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Category: Depression
This Type Of Dreaming Doubles Depression Risk
This aspect of dreaming may help doctors predict who will become depressed.
This aspect of dreaming may help doctors predict who will become depressed.
People who start dreaming sooner after falling asleep are at greater risk of depression, research finds.
The effect runs through families, with those starting to dream within 60 minutes of falling asleep twice as likely to experience depression.
The more common range for entering dream sleep for the first time is around 90 minutes after falling asleep.
Professor Donna Giles, the study’s first author, said:
“This is the first physiological marker that predicts the onset of depression even in someone who has never had the illness.
While doctors know that depression in one’s family can make a person more prone to the disorder, understanding the link in detail has been difficult.
Right now, doctors can’t predict who will become depressed.”
Dream sleep — known as REM, or Rapid Eye Movement sleep — is the fifth of five stages of sleep we cycle through during the night.
In all the other four stages our brain winds down, but when it hits REM sleep it kicks into high gear to produce the strange phenomenon we call dreams.
Professor Giles said:
“In REM sleep, brain activity looks just as it does when we’re awake, but our muscles are inhibited.
It’s also known as paradoxical sleep, because the brain behaves as if we’re awake.”
The speed a person goes into REM sleep is difficult for someone to know themselves, said Professor Giles:
“You wouldn’t know you have it unless you were tested in a sleep laboratory.
Your sense of time is mixed up when you sleep, so you can’t really remember how fast you fell asleep and started dreaming.”
The study involved analysing the sleep patterns of 352 people in 70 families.
The study found that a family history of depression added to falling quickly into dream sleep doubled the depression risk.
In those who have family members who are depressed, it could be a way of predicting mental illness and taking preventative measures, said Professor Giles:
“With this information, a person might be able to take some protective measures, such as becoming more educated about the first symptoms of depression.”
The study was published in The American Journal of Psychiatry (Giles et al., 1998).
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What’s more likely to kill you: little hassles or major stressful life events?
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Participants taught this technique were less likely to remember negative memories.
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People with generally healthy lifestyles had a 57 percent lower depression risk compared to those with generally unfavourable lifestyles.
An Unusual Sign Of Depression Most People Think Is Unrelated
Most people think this common symptom is unrelated to depression.
Most people think this common symptom is unrelated to depression.
Morning headaches are a common sign of depression and anxiety, research finds.
People naturally assume that morning headaches are related to poor sleep.
While they often are, poor sleep is not the only cause.
The survey of 18,980 people found that the most significant factors linked to chronic morning headaches were anxiety and depression problems.
Dr Maurice M. Ohayon, the study’s author, said:
“Morning headache affects one individual in 13 in the general population.
Chronic morning headaches are a good indicator of major depressive disorders and insomnia disorders.
Contrary to what was previously suggested, however, they are not specific to sleep-related breathing disorder.”
Depression, anxiety and poor sleep were not the only predictors of morning headaches, though.
Dr Ohayon writes that drinking, high blood pressure and various sleep disorders were also linked to morning headaches:
“We also found a positive association between heavy drinking—at least 6 alcoholic drinks per day—and morning headaches, and between the use of an anxiolytic medication and morning headaches.
Subjects using these psychoactive substances were twice as likely to report morning headaches.
Among organic disorders, we found that subjects with hypertension or musculoskeletal diseases had a higher risk of reporting morning headaches.
Changes in blood pressure are likely to cause headaches.
Among sleep disorders, dyssomnia not otherwise specified, which included restless legs syndrome, periodic limb movement disorder, and sleep disorders with multiple possible causes, had the highest association with morning headaches.”
Related
- Signs of Depression: 10 Common Symptoms You Should Know
The study was published in the journal JAMA Internal Medicine (Ohayon et al., 2004).
A Worrying Mental Sign Of Vitamin D Deficiency
Vitamin D may be linked to critical neurotransmitters and inflammatory markers.
Vitamin D may be linked to critical neurotransmitters and inflammatory markers.
Feeling low can be a sign of vitamin D deficiency, research suggests.
Vitamin D may be linked to critical neurotransmitters and inflammatory markers that can cause depression.
Along with low mood, the most important symptoms of depression are:
- Decreased interest in life or pleasure.
- Energy loss.
- Concentration problems.
The conclusions come from a study of 12,600 people whose symptoms of depression and vitamin D levels were examined.
It emerged that people with low vitamin D levels were more likely to be depressed.
The study cannot tell us if low vitamin D is a cause of depression or the result.
The study’s authors explain:
“We found that low vitamin D levels are associated with depressive symptoms, especially in persons with a history of depression.
These findings suggest that primary care patients with a history of depression may be an important target for assessment of vitamin D levels.”
Foods that are rich in vitamin D include oily fish and eggs, but most people get their vitamin D from the action of sunlight on the skin.
That is why levels are typically lower in the body through the winter months in more Northern climes.
Up to 50% of young women may be deficient in this vitamin, other research has shown.
Professor E. Sherwood Brown, study co-author, said:
“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.
But we don’t have enough information yet to recommend going out and taking supplements.”
Vitamin D levels are now routinely tested during physical exams as deficiencies are linked to other health problems, such as obesity, diabetes and general cognitive decline.
The study was published in the journal Mayo Clinic Proceedings (Hoang et al., 2011).
This Is The Surprising Depression Treatment Most People Get
Around 16 million people in the US are thought to suffer an episode of depression each year.
Around 16 million people in the US are thought to suffer an episode of depression each year.
Most people diagnosed with depression get no treatment at all, research finds.
Only 35.7 percent of people start some kind of treatment for their depression, an analysis of 240,000 US patients has revealed.
Of the third who do start treatment, most (80 percent) take antidepressants rather than choosing psychotherapy.
Even among people with severe depression, only half start on some form of treatment.
Older people were less likely to choose psychotherapy.
They are also less likely to start any kind of treatment than those under 44-years-old.
Dr Beth Waitzfelder, the study’s first author, said:
“Our study, which was much larger than previous studies, provides important new evidence about the current scope of the problem among leading health care systems across the country that are striving to improve depression care in primary care settings.
Screening for depression in primary care is a positive step toward improving detection, treatment and outcome for depression, but disparities persist.
We need a better understanding of the patient and other factors that influence treatment initiation.”
The conclusions come from an analysis of over 240,000 people who received depression diagnoses between 2010 and 2013.
Around 16 million people in the US are thought to suffer an episode of depression each year.
Dr Waitzfelder said:
“Over the last decade, there has been a growing effort to raise awareness about mental health and to integrate mental health care into primary care.
This is a positive development, since most people receive care from primary care providers.
However, our study shows there is a lot more work to do to understand why many depressed patients do not begin treatment.”
The study was published in the Journal of General Internal Medicine (Waitzfelder et al., 2018).
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Over 50 percent of people who experience major depression will have a relapse at some point.
