Archives for June 2009

Ischemic heart patients with depression and anxiety were more likely to suffer chest pain than patients without those psychosocial symptoms, a new study shows.

The findings, published in the June 30 edition of Circulation, suggest that angina associated with blocked arteries may also have a psychosocial component.

Coronary artery disease patients with even moderate anxiety were four times more likely to have angina (95% CI 1.91 to 11.66, P=0.001), while patients with clinical depression were three times more likely to have frequent angina (95% CI 1.45 to 6.69, P=0.004).

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Dear Annie: I have been married five years, and my husband has never wanted to work. I am the sole support for our family. I recently kicked him out and am considering divorce. He is mean to my daughter from a previous marriage and screams and cusses at our 4-year-old twins. We have no sex life, and I am tired of supporting a bum.
I let him see the twins twice a week at my house because he has no permanent home. But I’m sick of seeing him because he lays guilt trips on me about how he has no money and no place to live. Am I wrong to call it quits? — Disgusted in Indiana.

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Relations and the people around us tend to impact our lives in the ways, more than you can even think of. The relation we share with our nearest and dearest, can effect the way our thinking and our lives moves.

A good relationship, where those involved, accept one another as they are and are supportive when required, can help prevent depression. A bad relationship, on the other hand, can cause it.

People whose hopes, aspiration and expectations in relationship are constantly unfulfilled are greatly at risk. Relationships in which one person is far more dominant than the other, and leads their partner to believe he or she must behave in a certain way, can be very damaging.

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CLINICAL depression is a serious ailment, but almost everyone gets mildly depressed from time to time. Randolph Nesse, a psychologist and researcher in evolutionary medicine at the University of Michigan, likens the relationship between mild and clinical depression to the one between normal and chronic pain. He sees both pain and low mood as warning mechanisms and thinks that, just as understanding chronic pain means first understanding normal pain, so understanding clinical depression means understanding mild depression.

Dr Nesse’s hypothesis is that, as pain stops you doing damaging physical things, so low mood stops you doing damaging mental ones—in particular, pursuing unreachable goals. Pursuing such goals is a waste of energy and resources. Therefore, he argues, there is likely to be an evolved mechanism that identifies certain goals as unattainable and inhibits their pursuit—and he believes that low mood is at least part of that mechanism.

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Here’s a prescription for depression: a vacation on a tropical island, soaking up vitamin D. Or, if you live in Arizona, just take a walk outside. Either way, the common denominator is sunlight, and it can banish the blues and depression.
What is vitamin D?
Many studies suggest that vitamin D—often called the sunshine vitamin because the body produces it from cholesterol by the action of sunlight on the skin--plays a significant role in mood and depression. There are two main forms of vitamin D: D2, which is found in plants; and D3, which is found in animal foods. When you consume foods that contain either form of vitamin D or you are exposed to sunlight, it is converted in the liver to form 25(OH)D (25-hydroxyvitamin D) and then in the kidney to 1,25(OH)D.
Vitamin D and depression.

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This is the VOA Special English Health Report.

We all know that some people do not seem as emotionally strong as others when life gets difficult. But why is that? A study published in two thousand three in the journal Science offered an answer.

The study followed almost eight hundred fifty people from birth through age twenty-six. Researchers found that those with a short version of a certain gene were more likely to get depressed after a sad or difficult experience.

They found that people with the normal length of the gene were better able to weather life's storms. The gene is a transporter of serotonin, a brain chemical involved with mood and desire for food.

The two thousand three study captured attention among mental health professionals, and popular culture. In fact, Science magazine recognized the discovery of "genes for mental illness" as the number two "Breakthrough of the Year." The winner was observations about mysteries of the universe.

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Shares of Medarex Inc. (MEDX) surged Monday on news that two patients taking the biopharmaceutical company's prostate cancer treatment in a mid-stage trial are now cancer free.

The Mayo Clinic announced Friday that two men being treated with Medarex's Ipilimumab, along with a standardized hormone treatment and radiation therapy, experienced a reduction in tumor size, allowing them to be treated with surgery.

The patients, who had previously been considered inoperable, are part of a Phase II study involving 108 patients. In both cases, the aggressive tumors had grown well beyond the prostate into the abdominal areas, the Mayo Clinic said.

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Unemployment rises, the stock market dives, the banking system tanks. We've been there before — and so, in the midst of our current crisis, we look to the Great Depression for answers. Tell us quickly, what does history teach us? Tell us now, so we don't have to repeat those dreary,...

The first tropical depression of the Pacific hurricane season is approaching the coast of Mexico.The National Hurricane Center in Miami said the depression was centred about 395 kilometres south of the coastal city of Mazatlan at 2 a.m. Pacific time.

Maximum sustained winds are near 55 km/h. Forecasters say the depression could strengthen to a tropical storm with wind speeds of 63 km/h or more, before it nears the Mexican coast by Saturday.The depression was gaining speed slightly, moving toward the north-northeast at about 19 km/h.

Mexican authorities issued a tropical storm warning for the Islas Marias, a group of islands housing a prison facility about 140 kilometres off the Pacific coast, as well as a tropical storm watch for the Pacific coast from Topolobampo south to El Roblito.

In the fast-paced atmosphere of the modern world, where everyone has somewhere to be or something that needs to be taken care of, it's very easy for our lives to fall out of focus. Whether we're taking care of the needs of others or pushing to maintain our stamina in a hectic workplace, we often put our own personal needs at the end of our to-do lists. It's very easy for the blues to hang on a little longer than it should.
Understanding the difference between the blues and depression is a first step toward feeling better. Here we've provided a comprehensive collection of materials for you to help you identify whether or not you may be suffering from a depression. Start with our online mental health assessment - designed to help you take a moment and look at the issues in front of you. Then, explore the topics below intended to improve your understanding of depression and help with resolution. If your assessment results suggest that a depression may exist, CONCERN:EAP is available to guide you through a process of recovery.