If you have a chronic illness and are battling depression, exercise may be just what you need to lift your mood, according to University of Alabama, Birmingham researchers.

For the study, Matthew Herring and his team examined 90 previous studies of 10,500 sedentary patients with chronic illness.  Each study included people who had been randomly assigned to either an exercise group or a non-exercise group.  In addition, the study participants had had their depression levels measured both before and after exercise.

The researchers found that those who engaged in exercise - which included such as activities as jogging, cycling and resistance training - had a 22% reduction in their depression symptoms.  Those who exercised either at least 150 minutes at a moderate intensity or at least 75 minutes at a vigorous intensity had even greater improvements.  The patients who received the greatest benefit from exercise were those who had mild to moderate depression and for whom exercise improved their ability to function.

Based upon these results, Herring suggests that exercise can be recommended as a potential low-risk treatment for depression in those suffering from chronic illness.

The article was published in January 23, 2012 issue of Archives of General Medicine.

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Exercise Can Help Depression in Those With Chronic Illness originally appeared on About.com Depression on Tuesday, February 7th, 2012 at 06:11:03.

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Do you believe that the symptoms you are experiencing could be caused by depression?  Our online depression screening tool is quick, easy and completely confidential.

Free Depression Screening originally appeared on About.com Depression on Tuesday, February 7th, 2012 at 00:00:51.

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Newly published research indicates that working too many overtime hours could make you more prone to developing depression.

The study, which included about 2,000 British government employees, found that those who worked 11 or more hours per day were more than twice as likely to develop depression as those who worked a normal seven or eight hour day.

The authors noted that because the study included only civil servants it is not possible to determine from the data whether this same effect would apply for blue collar jobs.

It is not known how long work hours might influence depression risk, but factors such as work-family conflict, difficulty in relaxing after hours and chronically high levels of stress hormones could play a role.

The study was published online on Jan. 25, 2012 in the journal PLoS ONE

Working Too Many Hours Can Make You Depressed originally appeared on About.com Depression on Monday, January 30th, 2012 at 04:45:01.

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The American Psychiatric Association is in the process of revising its Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM) , a handbook used by clinicians when making diagnoses of conditions such as depression, and some believe it may be going too far.

A new report by researchers at Columbia and New York universities argues that the newly proposed definition of depression, which includes grief after the loss of a loved one under the umbrella of depression, is opening the door for false-positive diagnosis of depression and the unnecessary treatment of people who are simply going through the normal process of grieving.

Other experts, however, argue that clinical depression can and often does occur as a result of grief.  These proponents of the proposed changes feel that changing the criteria for a depression diagnosis will aid these people in getting the help that they need.

The 5th edition of the DSM, which is the first major update the manual has undergone since 1994, is due to be published in May 2013.

If you would like to learn more about the proposed changes, please visit http://www.dsm5.org/.

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DSM-V: Proposed Changes in Depression Criteria Too Broad? originally appeared on About.com Depression on Wednesday, January 25th, 2012 at 05:48:42.

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Nursing home patients with dementia who were taking a class of antidepressants called serotonin reuptake inhibitors - which includes such drugs as Prozac, Paxil, Lexapro, Zoloft and Celexa - were three times more likely to experience a fall than other dementia patients, according to a new study out of the Netherlands.

Falls are a problem for patients with dementia, said the study authors, because about one-third of these falls will result in an injury.

The effect of SSRIs was examined because depression is very common in dementia patients and SSRIs are the most commonly prescribed antidepressant type in this population.

Lead author Carolyn Shanty Sterke and her team found that the increased risk for falls was present even at low doses and increased proportionately as the dose rose.

Concurrent use of antidepressants with certain other drugs, such as hyponotics or sedatives, increased the risk even more.

Sterke says that doctors should be careful about prescribing SSRIs to older patients with dementia and suggests that they should develop new treatment protocols that take into account the risk of falls.

The study was published online in the British Journal of Clinical Pharmacology on January 18, 2012.

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Antidepressants Increase Risk for Nursing Home Falls in Patients With Dementia originally appeared on About.com Depression on Saturday, January 21st, 2012 at 08:07:18.

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According to a study conducted by UT Southwestern Medical Center psychiatrists, low levels of vitamin D have been linked with depression.

When the researchers looked at the results gathered from 12,600 participants in the Cooper Center Longitudinal Study between 2006 and 2010, they found that low levels of vitamin D were associated with depressive symptoms, especially in those with a history of depression.  High vitamin D levels, however, were associated with a significantly decreased risk for current depression.

The study did not attempt to assess whether vitamin D supplementation would reduce depression symptoms.

Nor is it known exactly what the relationship is between vitamin D and depression.  It could be that low vitamin D levels trigger depression or that depression in some way lowers vitamin D levels.

