Friday, June 27, 2008

First Patients Implanted In Study Evaluating Deep Brain Stimulation For Depression

It is investigating that deep brain stimulation (DBS) therapy will help people who suffer from major depressive disorder, a severe form of depression. Two patients, a 59-year-old woman and a 42-year-old man, were implanted at hospital in Chicago, with the St. Jude Medical Libra® Deep Brain Stimulation System, an investigational device.

The name of study is BROADEN™ (BROdmann Area 25 DEep brain Neuromodulation) and it controlled, multi-site, blinded study that is evaluating the safety and effectiveness of DBS in patients with depression for whom currently available treatments are not effective.

BROADEN™ is researching a particular part of the brain called Brodmann Area 25 that is thought to be involved in depression. It is estimated that more than 21 million U.S. adults suffer from some kind of depressive disorder and approximately 4 million adult Americans live with depression that doesn’t respond to any medications, psychotherapy or electroconvulsive therapy.
Eligiblity for this study are:

  • Currently be diagnosed with major depressive disorder.
  • Be between 21 and 70 years old, with onset of first episode before age 45.
  • Have tried at least four treatments in their current episode, such as different medications, various combinations of medications or electroconvulsive therapy.
  • Have been depressed for at least one year.

Posted by Tom at 11:46:30 | Permalink | No Comments »

Friday, June 20, 2008

Households stressed over rising costs

According to a study, in London, about 790,000 households have been facing stress and depression problems trying to keep up with their mortgage payments and rents. The cost of housing forced many people to spend less on food and about 213,000 took out loans.

This news is just like a Breaking Point, in which 373,000 families spend more than 50% of their income on housing. People are going to extraordinary lengths to ensure that they pay their rent or mortgage, but due to the effects of stress or depression, having to sell possessions or deprive the kids of treats can be making family life very shocked and upset.

In the study, 80,000 have missed a rent or mortgage payment and near 740,000 households spend less on food and about 400,000 sold possessions to pay for home and   has urged the government to complete its target of building three million new homes by 2020, and provide 45,000 social rented homes every year by 2011.

Posted by Tom at 07:37:48 | Permalink | No Comments »

Tuesday, June 17, 2008

Needles gives relief in Depression

New research in Sydney has found a marked improvement in a group of people with medicated depression who were treated with traditional Chinese needle therapy for two months.The study showed those with severe depression, particularly men, benefited most from the alternative therapy, still a controversial treatment option the medical world says only has “limited use.What we’ve managed to show is that acupuncture can be a powerful aid to use alongside anti-depressants to help these people,” said Kirk Wilson, a researcher at the College of Traditional Chinese Medicine at the University of Technology Sydney.”That’s very exciting for a condition that is potentially very debilitating.”

He said the mechanism was unclear, but it appeared the therapy was regulating energy channels within the body.”We’re using acupuncture to regulate the energy flow, release pressure and allow everything to move more freely,” he said.Western medical practitioners remain sceptical, saying the study was limited in its format and there was no proof the treatment continued to work over time.Professor Michael Baigent, clinical adviser to beyondblue, said research into new ways to tackle the problem was important as drug therapies were not effective for all patients.”But there’s really still not enough convincing evidence for us to be advocating this as a main form of treatment,” Prof Baigent said.Anti-depressants, psychological therapies, exercise and treatment of related medical conditions like anaemia remain the best treatments, he said.There was also reasonable, although mixed, evidence to support the use of St John’s Wort, which acts like a weak SSRI, and omega-3 fatty acids.Meditation and removing alcohol from the diet has also shown benefits, while light therapy has been useful for people with seasonal affective disorder.

Other therapies like vitamins, homeopathy, ginkgo biloba, natural progesterone, glutamine, air ionisation and sugar avoidance were extremely limited, he said.”I don’t think anyone can seriously recommend these to help treat someone suffering from depression,” the specialist said.

source: http://www.stuff.co.nz

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Friday, June 13, 2008

Clinical Research says about unmarried women who are living in rural areas ,have lower self-rated health status than married women. This lower health status often causen of self-assessed feelings of depression. Primary care physicians should take an active role in health concerns of unmarried women.Study says being single may be associated with a greater degree of separation from usual health care, as many women gain insurance through a spouse and lack of social support also may contribute to poor health among single women.                        

The study analyzed about marital status and self-assessed mental health as big risk factors for poor overall self-rated health among female primary care patients. Women who are depressed also had worse overall health. Financial problems increase feelings of emotional stress. People today are worried about daily life crisis and many are left wondering how they are going to pay for necessities. But rural, unmarried women are more economically depressed than other.

Patients who are experiencing feelings of poor self-rated mental health can take help of concerns programs like, screening ,health promotion and treatment programs.

Posted by Tom at 11:18:55 | Permalink | No Comments »

Tuesday, June 10, 2008

Major Study Into Genetic Causes of Depression

In the life of every person,depression will affect up to 25% of the population at some point . A strong genetic component has been shown by it. Take an example, if one of your close family members has depression, your chance of also being a so is 3 to 4 times the general population risk. Researchers are trying to find the genetic causes of depression and believe the answers could lie with short DNA sequences which work as ‘genetic switches’ controlling key genes in a part of the brain that influences mood.

These switches ensure that certain genes are only used in the correct area of the brain at the right times and in the right dose. Any dissimilarity in these can cause imbalances in the amount of important proteins in the brain that may increase susceptibility to depression. Recently, it was found that these switches were so important in evolution that they have been kept, nearly unchanged.Researchers explained that only by comparing the genomes of species as diverse as mice, marsupials and birds has it been possible to identify these switches as, they are located far away from the genes they control. The distances involved are as surprising as having a tubelight in US with the switch for controlling it.

Comparison of the genomes of different species has helped them to identify the switches responsible for controlling genes known to be involved in depression, addiction, obesity and inflammatory pain. Researchers will study the effect of these ’switch’ sequences and look at common variations found in these sequences using DNA samples taken from patients with chronic depression.It is hoped that it will also examine why some sufferers do not respond to anti-depressant treatments.Researchers said that this study would have not been possible even four years ago. It is only through advances in the DNA sequence of many different species that we can now use powerful computers to pick out the most important bits of the human genome that contains the switches needed to control genes.

This study has given hopes to discover how the same genes in different people are controlled in different ways in the different parts of the brain that control fear and mood and hope to find out how these differences may change the way that depressed patients respond to medicines.We can now study millions of genetic variations in the human genome but it is only studies like that that will allows us to track down those that are important in depression.

Posted by Tom at 11:24:38 | Permalink | No Comments »