I just read about a briefing conducted by some mental health experts on July 27, 2010 which I found quite disturbing.� Apparently when the new 5th edition of the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM), the so-called Bible of mental health disorders, which clinicians use to help them categorize and diagnose mental disorders, comes out in 2013 there are so many newly proposed disorders (Toddler tantrums are a disorder? Really?) that these experts are in fear that soon no one will be "normal" anymore.

Some of the proposed additions - which include "mild anxiety depression," "psychosis risk syndrome,"� "temper dysregulation syndrome", and, yes, "toddler tantrums" - have the experts in fear that soon we will all have some sort of mental disorder.� "It's leaking into normality," said Til Wykkes of the Institute of Psychiatry at Kings College London.� "Its is shrinking the pool of what is normal to a puddle."

In a joint statement, Wykkes and colleagues Felicity Callard, also of Kings' Institute of Psychiatry and Nick Craddock of Cardiff University's department of psychological medicine and neurology, said many in the psychiatric community are concerned about the widening guidelines.� "Technically, with the classification of so many new disorders, we will all have disorders," they wrote.

The scientists also pointed to the current edition of the manual, the DSM-IV, citing how broadening of the definitions of attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), autism and childhood bipolar disorders had "contributed to false epidemics" of these conditions, especially in the U.S.

"During the last decade," read the statement, "how many doctors were harangued by worried parents into giving drugs like Ritalin to children who didn't really need it?"

If you'd like to learn more about this issue, Wykkes and Callard published a comment in The Journal of Mental Health, which expresses the essence of their concerns, as well as highlighting another 10 papers in the same journal from scientists with similar concerns.

What do you think about this issue?� Are we at risk of turning normal into a disease?� What is normal anyway?

What Is Normal? originally appeared on About.com Depression on Friday, July 30th, 2010 at 04:09:17.

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Are you concerned that your teen is watching too much TV?� According to a 2009 study, your concerns about too much TV could be valid.� The study found that watching more TV, especially for males, was linked to a greater risk for depression in young adulthood.

Dr. Brian A. Primack, of the University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine, and his team studied the TV, video, computer game and radio habits of about 4,100 healthy, non-depressed teens.

The teens reported an average of 5.68 hours of media exposure per day, including 2.3 hours of watching TV.

Seven years later, when the participants had become young adults, they were screened again and 308 (7.4%) had developed depression symptoms.

For each hour of watching TV as a teen, it was found that the risk of developing depression as a young adult increased, although young women were less likely to develop depression symptoms than the young men.

The study did not find any consistent link between depression and watching videos, playing computer games or listening to the radio, however.

While no conclusions could be drawn about how watching TV might influence the development of depression, the researchers speculated that it might have something to do with the fact TV watching interferes with other activities that protect against depression, such as socializing, playing sports or engaging in intellectual pursuits.� It might also disrupt sleep, they suggested, or the programs watched might contain messages which reinforce aggression or risky behaviors which themselves contribute to depression by creating feelings of fear and anxiety.

The study appeared in the February 2009 Archives of General Psychiatry.

Too Much TV? originally appeared on About.com Depression on Wednesday, July 28th, 2010 at 00:02:55.

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Depending on your generation, you are probably familiar with songs like Robert Palmer's "Addicted to Love" and, more recently, Kesha's "Your Love Is My Drug," but, did you know that there is a real basis for the pain and depression that you feel when going through a break up and it could have some similarity to drug addiction?

Researchers looked at the brain activity in 15 college-aged heterosexual men who had recently been dumped by their girlfriends, but were still in love with them.� The men were shown a picture of their ex-girlfriend, then asked to solve a math problem to distract them.� After solving the problem, they were then shown a picture of a neutral person that they knew but didn't have any romantic feelings for.

Brain scans conducted while the men looked at the pictures showed that certain areas in the brain were stimulated much more when the men were looking at the object of their unrequited love than when looking at the neutral person.

These areas, according to the authors, are the same areas stimulated in cocaine addicts and are associated with physical pain and distress.

They also found, however, that there is truth to the old saw about time healing all wounds.� Over time, the level of brain activity the men experienced when looking at photos of their exes lessened.

The study was published in the July issue of the Journal of Neurophysiology.

