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Posts Tagged ‘Depression’

Elderly Depression: 5 Effective Treatments

Thursday, March 15th, 2012

Elderly depression can often be difficult to treat due to the variety of factors that can contribute to depression in the elderly. Options for treatment of elderly depression seem more limited than those for younger individuals due to the higher likelihood of medical factors contributing to the disorder in senior citizens, dementia being particularly difficult to work around.

For those seeking help through medication, this also becomes more complicated, as their bodies may react differently than a younger patient, and they are more likely to be taking other medications that could pose a risk if combined with antidepressants. There are, however, 5 proven approaches to easing elderly depression:

1. Increasing Social Interaction

Relieving loneliness, through any method, is especially recommended for cases of mild depression. Psychosocial treatment can consist of participation in group exercise or group discussions about various topics. The topic need not be depression. Simple interaction with others often relieves symptoms of depression. Sometimes social interaction is not even necessary. Just going on a walk may be enough to deal with mild depression.

2. Light Therapy

Recent studies have shown that bright light can ease depression in many depression patients, including the elderly. Just one hour of exposure to bright light every day has been shown to have dramatic effects in battling depression symptoms. The wonderful thing about this approach is that it can work equally well on patients with dementia, since the light seems to cause a chemical response which is not impaired by the person’s connection with the reality around him or her.

3. Talk therapy

Traditional talk therapy is an old favorite of psychologists for a very good reason. It simply works for a lot of people. If an elderly person is free of dementia and does not suffer from a severe form of depression, talk therapy might be sufficient to deal with their depression symptoms.

4. Antidepressant Medication to treat Elderly Depression

If an elderly person’s depression is more severe, if it lasts longer or seems to seriously debilitate him or her, then it may be necessary to administer antidepressants. This may be necessary more often in people who suffer from symptoms of dementia as well as depression. Talk therapy and social interaction are often not feasible with such cases.

The recommended anti-depressants for such cases are serotonin reuptake inhibitors (SSRIs). These drugs increase the amount of chemicals in the brain that stave off depression. However, these should be a last resort because they also cause thinning of bones. If you care for the elderly, you know that fractures, especially hip fractures, are a grave concern.

5. Electroconvulsive Therapy (ECT)

There is a form of shock therapy known as electroconvulsive therapy, or ECT. In general, caregivers do not have a good reaction when they initially hear about this type of treatment. However, it has been proven to have good effects in many patients and is not as violent as it may sound. One possible side effect, however, is loss of memory, so particular care must be taken in elderly patients who are inherently at a higher risk for memory loss than younger patients.

Article from Assisted Living Today.

Tags: Bright light therapy, Depression, Elderly, Light Therapy, light therapy for sad, Medication, SAD, SAD light, SAD lights, Seasonal Affective Disorder, Senior Citizen, Severe Depression, Social Interaction, Therapy, Treatment, Winter Blues, Winter Depression
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Mental Illness in the Workplace

Wednesday, March 14th, 2012

The Centre for Addiction and Mental Health estimates that mental health conditions are responsible for approximately 30% of all disability claims and 70% of the associated plan costs.

Employers dealing with these costs—and the related lost productivity—are understandably focused on getting employees who are dealing with mental health issues back to work as quickly as possible, in a suitable state to fulfill their duties. Achieving this requires three crucial elements: early identification and diagnosis of mental health concerns; an effective treatment plan; and a return-to-work strategy that enables the employee to gradually ease back into work life.

Identification and diagnosis
According to research published in the Journal of American Medicine, an estimated 40% of mental health-related cases are misdiagnosed or underdiagnosed, resulting in incorrect or insufficient treatment. Further, more than 50% of cases do not receive treatment at all. This is disturbing when you consider the impact that psychological illness can have on an individual’s ability to function, both in and out of the workplace. Clearly, the ability to identify a psychological illness early is paramount.

Those in supervisory roles who are in close contact with employees on a daily basis can come to understand their employees’ unique personality traits. With appropriate training, supervisors are ideally positioned to identify changes in employee behaviour that may signal the onset of mental health concerns. A properly trained supervisor can also effectively separate workplace issues such as harassment from those with psychological roots (e.g., a clinical mental illness, such as depression).

For example, according to the Canadian Mental Health Association, between 2% and 3% of Canadians may have seasonal affective disorder (SAD), though many may not realize it. A trained supervisor may recognize that an employee with a high number of absences in January and February—and who lacks concentration and misses deadlines during the winter months—may be affected by SAD. That employee could then be prompted to seek appropriate care, begin treatment and return to a fully functioning state.

Treatment plan
Treatment is another key component in effective psychological claims management. It is often left to the family physician to identify problems and initiate treatment while waiting for a formal appointment with a specialist. Too often, this means losing precious time through suboptimal prescriptions or inappropriate treatment. Employers should include wording in their benefits plan booklets to ensure that a specialist diagnosis is required for mental illness claims.

Back-to-work strategy
Effective diagnosis and treatment are essential to understanding an employee’s psychological and cognitive capabilities and how they align with the demands of a particular job. This understanding can help an employer to develop an effective transitional back-to-work plan. An individual who is recovering from an episode of depression, for example, may have a decreased ability to concentrate. A progressive, time-limited back-to-work plan—which could include short, specific tasks with written step-by-step instructions for each—and an environment with minimal disruptions can help the employee work his or her way back into a regular routine.

