‘Depression, anxiety and other forms of mental illness have taken over from unemployment as the greatest social problem in the UK, a health economist warns today.
Richard Layard, who is advising the government on mental health, advocates a network of 250 centres across the country to offer psychological therapies - instead of the drugs widely handed [...]
‘A U.S. study shows deep brain stimulation, or DBS, to be a potentially effective treatment option for people with major depression.
Researchers from the Cleveland Clinic and Brown University’s Butler Hospital say that preliminary research indicates that DBS holds promise for the treatment of intractable major depression, as well as obsessive compulsive disorder.
DBS surgery involves the [...]
‘Nudging the body’s “clock,” or circadian rhythm, may help curb seasonal affective disorder (SAD)seasonal affective disorder (SAD), a new study shows.
SAD is a depressiondepression that occurs each year at the same time, usually starting in fall or winter and ending in spring or early summer. The exact cause of SAD isn’t known, but the amount [...]
‘Women 60 or younger hospitalized after an acute myocardial infarction are more likely to become depressed than older women or men of any age, according to researchers here.
In a study of 2,500 acute MI patients, 40% of women no older than 60 were depressed, compared with 21% of women older than 60, 22% of men [...]
‘A new study suggests that constant bullying prevents overweight children from exercising, and all the teasing can make it harder to shed the pounds as an adult.
About one out of every five children is chronically bullied. Overweight kids are targeted more frequently, often while in gym class or playing sports.
A bullied child will avoid situations [...]
‘Work has begun on a new hospital ward for mums suffering post-natal depression.
The Mother and Baby Unit at St John’s Hospital in Livingston will treat around 40 women suffering puerperal psychosis - the most extreme and potentially damaging form of post-natal depression - when it opens later this year.
It will allow mothers suffering the condition [...]
‘A new study by Northeastern University professor Debra L. Franko found that white girls become less depressed as they age while black girls continue feeling the same.
Franko and her associates surveyed more than two thousand girls and young women of both ethnicities and concluded that the depression rate in Caucasian females drops over time, while [...]
‘There is no strong relationship between depression in elderly patients with diabetes and the degree to which they control their blood sugar levels, researchers report.
“We often assume that elderly diabetes patients who are depressed will not benefit from clinical intervention programs unless their depression improves,” Dr. Paula M. Trief told Reuters Health. “This study suggests [...]
‘Britons are using “dutch courage” to mask the fact that they are suffering low-level depression, according to research. The soaring drinking rate - consumption has doubled in the past 50 years - is evidence that people are attempting to “self-medicate” their emotional upsets away, the Mental Health Foundation reported today.
Research carried out for the foundation [...]
‘GP prescriptions of anti-depressants are to be targeted in the latest NHS economy drive, it was reported yesterday.
The new plans aim to replace prescriptions with personal therapy, it was reported.
Health secretary Patricia Hewitt will unveil the plans next month, the Independent on Sunday said.
Two pilots areas will be Doncaster, South Yorkshire, and Newham, East London, [...]