Love Addiction Similar to Cocaine Addiction originally appeared on About.com Depression on Tuesday, July 27th, 2010 at 04:00:26.

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Is it possible to do a genetic test for depression?� Some Dutch researchers think this may eventually become a reality.

In their study, the researchers evaluated blood gene expression profiles in two groups of people:� patients diagnosed with major depressive disorder (MDD) and patients who were healthy with no diagnosis of MDD.

They were able to identify a set of seven genes found in whole blood that could differentiate between the two groups.

If a genetic test became available it would be a big step forward in treating depression, according to the authors.� Rather than having to rely on talking with patient and then making a clinical judgment about whether a patient is depressed, it would be possible to� perform an objective test.��� Having a diagnostic test could also remove some of the stigma associated with depression, said the authors.

The study appears in the July 15, 2010 issue of Biological Psychiatry.

Genetic Test for Depression Possible? originally appeared on About.com Depression on Tuesday, July 27th, 2010 at 03:28:23.

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Thirty-two soldiers committed suicide during the month of June, according to information released by the U.S. Department of Defense, a record number not seen since the Vietnam war.

Army officials say 11 of the soldiers were not on active duty, while, of the 21 who were, seven were serving in either Iraq or Afghanistan.

The Army was unable to provide any explanation for the spike in suicides.� "There were no trends to any one unit, camp, post or station," said Col. Chris Philbrick,� head of the Army's suicide prevention task force, in a statement to CNN.

Last year, the Army broke previous records with 245 suicides and appears to be on track to break the record yet again, with 145 suicides just during the first half of 2010.

In testimony before the House Veterans Affairs Committee provided on July 14, 2010, Tim Embree of the Iraq and Afghanistan Veterans of America stated that there is still strong stigma in the Army against seeking help for fear of appearing weak to fellow soldiers.

The Army has taken steps in recent years to lift the stigma of depression and mental illness by taking such steps as providing a 24-hour suicide prevention hotline and videos and other resources on its website.

Army Suicides at Record High originally appeared on About.com Depression on Tuesday, July 20th, 2010 at 05:50:20.

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Two new Asian studies, both published in the American Journal of Psychiatry, have reported a link between between respiratory problems and suicide.

In the first study, South Korean researchers tracked air quality and suicide during the year 2004.

The researchers found almost half of the 4,300 suicides reported that year had a chronic health problem, such as heart disease, diabetes, cancer, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease or mental illness.

In addition, they found that the risk of suicide increased by 9% for the two days following any spike in particulate matter in the air.�� Among those with heart disease, the risk went even higher to 19%.

While the study authors could not explain why higher air pollution might be linked with suicide, they did speculate that perhaps substances in the pollution, such as heavy metals, might affect neurological functioning or the particulate matter might cause inflammation, which has been associated with depression.

In the second study, a team of Taiwanese researchers followed 160,000 teenagers with and without asthma for over ten years.

The researchers found that, while suicide among the groups was rare, the teens with asthma were more than twice as likely to commit suicide; and, having severe asthma symptoms made the risk even higher.

In all, about 1 in 14 of the suicides may have been due to asthma, according to the authors, who speculated that perhaps a combination of phsyical, psychological and social challenges related to asthma might be at fault in the suicides.

Not discussed in the article was the fact that certain asthma medications have themselves been linked with suicide risk in the past, such as with the drug Singulair.� However, the FDA has not yet found any firm evidence that the two are connected.

Two Studies Link Respiratory Problems to Suicide originally appeared on About.com Depression on Friday, July 16th, 2010 at 05:54:57.

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Men with erectile dysfunction (ED) who have depression symptoms may be at increased risk for a� major cardiovascular event, according to a new study.

Elisa Bandini of the University of Florence and her team investigated this problem by studying about 2,000 men who were seen in a clinic for ED.� Then men were surveyed using a structured interview as well being scored for depression symptoms.

Their results showed that for those with ED, depression increased the risk for cardiovascular problems independently from other known risk factors.

In addition, it was found that the use of antidepressant did not change the relationship between severe depression symptoms and cardiovascular events.

"Recognizing depressive symptoms in subjects with erectile dysfunction is mandatory, not only for improving their sexual life, but also for preventing cardiovascular diseases," noted Bandini.

