Thursday, January 19, 2017

Depression Webinar


Why is there depression?

Some evolutionary theories of depression:

  • protection from neg outcomes
  • physic pain (analogous to body pain)
  • a way of changing one's own environment
  • protection from infections
  • focus cognitions
Symptoms:

  • depressed mood of the day, nearly every day
  • markedly diminished interest/pleasure in things
  • significant weight loss or weight gin
  • insomnia or hypersomnia nearly every day
  • agitation
  • fatigue or loss of energy nearly every day
  • diminished ability to think or concentrate
  • recurrent thoughts of death (could be contemplating suicide) 
  • significant distress or impairment in social, occupational or other important areas 
How common is it?
  • past year prevalence of depression in adults is 10-17%
  • adolescents with major depression are up to 30 times more likely to die of suicide
  • in its severe form, it affects about 9% of adolescents
  • second leading cause of years lived in disability 
  • 30-50% of the liability to depression is due to genetic factors 
This is a graph showing the aetiology of depression:



  • 40% of depressed young adults have had disruptive problems during development 
- Negative bias and missing the positive in life affects a person's mood tremendously
--> this can be shown in the development of the brain

Depression Diagnosis:
  • presence of manic systems
  • underlying medical causes (e.g. anemia, thyroid disease)
  • risk assessment!
Treatment:
  • therapists may be beneficial 
  • about 60% of young people respond to an antidepressants 
  • about 50% also respond to placebo]
placebo: a harmless pill, medicine, or procedure prescribed more for the psychological benefit to the patient than for any physiological effect
  • anti depressants offer a good risk benefit ratio:
Numbers needed to treat (NNT): 10
Numbers needed to harm (NNH): 112

  • women are more vulnerable to depression than men

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