News
Treating Depression with Electroconvulsive Therapy (ECT)
Electroconvulsive Therapy (ECT) is an effective treatment for severe depression. Click on the following links to watch a video on ECT from the January 25, 2012 episode of "The Dr. Oz Show". http://www.doctoroz.com/videos/inside-shock-therapy-treatment-pt-1 http://www.doctoroz.com/videos/inside-shock-therapy-treatment-pt-2
Small Study: Depression Symptoms May Be Common In Patients With Schizophrenia.
MedWire (2/3, Cowen) reports, "Clinically relevant symptoms of depression are common in schizophrenia patients who have not been diagnosed with the mood disorder," according to a study published in the February issue of the journal Comprehensive Psychiatry. Researchers arrived at this conclusion after using "the Calgary Depression Scale for Schizophrenia (CDSS) to assess the prevalence of depression among 90 stable outpatients with schizophrenia, schizoaffective disorder, or schizophreniform disorder who were aged 18-50 years," then evaluating all patients with "the Positive and Negative Syndrome Scale (PANSS), the Scale for the Assessment of Negative Symptoms (SANS), the Scale to Assess Unawareness of Mental Disorder (SUMD), and the Barnes Akathisia Rating Scale (BARS)." SOURCE: APA Headlines)
Ketamine May Help Treat Resistant Depression.
In continuing coverage, ABC World News (2/2, story 9, 2:35, Sawyer) reported that the medication ketamine is now "raising new hope for millions of Americans suffering from depression." ABC News medical editor Richard Besser, MD, explained that a special form of ketamine, "a party drug" also known as Special K, can alleviate depression in "just one dose." Besser pointed out that the majority of medications that "fight depression target serotonin, which acts on just 5% of the connections in the brain. But ketamine acts on a chemical called glutamate, which has ten times as many pathways, rewiring the brain's capacity to feel." (SOURCE: APA Headlines)
Mouse Study: Protein Involved In Alzheimer's Disease May Spread From Cell To Cell.
In continuing coverage, the CBS Evening News (2/2, story 5, 2:10, Pelley) reported, "There's a new clue as to the mystery of how Alzheimer's disease spreads in the brain." CBS News correspondent Jim Axelrod explained, "Brains of people with Alzheimer's contain tangles of a protein called tau. ... Researchers genetically engineered mice with tau in their brains" and found that "as the mice aged, tau spread from cell to cell, destroying them." Study coauthor Karen Duff said, "We are fascinated by the idea it can spread from cell to cell and that allows a whole range of interventions that can catch it as it's leaving one cell into another." Same Genes May Lead To Both Early, Late Alzheimer's. HealthDay (2/3, Dallas) reports, "People who develop Alzheimer's disease late in life may have the same gene mutations linked to the inherited, early onset form of the condition, according to a new study" published in PLoS One. Investigators "analyzed five genes associated with dementia," including genes known to cause early-onset Alzheimer's disease, as well as genes "linked to...frontotemporal dementia." After studying "440 families that had at least four relatives diagnosed with Alzheimer's disease," researchers "found rare variants in Alzheimer's-related genes in 13 percent of the samples analyzed." This study authors suggested that "at least some cases among both early- and late-onset disease have the same causes." (SOURCE: APA Headlines)
Older Men May Be At Greater Risk For MCI Than Women.
The Los Angeles Times (1/26) "Booster Shots" blog reports, "A study suggests that older men may be more vulnerable to developing mild cognitive impairment (MCI) and memory loss compared with women," which was published online Jan. 25 in Neurology. "Researchers studied a group of 1,450 men and women age 70 to 89 who, at the start of the study, had no signs of cognitive problems." Study participants "underwent neurological evaluations at the beginning of the study and at 15-month intervals after that for an average 3.4 years." On its website, ABC News (1/26, Conley) reports, "By the end of the trial, 296 participants had developed MCI." According to the piece, "the memory dysfunction, called mild cognitive impairment, or MCI, is the stage between normal brain aging and dementia." The investigators "found that 7.2 percent of men developed MCI, compared with 5.7 percent of women." HealthDay (1/26, Esposito) reports, "New cases of mild cognitive impairment were consistently higher among men, except in the 85 to 89 age group. Overall, the risk was 40 percent higher for men." Lead author Rosebud Roberts said that "the difference may be due to timing of risk factors for dementia. 'Diseases such as obesity, diabetes and hypertension may occur at an earlier age in men than women.'" "Although Roberts and her colleagues didn't investigate risk factors such as high blood pressure, they did take into account other factors that have been shown to affect MCI risk, such as age, educational attainment, and marital status," CNN (1/26, Gardner) explains. "Incorporating these factors into the data helped the researchers rule out the possibility that sex disparities in MCI and dementia rates are due merely to the fact that women tend to live longer, and are therefore more likely than men to live long enough to develop dementia." Still, "more research will be needed to confirm the findings." BBC News (1/26, Roberts) reports that "more work is now needed to understand if and how men might be somewhat resilient to dementia," the researchers said. Dr. Kenneth Rockwood of Dalhousie University in Canada, wrote in an accompanying editorial, "For some men, MCI represents incomplete disease expression; alternately, they resist dementia development more. MCI in men could lend some insight into what prevented dementia might look like." Also covering the story are the UK's Daily Mail (1/26, Hope) and WebMD (1/26, Mann).(SOURCE: APA Headlines)
Working Long Hours May Increase Depression Risk.