If� you are experiencing ED, this study provides a very compelling reason to seek a doctor's care.�� ED that occurs along with depression symptoms could be an indicator that your cardiovascular health is at risk.

The study appears in the Journal of Sexual Medicine.

ED Plus Depression Creates Increased Cardiovascular Risk originally appeared on About.com Depression on Wednesday, July 14th, 2010 at 05:05:12.

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According to a new study, cancer patients who received a phone-based program of care management and a home-based automated symptom monitoring had greater improvement in pain and depression compared to patients who received usual care.

Kurt Kroenke M.D. of the Richard Roudebush VA Medical Center, Indiana University and Regenstrief Institute, Indianapolis, and his colleagues conducted their study in 16 community-based cancer practices, with patients entering the study between March 2006 and August 2008.  A followup was conducted in August 2009.  Patients had depression, cancer-related pain, or both and were randomly assigned to receive the phone-based intervention or usual care.

Patients were assessed for pain and depression symptoms at the beginning of the study and at 1, 3, 6 and 12 months.

Out of the 405 participants in the study, 131 had depression only, 96 had pain only and 178 had both.  The researchers found out of  274 patients with pain, 137 in the intervention group had great improvements in their pain severity than those who had received usual care.  Of the 309 with depression, 154 in the intervention group had improvements compared to the usual care group.

The intervention group also had greater improvements in mental health, vitality, anxiety and physical symptoms burden.

The study appears in the July 14, 2010 issue of JAMA.

Phone Therapy Program Helps Depressed Cancer Patients originally appeared on About.com Depression on Tuesday, July 13th, 2010 at 16:00:09.

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Sexual abuse is linked to a variety of mental health issues, including suicide attempts, post-traumatic stress disorder, anxiety, depression, eating disorders and sleep disorders, according to researchers.

When Dr. Ali Zirakzadeh of the Mayo Clinic and his team did a systematic review of all relevant research between 1980 and 2008, they found a statistically significant association between all of these mental health disorders and sexual abuse, even when they controlled for such factors as the victim's gender and the age at which the abuse took place.

"Survivors of sexual abuse are commonly seen in general medical practice," said Zirakzadeh in a statement.� "Sexual abuse survivors face a challenging spectrum of physical and mental health symptoms, which results in high healthcare ulilization, oftentimes without improvement of quality of life."

"The good news for patients," added Zirakzadeh, "is that physicans are now more aware of the link between abuse and psychiatric illness so that abuse survivors may be more readily identified and referred to specialists for treatment."

The findings appear in the July 2010 Mayo Clinic Proceedings.

Sexual Abuse Has Long-Term Effects originally appeared on About.com Depression on Tuesday, July 13th, 2010 at 06:26:49.

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According to a new study, children and teens who smoke marijuana may be at greater risk of developing depression later on.� The study does not make clear, however, whether marijuana itself is to blame.

For the study, researchers used data from more than 50,000 adults in 17 countries taking part in a World Health Organization mental health study.

Overall, a modest association was found between smoking marijuana before age 17 and later depression, with there being a 50% increase in the risk of experiencing an episode of depression after the age of 17.

The link remained even after the researchers controlled for other factors, such as recent marijuana use, smoking and drinking habits and history of mental health issues.

The link was weakened, however, when childhood conduct problems - such as skipping school, fighting and shoplifting - were considered.

According to lead researcher, Dr. Ron de Graf, this could imply that conduct problems may at least partially explain why marijuana use and depression are linked.� However, said de Graf, they were lacking data on conduct problems in certain countries, such as New Zealand and South Africa, so they could not make a full analysis of this link.

Another weakness in the study was that the participants were surveyed on a single occasion and had to rely on their memory of when they first smoked marijuana or experienced depression, rather than being followed over time, which would have provided a more accurate assessment of which came first, marijuana use or depression.

While it cannot be determined from this particular study whether marijuana use does in fact cause later depression, it is still possible, said de Graf, that marijuana use has important affects on mental health.� More studies are needed, he says, especially those which follow young people over time to see if they develop mental health problems after first using marijuana.

The study appeared online in the June 9, 2010 issue of the American Journal of Epidemiology.

Marijuana and Depression Possibly Linked originally appeared on About.com Depression on Friday, July 9th, 2010 at 05:10:24.

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