away on its own as circumstances improve. In other cases, severe depression may need to be treated with medication and counseling. In severe cases the depressed person wakes up in the morning with a feeling of “why bother” and many times even has trouble getting out of bed. The emotional symptoms of depression can include: Read the rest of this entry »
Did you ever feel like you were coming down with a cold just by going out side? You were fine inside, but just by going outdoors your sinuses got congested, your eyes began to water and you felt like you were getting sick. If you ever have had this happen to you, you’re not alone; about 40 million people suffer like this. What you are experiencing is not a virus or a cold, but seasonal allergies.
Allergies are caused by plants releasing into the air millions of spores of pollen that travels from plant to plant. Many plants are brightly colored and sweetly scented so that they attract insects that will touch down on them and when they fly away take spores with them as they move from flower to flower.
Other flowers that are not at all attractive, in either scent or appearance, rely on the wind for the pollen to be spread. When the pollen is thrust into the air humans as well as wildlife inhale it. Some humans have a genetic tendency to have an adverse reaction to the pollen.
It is not hard to tell if you are suffering from allergies. Some very easily recognized symptoms include: Read the rest of this entry »
Exhaustion, pain, tiredness, do you feel like you can relate to any of those aforementioned words? If you do, you may be suffering from fatigue. Which carries with it a wide range of various pains, ills and afflictions. From lethargy to muscle pain caused by work, mental or physical. Physical fatigue does, of course, prevent you form doing day-to-day chores. Mental fatigue leads to solemnness and depression.
Fatigue is caused by working out, mental issues, depression, jet lag, boredom, disease and a lack of sleep. Waking up without having your proper amount of sleep can make you feel even more tired. Mineral and vitamin deficiencies can also cause fatigue.
And, if you have any signs of fatigue you need to ask yourself another question - along with feeling tired all the time do I have any of the following? Read the rest of this entry »
Have you ever suffered from joint pain? It affects about a third of the world’s population and if you are an athlete or at least participate in a sport such as golf or tennis you may have felt the pain in your elbow, wrist or ankle. Joint pain is something that can be acquired through injury or perhaps you even have it in your genes (hereditary). Joint pain can come in many forms. Diseases such as: Osteoarthritis, Septic Arthritis, Tendonitis and Bursitis can cause joint pain or have it as an effect.
Have you ever wondered if it was caused by Arthritis? Well it may be, because one of the most common causes of joint pain is Arthritis. Arthritis is classified as a joint disorder caused by inflammation in one or more joints but, it could also be Bursitis which is an inflammation of the bursa caused by the sacs filling with fluid. These are not to be confused and/or classified as the same, because they are both very different although no doubt both are very, very painful. However, it could be a number of other things. Read the rest of this entry »
on May 17th, 2008 by admin / No Comments »
