Excessive Internet use linked to depression
Researchers from the University of Leeds have found a correlation between high Internet use and symptoms of depression. This was the first large-scale study of its kind in the West, showing conspicuous evidence that some users have developed a compulsive Internet habit, replacing real-life social interaction with online chat rooms and social networking sites. The results suggest that this type of addictive surfing can have a serious impact on mental health.
Read the press release at ScienceDaily, or the original article by Morrison and Gore in Psychopathology, vol. 42, no. 2.
Depression raises risk of diabetes complications
Depression raises the risk of advanced and severe complications from diabetes. These complications include kidney failure or blindness, the result of small vessel damage, as well as vessel problems leading to heart attack or stroke.
The full press release is available from ScienceDaily.
Acupuncture effective against depression in pregnancy
Acupuncture may be an effective treatment for depression during pregnancy. In the study, women randomized to receive acupuncture specific for depression experienced a significantly greater decrease in depression severity than controls. About 10% of pregnant women meet the criteria for major depression, and almost 20% have increased symptoms of depression during pregnancy.
Read the press release at ScienceDaily.
“Early to bed” may prevent depression in adolescents
Adolescents whose bedtime is midnight or later are 24% more likely to suffer from depression, and 20% more likely to have suicidal thoughts, than adolescents whose bedtime is 10 pm or earlier. In addition, adolescents who reported that they usually sleep for five or fewer hours per night were 71% more likely to suffer from depression, and 48% more likely to think about committing suicide than those who reported getting eight hours of sleep. The results suggest that earlier bedtimes could protect against depression by lengthening sleep duration and increasing the likelihood of getting enough sleep, strengthening the argument that inadequate sleep could play a role in the aetiology of depression.
Read the press release at ScienceDaily.
Efficacy of antidepressants depend on severity of symptoms
Antidepressants may have little effect on mild to moderate symptoms of depression, while patients with severe depressive symptoms seem to derive a substantial benefit from their use. These results are from a meta-analysis of randomized trials, involving more than 700 patients.
Read the press release at ScienceDaily or the original article in the January edition of JAMA.
Antidepressants don’t target key brain protein involved in depression
During clinical depression, there are significantly increased levels of monoamine oxidase A (MAO-A) in the brain, yet the commonly used antidepressants have no effect on this key brain protein. MAO-A digests multiple brain chemicals, including serotonin, that help maintain healthy mood. High MAO-A levels excessively remove these brain chemicals. The findings of this study may help explain why antidepressant do no always work. Rather than reversing the problem of MAO-A breaking down several chemicals, most antidepressants only raise serotonin. Some early antidepressant medications did target MAO-A, but these MAO-A inhibitors fell out of favour in the 1970s due to adverse interactions with certain foods.
Read the press release at ScienceDaily, or the original article in the December 2009 edition of Archives of General Psychiatry.