Inflammation and Depression in the Elderly

Overview

Depression in the elderly population is a common problem. Elderly depression may have some differences in cause and response to treatment when compared to depression in other age groups. For example, the functions of neurotransmitters (the brain’s chemical messengers) such as serotonin change with age. And, changes in the cardiovascular system (made up of the heart and the blood vessels) with age also appear to be linked to depression.

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Teen girls more prone to depression, study says

By GLORIA GALLOWAY

One in four older teenage girls will suffer at least one major depressive episode within the next four years and there is a strong correlation between depression and smoking, a new study by researchers at the University of Alberta has found.

It has long been known that females between 13 and 65 are twice as likely as males to suffer from depression, said Nancy Galambos, lead author of the study in the latest edition of the International Journal of Behavioural Development.

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Depression and Pain

Public Gets the Message: Pain Not Just Physical

A major goal of a public education campaign on the link between depression and physical pain is to encourage Americans to talk to their doctors about their mood and painful physical symptoms.
The American Psychiatric Foundation is among the physician and advocacy groups sponsoring a new public service campaign to educate Americans about an often underrecognized side of depression: physical pain.

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Advancing the treatment of depression

Doctors may one day use brain-imaging technology to determine whether behavioural therapy or drugs work best for individual patients suffering from depression, according to the results of a new Canadian study.

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Depressed Mind Responds Differently to Different Therapies

Patients who engage in cognitive or "talk" therapy to recover from depression show brain changes that differ from what occurs with drug therapy, new research finds.

The study shows for the first time with imaging evidence that the depressed brain responds differently to different treatments -- and the results may help doctors understand why one treatment works for one patient but not another, says study author Dr. Helen Mayberg. Her report appears in the January issue of the Archives of General Psychiatry.

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