CNN /Health.com (1/26, McMillen) reports, "Working long hours appears to substantially increase a person's risk of becoming depressed, regardless of how stressful the actual work is," according to a study in PLoS ONE. The research "drew upon data from a long-running study, known as Whitehall II, that includes employees from 20 London-based branches of the British civil service" and "found that workers who put in an average of at least 11 hours per day at the office had roughly two and a half times higher odds of developing depression than their colleagues who clocked out after seven or eight hours." Also of note, this "study included face-to-face consultations and used the American Psychiatric Association's official criteria for clinical depression, making it one 'one of the rare studies' to do so," according to researchers. WebMD (1/26, Nierenberg) reports, "A variety of genetic, physical, and emotional factors can make a person vulnerable to depression." Other possible reasons include "long working hours are likely to be related to less time to relax and less sleep" and "it is also possible that excessive working hours result in problems with close relationships, which in turn, may trigger depression," according to researchers.(SOURCE: APA Headlines)
Psilocybin Mushrooms May Help Treat Depression.
Reuters (1/24, Kelland) reports psilocybin, the active ingredient in "magic mushrooms," may help patients with depression according to two separate studies. Bloomberg News (1/24, Kitamura) reports, "In a study published today in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 30 healthy volunteers took psilocybin intravenously and had their brains observed with magnetic resonance imaging scanners" and found that "activity in the medial prefrontal cortex, which is hyperactive in depression, was consistently lowered," according to study researchers David Nutt and Robin Carhart-Harris of Imperial College London. In "a second study, to be published Jan. 26 in the British Journal of Psychiatry and conducted by the same researchers...psilocybin enhanced volunteers' recollections of positive personal memories, compared with those who took a placebo." "Prof Nutt believes that the drug could be used as an antidepressant and has applied to the Medical Research Council to carry out a small patient study to see if this is the case," the BBC News (1/24, Ghosh) adds. But Martin Barnes, chief executive of DrugScope, said, "The research published today does not directly address whether or not magic mushrooms are harmful." He also "cautioned that the recreational or problematic use of drugs should not be conflated with the important issue of researching possible therapeutic or medical benefits that some psychoactive substances may offer." (SOURCE: APA Headlines)
Small Study: Cognitive Activity May Be Linked To Lower Risk Of Amyloid Plaques.
Reuters (1/24, Steenhuysen) reports a study in the Archives of Neurology suggesting that people who actively challenge their brains with activities like games have a lower risk of developing amyloid plaques, which have been linked to Alzheimer's disease (AD). The ABC News (1/24) "Medical Unit" blog reports, "The researchers of this study interviewed 65 healthy people about their reading, writing, and game playing habits throughout their lives starting at age 6. These same adults went through a special brain scanner that can detect amyloid. They found that people who did more reading, writing, and game playing over the course of their lifetime have less" amyloid. The UK's Telegraph (1/24, Adams) reports, "Dr Simon Ridley, head of research at Alzheimer's Research UK, urged caution in leaping to conclusions, however. He said: 'Whilst the study found an association between cognitive activity and the levels of amyloid protein in the brain of healthy elderly volunteers, we cannot conclude that one directly causes the other. It would be important to follow these healthy participants and see whether those that reported higher cognitive activity were less likely to develop Alzheimer's in the long run.'" Also covering the story are the UK's Daily Mail (1/24, Hope) and HealthDay (1/24, Reinberg).(SOURCE: APA Headlines)
Depression May Raise Rehospitalization Risk After Acute MI.
