Depression

Economy heightens need to monitor mental health

June, 2008 -- ROCHESTER, Minn. — Mayo Clinic research suggests unmarried women living in rural areas have lower self-rated health status than their married counterparts. This lower health status often includes greater instances of self-assessed feelings of depression. The results of the study were recently published in the Journal of Evaluation in Clinical Practice. They suggest that primary care physicians should take a proactive role in addressing health concerns of single women.    » read more »

April, 2008 -- Nearly 20 percent of military service members who have returned from Iraq and Afghanistan — 300,000 in all — report symptoms of post traumatic stress disorder or major depression, yet only slightly more than half have sought treatment, according to a new RAND Corporation study.

Soldiers on patrol in Samarra, Iraq

In addition, researchers found about 19 percent of returning service members report that they experienced a possible traumatic brain injury while deployed, with 7 percent reporting both a probable brain injury and current PTSD or major depression.    » read more »

05 February 2008 -- A new study shows that mid-life depression is not just a Western phenomenon. In fact, it is almost universal. But the good news is, it does not last forever.

Researchers at Dartmouth College in the United States and the University of Warwick in Britain, scoured 35 years of data on more than two million people around the world and found a consistent pattern of happiness.    » read more »

Military Personnel Who Serve in War Zones Face Increased Risk for Alcohol Abuse, Anxiety Disorders, Depression, and Marital and Family Conflict, IOM Report Confirms

Nov. 14, 2007 -- WASHINGTON -- Military service in a war zone increases service members' chances of developing post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), other anxiety disorders, and depression, says a new report from the Institute of Medicine.    » read more »

Says PPFA President Cecile Richards: “We need to support women every step of their reproductive lives.”

Washington, DC — Planned Parenthood Federation of America (PPFA) today spoke out in favor of a bill to study postpartum depression, a devastating mood disorder that strikes millions of women before and after pregnancy. H.R. 20, the “Melanie Blocker-Stokes Postpartum Depression Care and Research Act,” was introduced by Rep. Bobby Rush (D-Ill); the bill is named for one of his former constituents who died by suicide after suffering from postpartum depression.    » read more »

4-Sep-2007 -- Most patients with depression who are treated by primary care physicians do not receive care consistent with quality standards, according to a new RAND Corporation study.

Physicians had high rates of adherence to just one third of the 20 measures of quality that researchers examined and had low rates of adherence to nearly half of the treatment recommendations studied, according to the report in the September 4 edition of the Annals of Internal Medicine.    » read more »

September 4, 2007 -- Most patients with depression who are treated by primary care physicians do not receive care consistent with quality standards, according to a new RAND Corporation study.

Physicians had high rates of adherence to just one-third of the 20 measures of quality that researchers examined and had low rates of adherence to nearly half of the treatment recommendations studied, according to the report in the Sept. 4 edition of the Annals of Internal Medicine.    » read more »

3-Sep-2007 -- Patients with depression appear to have an impaired ability to recover their heart rate variability following acute coronary syndromes such as heart attack, a factor that could increase their risk of coronary death, according to a report in the September issue of Archives of General Psychiatry, one of the JAMA/Archives journals. However, patients who are treated with antidepressants or whose mood lifts may experience more of an improvement in heart rate variability than those who are untreated or remain depressed.    » read more »

MOUNT OLIVET, Ky., Monday, July 30, 2007 – Visitors to the Pioneer Museum at Blue Licks Battlefield State Resort Park will soon get a better idea of what the area was like when mastodon, bison, Native Americans and pioneers lived in the area.

The museum, built during the Depression, has undergone a $150,000 renovation with improved exhibits and a detailed interpretation of the 1782 Battle of Blue Licks, the last Revolutionary War battle fought in Kentucky.    » read more »