Mental health issues will likely remain a key concern for workplace productivity and claims management. However, the implementation of a pragmatic approach to identification, treatment and recovery can help to minimize the long-term effects and improve outcomes for employees and employers alike.

Tags: Bipolar Disorder, Bright light therapy, Depression, Doctor, Light box, Light Therapy, Mental Illness, SAD, SAD light, SAD lights, Seasonal Affective Disorder, Severe Depression, Sleep disorders, Sleep Routine, Treatment, Winter Blues, Winter Depression, Work
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SAD Is Real – But Treatable

Tuesday, March 13th, 2012

Sadly, depression is not something many people truly understand. They are blaming themselves and feel helpless to change. Fortunately, there are many ways in which you can treat your depression. Read this entire article for ideas you can apply daily to lift yourself, or someone you love, out of depression.

To deal with depression, join a support group. Talk with other people battling the disease to understand what you’re going through. These people can offer ideas so you can have help along the way.

When you take any kind of depression pills, you need to build a routine. When you commit to a habitual schedule, remembering your medication will come naturally. Taking your medication early will help you get through the day.

Concentrate on just a few problems at any one time, and tackle them in small, manageable steps. Trying to fix too many problems all at the same time is overwhelming, and only leads to failure and makes everything worse.

Depression can be treated effectively with interpersonal therapy and behavioral therapy, which simply means talking it out and changing the behaviors that contribute to your depression. Interpersonal therapy deals with how you deal with your relationships. Cognitive behavior therapy helps the patient change the way they approach the world and how to better handle issues that arise.

Besides medication, a variety of techniques can be employed to decrease the symptoms of depression and improve the sufferers general mood. You have information at your fingertips that will help you. Use the advice provided here to help you make the changes you need in order to improve your life.

Tags: Bright light therapy, Depression, Light box, Light Therapy, light therapy for sad, SAD, SAD light, SAD lights, Seasonal Affective Disorder, Severe Depression, Sleep disorders, Support, Winter Blues, Winter Depression
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Time Change Blues

Thursday, March 8th, 2012

It’s just one hour, but it throws people off of their day when they don’t have it.

Daylight Saving Time begins this month and that means the mornings are getting a little darker and everyone will be losing one hour of sleep. This change has a direct effect on everyone’s internal cycles, causing crankiness, rushing, tardiness — even heart attacks and increased traffic accidents.

“It’s stressful to get up before your brain has decided that it is time to have you alert and awake and functioning,” said Dr. Marlin Hoover, a psychologist at the Family Medicine Center at Memorial Medical Center. “So that increases the stress related to getting up an hour early.”

In a 1996 study, results showed an 8 percent increase in traffic accidents after the time change. In another study, researchers found that there was a 5 percent increase in heart attacks after the time shift, according to My Health News Daily.

These small studies ring true to Hoover, who agreed that losing an hour of rest does affect people, most of whom don’t enough sleep in the first place.

Breaking the cycle

Most people’s energy follows a cycle, and energy levels vary throughout the day in a predictable pattern. Typically, midnight is the time when the energy level is the lowest; by 6 a.m., energy is climbing drastically as the body is waking up and doing things; and it peaks around noon. It’s downhill from there, with a moderate peak around 4 p.m. and then a continuous downward trend back into the lowest energetic point at midnight.

It’s difficult to shift this cycle — which is exactly what Daylight Saving Time does to everyone — if you don’t prepare for it. It takes three to seven days for a person to get back on track.

“And for that reason, people on swing shifts have much higher accident rates,” Hoover said. These people can never change their cycles to where they have the most energy in the middle of the night, while they are working.

“If you get somebody up, then, an hour early, their body is already cranked up. And you’re adding the stress of being up, not feeling good, and having to manage things, which means driving, even, is going to be more stressful,” Hoover said.

About the time a person is dreaming, their heart rate and blood pressure is going up. This time is usually around the time a person wakes up.

When a person has to get up earlier, during this dream state, they add more pressure, which leads to more heart attacks. This time in the morning is also the time more heart attacks happen year-round, Hoover said.

Bright and early

Light also causes people’s energy to swing. Because time is springing forward, that means the mornings will be a little darker than they have been. This leads to slow mornings, when people feel drowsy and unenthusiastic to start their day.

When bright sunlight hits the retinas of the eye, that sends a signal to the reticular activating system, a part of the brain that tells the body to wake up.

“That’s why people tend to feel best in the summer; it’s because there is the most ambient light,” Hoover said.

Emotions are also tied into the amount of light people are exposed to. In a condition called Seasonal Affective Disorder, or seasonal depression, people feel depressed and they have no energy, especially during winter, when less sunlight reaches them — or during Daylight Saving Time, when mornings are darker and evenings are brighter.

Psychologists have a treatment for this: light therapy, which exposes patients to bright light that resembles that of the sun.

“Exposing the eyes to light will give a little bump to the energy and move the curve to a little bit earlier,” Hoover said about the energy cycle.

There is a cure for the time change blues, too. In the weeks before Daylight Saving Time begins, you can adjust your alarm clock to ring 15 minutes before it’s usually set to go off. Increase 15 more minutes every week. By the time March 11 comes around, your body should already be used to getting up an hour early.

Tags: Bright light therapy, Daylight Savings Time, Depression, Light box, Light Therapy, SAD, SAD light, SAD lights, Seasonal Affective Disorder, Severe Depression, Winter Blues, Winter Depression
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Time Changes

Monday, March 5th, 2012