Posts Tagged ‘depression’

The University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill is researching the chronic affects of concussions by studying 3,000 ex-NFL players. Concussions can occur in athletes playing any contact sport, even those wearing head protection, and may leave life-long consequences including depression, memory loss and behavioral changes. By using sophisticated imaging techniques that allow them to look down to the level of neurons, researchers noted that players who have had concussions have damaged connections between brain cells. The regions of the brain that appear to be most disrupted in the 41 retired players studied thus far are the same regions which are damaged in early Alzheimer’s disease patients. This may explain why these players experience early cognitive impairment and clinical depression (both are hallmarks of Alzheimer’s disease). In addition, we already know from posthumous studies of athletes’ brains that concussions can pepper the brain with injuries that resemble brown tangles called chronic traumatic encephalopathy (CTE), which can cause the brains of players as young as in the 30s to resemble brains of 80 year-olds with dementia. [via CNN]

Learn more about concussions.

Share your comments here.

A Canadian woman recently lost her health disability insurance benefits over photos of her found on Facebook. Due to a diagnosis of major depression, Nathalie Blanchard was on sick leave from her job at IBM. However, her payments stopped this fall after her insurance agent apparently found several pictures of her in which she appeared to be having fun – at a Chippendales bar show, at her birthday party and on a getaway vacation. However, having depression doesn’t mean you are depressed all the time. Depressed individuals can have fleeting moments of joy, only to return back to their feelings of sadness afterwords. In her own defense, Ms. Blanchard states it was her physician’s advice to try and interject some fun into her life. She is currently working with her lawyer to regain her benefits. [via Yahoo! News]

Visit our Guide To Major Depression.

Share your comments here.

Sleep is important for our mental, emotional and physical well being. Which is why mental disorders, such as depression, often have manifestations of sleep disturbance. However, the results of a University of Michigan study, to be presented at the upcoming World Psychiatric Association meeting, show that the complaint of sleep disturbance is enough to alert physicians that a patient may have a higher risk of suicide, whether or not they have a psychiatric condition. The more types of sleep disturbances people had, the more likely they were to have thoughts of killing themselves, or actually try to do so.

Read more and share your opinion.

A Brown University study of European households finds an association between depression and the presence of mold in the home. The risk for depression increased by about 40 percent among people who lived in moldy homes, said lead research author Edmund D. Shenassa. It is as yet unclear what the relationship between the two is – does mold actually cause depression, or are depressed people more likely to not clean their homes and allow mold to grow? The U.S. government has not established general guidelines for acceptable levels of residential mold. And no study has conclusively linked mold exposure to mental health problems.

Read more and share your opinion.