MedWire (1/18, Mahendra) reports, "Depression increases the risk for rehospitalization after acute myocardial infarction (MI)," according to a study published in the journal Circulation: Cardiovascular Quality and Outcomes. After analyzing data on "766 participants from an Enhancing Recovery and Coronary Heart Disease ancillary study who had minor or major depression according to the Depression Interview and Structured Hamilton (DISH) questionnaire," researchers found that "compared with patients who did not have depression, those who had major depression were 2.69-times more likely to be rehospitalized for cardiac reasons, and those with minor depression 1.99-times more likely to be rehospitalized (p<0.001)." (SOURCE: APA Headlines)
Small Study: Overweight Retired Football Players At Greater Risk For Cognitive Problems.
The Los Angeles Times (1/18, Stein) "Booster Shots" blog reports, "Retired football players who are overweight could be at greater risk for cognitive problems compared to normal-weight former players," according to a study published online Jan. 17 in the journal Translational Psychiatry. For the study, "researchers analyzed data in two groups: 38 retired NFL players who were at a healthy weight and 38 retired players who were overweight." Next, "all study participants were given a series of neuropsychological exams that measured such things as information processing speed, reasoning, reaction time and general cognitive function." Participants also underwent single-photon emission computed tomography tests to measure blood flow within the brain itself. Notably, "heavier athletes were more likely to have poorer blood flow in the temporal and prefrontal cortex regions, which are areas of the brain involving attention, reasoning and executive function," HealthDay (1/18, Marcus) reports. "Poorer results on cognitive tests corresponded to poorer blood flow in the higher-weight patients, too," explained study co-author Daniel Amen, MD, medical director of Amen Clinics. "Amen said he was also concerned by the amount of depression reported by the athletes. WebMD (1/18, Warner) points out, "In addition to the obvious risk factors from repetitive concussions in sports, researchers say excess body weight may increase the risk for further neurological problems. For example, obesity increases the release of inflammatory markers associated with impaired brain function." Should the results be "confirmed by further studies, the researchers say weight education and management may be essential to the future health of athletes who have been exposed to repetitive brain trauma in sports." (SOURCE: APA Headlines)
US Government Sets 2025 Treatment Goal For Alzheimer's.
The CBS Evening News (1/17, story 7, 2:55, Pelley) reported, "The Federal government set a goal today of finding an effective treatment for Alzheimer's disease in just 13 years, by 2025. More than five million Americans who are living with Alzheimer's in 2010 and by 2050 it could be as many as 16 million." CBS News medical correspondent Jon LaPook, MD, explained, "The cruel fact is, Alzheimer's patients don't get better. At today's meeting in Washington, government advisors tried to set priorities for a national campaign to treat and manage the disease that is projected to cost more than a trillion dollars by 2050." The plan includes no funding, however. "The Obama administration is developing the first National Alzheimer's Plan to address the medical and social problems of dementia -- not just better treatments but better day-to-day care for dementia patients and their overwhelmed caregivers, too," the AP (1/18) reports. "The plan still is being written, with the advisory panel's input. But a draft of its overall goals sets 2025 as a target date to have effective treatments and ways to delay if not completely prevent the illness." Still, "some advisory members said that's not aggressive enough, and 2020 would be a better target date." HealthDay (1/18, Reinberg) explains, "Over the next two days, the advisory council of experts is meeting in Washington, DC, to review a draft of a plan proposed by the US Department of Health and Human Services. The draft was created in response to the National Alzheimer's Project Act, signed into law one year ago by President Barack Obama." The new "plan will include everything from increased scientific research into causes and treatments for Alzheimer's, to how Medicare would reimburse doctors, and everything in between." Also covering the story is CBS News (1/18, LaPook) on its website. (SOURCE: APA Headlines)
Small Study: DBS May Benefit Patients With BD Or Severe Depression.
