The numbers are, well, depressing: More than 2 million people age 65 and older suffer from depression, including 50 percent of those living in nursing homes. The suicide rate among white men over 85 is the highest in the country — six times the national rate.
And we’re not getting any younger. In the next 35 years, the number of Americans over 65 will double and the number of those over 85 will triple.
So the question becomes, how to help elderly depressed individuals? [continue reading…]
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Psychiatrists have warned that the number of men with depression could rise because of changes in Western society.
An article in the British Journal of Psychiatry suggests economic and social changes will erode traditional sources of male self-esteem.
The authors say men will struggle with the shift away from traditional male and female roles. Curious? Continue reading…..
Source: BBC News
In the current issue of Psychotherapy and Psychosomatics, a group of German investigators presents new data on role of treatment preferences in the outcome of depression.
This study demonstrates that patients’ relative preference for medication versus psychotherapy should be considered when offering a treatment to depressed patients because receiving the preferred treatment conveys an additional and clinically relevant benefit in outcome.
Little is known about the influence of depressed patients’ preferences and expectations about treatments upon treatment outcome. In this study the researchers investigated whether better clinical outcome in depressed primary care patients is associated with receiving their preferred treatment. [continue reading…]
A sad person who says that the world looks dull and gray and that flowers no longer smell so sweet may not just be speaking figuratively. Two recent studies from Germany provide evidence that sensory perception is diminished in depressed individuals.
Discover Magazine takes look how depression seems to affect how our senses work, and how researchers may one day use this to make an objective diagnosis of depression. Curious? Continue reading
Source: Discover Magazine
