Depression

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Depression

NIH - Medical Encyclopedia Depression

"Depression may be described as feeling sad, blue, unhappy, miserable, or down in the dumps. Most of us feel this way at one time or another for short periods. But true clinical depression is a mood disorder in which feelings of sadness, loss, anger, or frustration interfere with everyday life for an extended time. … The main types of depression include: Major depression -- five or more symptoms listed above must be present for at least 2 weeks, but major depression tends to continue for at least 6 months. (Depression is classified as minor depression if less than five depressive symptoms are present for at least 2 weeks.) and Dysthymia -- a chronic, generally milder form of depression but lasts longer -- usually as long as two years. Depression also includes atypical depression, postpartum depression, Premenstrual dysphoric disorder (PMDD), and Seasonal affective disorder (SAD). … If you are depressed for 2 weeks or longer, you should contact your doctor, who can offer treatment options. … Call 911, a suicide hotline, or get safely to a nearby emergency room if you have thoughts of suicide, a suicidal plan, or thoughts of harming yourself or others."

Highlighted Article

Regular exercise, anxiety, depression and personality: A population-based study. (Prev Med. 2006)

"This study corroborates and extends previous findings: regular exercise is cross-sectionally associated with lower neuroticism, anxiety and depression and higher extraversion and sensation seeking in the population."

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Depression

Risk Factors

NEWS:

Abused Children Face Depression Risk as Adults "Children who were abused and neglected were 51 percent more likely to be depressed in young adulthood. Those who were physically abused and those who experienced multiple types of abuse had a 59 percent and 75 percent increased risk of being depressed during their lifetime, respectively, compared with children who were not abused or neglected. Childhood sexual abuse was not associated with an elevated risk of depression. But, as the authors pointed out, the study participants who had been sexually abused reported significantly more symptoms of depression than the children who had not been abused or neglected."

Diets With High Omega-6:Omega-3 Ratios Enhance Risk for Depression, Inflammatory Disease "In a recent small study, older adults who had diets high in omega-6 fatty acids and low in omega-3 fatty acids had high levels of proinflammatory cytokines; this was especially true when they had coexisting depressive symptoms. … The group writes that in addition, the fatty acid composition of the Western diet changed "dramatically" after 1913, when refined vegetable oil, a major source of omega-6 fatty acids, entered the diet (in the form of margarine, etc), and there was also a decrease in the consumption of foods high in omega-3 fatty acid such as fish, wild game, nuts, seeds, and green, leafy vegetables. Whereas the early hunter-gatherers had a dietary omega-6:omega-3 ratio of 2:1 to 3:1, this ratio is now 15:1 to 17:1 in North America today. It is believed that these dietary changes might be related to increases in inflammatory-related diseases, including depression and cardiovascular disease, the group writes."

Fatty acid tied to depression and inflammation "The imbalance of fatty acids in the typical American diet could be associated with the sharp increase in heart disease and depression seen over the past century, a new study suggests. Specifically, the more omega-6 fatty acids people had in their blood compared with omega-3 fatty acid levels, the more likely they were to suffer from symptoms of depression and have higher blood levels of inflammation-promoting compounds, report Dr. Janice K. Kiecolt-Glaser and her colleagues from Ohio State University College of Medicine in Columbus. "

Molding a Link to Depression

ARTICLES:

JOURNAL ARTICLES:

Depressive Symptoms, omega-6:omega-3 Fatty Acids, and Inflammation in Older Adults. (Psychosom Med. 2007) "Conclusions: Diets with high n-6:n-3 PUFA ratios may enhance the risk for both depression and inflammatory diseases."

Increased risk of depressive disorders in women with polycystic ovary syndrome. (Fertil Steril. 2007) "CONCLUSION(S): We report a significantly increased risk of depressive disorders (as defined by the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual IV) in women with PCOS and recommend routine screening in this population."

Increased waist circumference is associated with an increased prevalence of mood disorders and depressive symptoms in obese women. (Eat Weight Disord. 2007) "DISCUSSION: In conclusion, obesity, per se, seems to be an independent variable associated with the severity of depressive symptoms and the prevalence of current mood disorders in obese women. Waist circumference, and not BMI or WHR, seems to be the anthropometric indicator of overweight and fat distribution that best explains these findings."

Meta-analyses of genetic studies on major depressive disorder. (Mol Psychiatry. 2007)

Prediction from low birth weight to female adolescent depression: a test of competing hypotheses. (Arch Gen Psychiatry. 2007) "CONCLUSIONS: Low birth weight predicts depression in adolescent girls but not boys. Data support fetal programming over the biopsychosocial hypothesis, suggesting vulnerability to adversities in girls with LBW after puberty."

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