"Our findings suggest that screening for vitamin D levels in depressed patients - and perhaps screening for depression in people with low vitamin D levels - might be useful," said senior author Dr. E. Sherwood Brown, "but we don't have enough information yet to recommend going out and taking supplements."

Vitamin D is a fat-soluble vitamin that is produced by natural processes within the body when ultraviolet radiation from the sun hits the skin.  It can be obtained in the diet by eating foods such as cod liver oil, salmon, mackerel, tuna, sardines and vitamin D fortified milk.   The current recommended dietary allowance for vitamin D is 600 IU for persons between the ages of one and 70.

The study was published in Mayo Clinic Proceedings.

Low Vitamin D Associated With Depression originally appeared on About.com Depression on Monday, January 9th, 2012 at 04:59:14.

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According to a study out of Rutgers University, significant differences exist in the diagnosis and treatment of depression in older patients, with the differences being divided along racial and ethnic lines.

In particular, the researchers found that African Americans were less likely to be diagnosed with depression than their non-Hispanic white counterparts.  And, when they were diagnosed, they were less likely to receive treatment.

Lead author Ayse Akincigil, an assistant professor in Rutgers' School of Social Work, and her team gathered data for the study from the U.S. Medicare Current Beneficiary Survey, 2001-2005, looking at 33,708 Medicare beneficiaries.  When they examined rates of depression diagnosis, they found that 7.2% of Hispanics, 6.4% of non-Hispanic whites, 4.2% of African Americans and 3.8% of all others had received a depression diagnosis.

Hispanics and African Americans, however, were less likely to receive treatment for their depression.

Akincigil suggests that these differences may arise because of cultural differences in how various racial or ethnic groups seek help.  For example, she says that African Americans may be more likely to turn to a pastor or lay counselor for support.  They may also feel more stigma or shame associated with depression or turn to more dysfunctional means of coping with the illness due to income restraints.

Akincigil also notes that whites tend to have higher incomes and live in neighborhoods where mental health professionals are more likely to be located, possibly making it easier for them to access professional care.

Due to the diverse makeup of the Hispanic community, it is more difficult to draw conclusions about why they might be undertreated.

The study authors suggest that ethnic minorities could be better served if universal depression screening and access to treatment for low-income and minority neighborhoods was ensured.  Increased reimbursement of case management services for depression treatment might also be helpful, they add.

The study appears online ahead of print on the American Journal of Public Health website. It will appear in print February 2012.

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Race, Ethnicity Influence Depression Treatment in the Elderly originally appeared on About.com Depression on Monday, January 9th, 2012 at 04:30:46.

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In its first placebo-controlled study, deep brain stimulation has shown that it can provide long-term relief from depression that has failed to respond to other types of therapy.

Unfortunately it is not a quick or easy fix.  It requires the surgical implantation of electrodes deep in the brain and recovery can be quite slow.  In fact, some the patients studied did not respond until after a year or more of stimulation.

However, out of the twelve patients who reached the two-year point using the device, all but one experienced either a complete remission of symptoms or had only mild symptoms.

Also encouraging was the fact that bipolar disorder patients in the study responded just as well as those with major depressive disorder.

It should be noted, however, that deep brain stimulation is not a cure for depression.  The effects only continue as long as the stimulation is applied.  Still, for those who have found no relief elsewhere, it may be a worthwhile option to pursue.

At the present time larger placebo-controlled phase-3 clinical trials are being carried out in multiple centers in North America and Europe by two different manufacturers of the device, but those results will not be available for several years.

The study was conducted by neurologist Helen Mayberg at Emory University in Atlanta, Georgia.

Deep Brain Stimulation Offers Long-Term Results originally appeared on About.com Depression on Thursday, January 5th, 2012 at 03:53:31.

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Once again we are beginning a new year. For many of us this signals an opportunity for making new beginnings in our lives. Unfortunately, although most of us start out full of resolve and determination, we end up falling short of our goals. We know we can benefit from change in our lives, but how do we make those changes become lasting ones? Try these tips to increase your chances of success.

Making Resolutions for Change originally appeared on About.com Depression on Wednesday, December 28th, 2011 at 08:12:37.

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Did you know that if you allow yourself to make the same choice repeatedly this will eventually become a habit?  In fact, this is how bad habits form.   We make the same maladaptive choices over and over, based upon some perceived payoff, until it becomes an automatic response.  The good news, however, is that we can use this knowledge to break bad habits.  The first step is to return to making conscious decisions about what we are doing.  When we return to making conscious decisions instead of allowing our actions to continue on auto-pilot we can make better choices and form new habits that better serve our needs.

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Join the Discussion: Do you feel that bad habits can contribute to your depression?  Has breaking bad habits helped you in any way to cope better with your depression?  Or perhaps your depression simply makes it much harder to develop new and better habits?  Post your comments below.

Bad Choices, Bad Habits originally appeared on About.com Depression on Monday, December 26th, 2011 at 00:00:45.

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