Treating Depression: What You Should Know
What is depression?
Depression is a serious illness that affects your mood. Most people with depression feel sad or empty. It is probably caused by changes in the chemicals the brain uses to send messages from one nerve cell to another.
Who gets it?
Depression is common. Anyone of any age, sex, or race can get it. As many as 10 to 14 percent of patients who go to see their doctor have depression. Some people get it when stressful life events happen or because of a medical illness. Sometimes depression happens even when things seem to be “going right.” Many people get genes from their parents that make them more likely to become depressed.
How does P wave dispersion change in patients with Wilson’s disease?
Wilson’s disease is a severe inherited metabolic disorder, which is associated with intracellular copper overload and multiple organ involvement. Main cardiac manifestations in Wilson’s disease include arrhythmias and cardiac failure. Recently, researchers at the Ankara Y¨¹ksek Ihtisas Hospital and in Ankara University Faculty of Medicine investigated P wave dispersion (PWD) as a non-invasive marker of intra-atrial conduction disturbance in patients with Wilson’s disease.
This research, led by Dr. Nurcan Arat is to be published on February 28, 2008 in the World Journal of Gastroenterology.
Variations of Stress Response Gene Appear To Be Predictive of Risk of PTSD
Adults who experienced child abuse and have variations of a gene related to stress response appear to be at greater risk of posttraumatic stress disorder symptoms as adults, according to a study in the March 19 issue of JAMA, a theme issue on Genetics and Genomics.
Rebekah G. Bradley, Ph.D., of the Emory University School of Medicine, Atlanta, presented the findings of the study at a JAMA media briefing at the National Press Club in Washington, D.C.
“Posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) is a debilitating stress-related psychiatric disorder, with prevalence rates of at least 7 percent to 8 percent in the U.S. population, and with much higher rates among combat veterans and those living in high-violence areas. Initially viewed as a potentially normative response to traumatic exposure, it became clear that not everyone experiencing trauma develops PTSD. Thus, a central question in research on PTSD is why some individuals are more likely than others to develop the disorder in the face of similar levels of trauma exposure,” the authors write. They add that it is becoming clear that there are critical roles for pre-disposing genetic and environmental influences in determining the psychological risk to the traumatized individual, with child abuse appearing to provide significant risk for the development of PTSD.