On the front of its Personal Journal section, the Wall Street Journal (1/17, D1, Beck, Subscription Publication) reports in "Health Journal" that according to a study published online Jan. 2 in the Archives of General Psychiatry, deep brain stimulation (DBS) may benefit patients with bipolar disorder (BD) or severe depression. In the study of 17 patients with either condition, researchers found that 92% reported substantial relief two years after having DBS performed. The Journal notes that DBS has been used with some success in patients with Parkinson's and epilepsy. The article also points out that approval from the Food and Drug Administration of DBS as a depression treatment is still in the far future. (SOURCE: APA Headlines)
Georgia Psychiatric Physicians Association Honors J. Rex Fuqua with the Distinguished Service Award at their 2011 Summer CME Meeting
J. Rex Fuqua was recognized by the Georgia Psychiatric Physicians Association at the 2011 Summer CME Meeting for his outstanding efforts to positively impact the mental health of Georgians through the "Common Ground" initiative.
J. Rex Fuqua is a businessman who understands community service and mental health. Rex is an accomplished entrepreneur and Chairman and CEO of Fuqua Capital Corporation. He has been extraordinarily successful in business, but to his community he is known as a leader in mental health. Rex has been a determined advocate for the mentally ill in Georgia and nationally for two decades. He has provided both leadership and a vision in developing novel treatments particularly in children and adolescents and promoting legislation to provide a safety net for patients with severe and persistent mental illness.
In Georgia, Rex funded W. Edward Craighead as the first J. Rex Fuqua Professor at Emory University. Dr. Craighead started the Childhood and Adolescent Mood Disorders Program to provide therapy to children at risk for recurrent mood disorders. He has also developed international research with investigators in Reykjavik, Iceland to understand the genesis of childhood mood disorders in the areas of psychological, genetic, environmental and neurobiological components of mood disorders.
Rex has also been a guiding force on the boards of both the Fuqua Center for Late-Life Depression and Skyland Trail and his service on these boards is a level of his commitment to the mental health of Georgians of all ages and a testament to his leadership. He is also a member of the Board of Councilors at Emory University's Carter Center and in that role has promoted legislation to provide for the most disadvantaged patients with mental illness.
On a national level, Rex has convened international experts to Skyland Trail to develop guidelines for the treatment of the severe and persistently mentally ill. He has also been a leader in the National Network of Depression Centers, a network of leading depression centers and academic medical centers, and gave one of the keynote addresses at their recent national conference.
Rex is a trustee emeritus of Duke University, a member of the Board of Visitors of The Fuqua School of Business. He is a trustee and former chairman of the Atlanta Botanical Garden. He serves on the Board of the George West Mental Health Foundation and the Sheridan Arts Foundation. He is an emeritus member of the Board of Overseers of the Terry College of Business at the University of Georgia.
Click Below Link for AJC Article "How to Slow-Down Alzheimer's"
Atlanta Journal-Constitution November 30, 2011
http://www.ajc.com/health/how-to-slow-down-1244750.html
Course Teaches People How To Respond To Psychiatric Emergencies.
On its website and on its "Talk of the Nation" segment, NPR (10/18, Conan) reported, "The Mental Health First Aid program aims to teach people to respond to psychiatric emergencies, from anxiety to eating disorders to psychosis." Bryan Gibb, director of public education at the National Council for Community Behavioral Healthcare, explained that in the 12-hour, two-day "course, we teach people how to look for signs and symptoms that show that maybe something has changed in the person and maybe how to be aware of those and how to respond, ideally as early as possible." Gibb detailed the ALGEE action plan of steps: "Assess for risk of suicide or harm; L, listen non-judgmentally; G, give reassurance and information; E, encourage appropriate professional help; and the second E is encourage self-help and other support strategies." (SOURCE: APA Headlines)
CHASING THE BLUES (EMORY HEALTH Summer 2010)
One in four people over the age of 65 suffers from depression, yet often they don’t realize what is wrong. Symptoms of depression in older adults are frequently attributed to memory problems or the aging process. The mission of Emory's Fuqua Center for Late-Life Depression is to help people understand that depression is NOT a normal part of aging. Click here to read more.
Link to Senior Issues Newsletter Wrap Up Edition of 2011 General Assembly Session from Georgia Council on Aging
To learn more click here or read the Senior Issues Newsletter Wrap Up Edition.
Atlanta Hospital News Pg. 19 | Detecting late-life depression in older adults June 2010
In the Elder Care section, William McDonald, MD, Emory University, says depression can be difficult to diagnose in older persons. Many of the symptoms of depression (e.g., poor sleep, a lack of energy, poor concentration) may be misinterpreted as signs of normal aging. http://www.atlantahospitalnews.com/pdf/AHN_06_10.pdf Atlanta Hospital News Pg. 19 | Detecting late-life depression in older adults
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