Saturday, April 12, 2008

What Causes Depression?

Depression is frequently preceded by set-backs in life, such as relationship or financial difficulties, problems at work or medical illness. All the people react to loss with a sense of disappointment which in its impact can vary from mild to disabling. An inherited tendency towards depression is a major factor in determining how depressed a person will become following a loss.

Benefit from depression maintenance therapy

NEW YORK (Reuters Health) - Among elderly patients who have recovered from an episode of major depression, maintenance treatment with antidepressant drugs is superior to placebo in preserving the improvements in health-related quality of life, according to a recent report.

“Depression is one of the major causes of decline in the health-related quality of life (HR-QOL) of elderly persons,” write Dr. Alexandre Y. Dombrovski and colleagues, in the Journal of the American Geriatrics Society.

The researchers, from University of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, examined the effectiveness of antidepressant maintenance therapy with paroxetine and interpersonal psychotherapy in retaining the gains in HR-QOL achieved during initial short-term treatment in patients 70 years or older with depression.

A total of 195 patients were initially treated with paroxetine (Paxil) and underwent interpersonal psychotherapy for depression; 116 of them responded and entered the maintenance treatment phase.

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