October 2007
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October 2007
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| Of Like Minds is now Mood! Over 175 articles on: Help support Mood --
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Understanding
depression
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10 percent of American adults, or about 19 million people age 18 and older,
and 6 percent of youth experience some form of depression every year. A
depressive disorder is an illness that involves the body, mood, and thoughts.
It affects the way a person eats, sleeps, feels and thinks. A depressive
disorder is not the same as a passing blue mood, nor can people with a depressive
illness merely "pull themselves together" and get better. Without
treatment, symptoms can last for weeks, months, or years. Appropriate treatment,
however, can help most people who suffer from depression.
Types of Depression Major depression is made up of a combination of symptoms that interfere with the ability to work, study, sleep, eat, and enjoy once pleasurable activities. Such a disabling episode of depression may occur only once but more commonly occurs several times in a lifetime. A less severe type of depression, dysthymia, involves long-term, chronic symptoms that do not disable, but keep one from functioning well or feeling good. Many people with dysthymia also experience major depressive episodes at some time in their lives. Another type of depression
is bipolar disorder, also
called manic-depressive illness. Not nearly as prevalent as other forms
of depressive disorders, bipolar disorder is characterized by cycling
mood changes: severe highs (mania) and lows (depression). Bipolar disorder
is recently being viewed as a spectrum disorder, including bipolar I and
bipolar II and spanning a continuum of symptoms. Causes of depression Brain imaging has
revealed that neural circuits responsible for the regulation of moods,
thinking, sleep, appetite, and behavior fail to function properly in people
with depression and that critical neurotransmitters--chemicals used by
nerve cells to communicate--are out of balance. The hormonal system that
regulates the body's response to stress also is overactive in many depressed
people.
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Treatment for depression Some people with milder forms may do well with psychotherapy alone. In this "talk therapy" a person discusses with a mental health professional the feelings, thoughts and behaviors that seem to cause difficulty in order to better understand and manage their problems.. Most people with depression do best with combined treatment: medication to gain relatively quick symptom relief and psychotherapy to learn more effective ways to deal with life's problems, including depression. When people are unresponsive to psychotherapy and medications or they work too slowly to relieve severe symptoms, such as psychosis or recurring thoughts of suicide, electroconvulsive therapy (ECT) may be considered. ECT is believed to affect the chemical balance of the brain's neurotransmitters. Years of research
are now promising new antidepressant medications that may relieve depression
in hours, rather than weeks. Such fast acting medications could potentially
treat patients at risk for suicide, which continues to claim 30,000 lives
each year. For more information: Related articles Sources:
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Some
types of depression run in families, however, it can also occur in people
who have no family history of depression. Very often, a combination of
genetic, psychological, and environmental factors is involved. Later episodes
of illness typically are precipitated by only mild stresses, or none at
all.