Shock therapy used for depression touted as miracle?

Does this work for some? Sure. To say that it is some kind of miracle, leaving the impression it should be widely used again is not a good thing. The doctor even said he had to paralyze the patient to make sure she didn't hurt herself when her body reacted to the shocks. Let's hope rest of the blog world question this instead of just spreading the news. The last thing veterans need is to have this done on them again.

'Miracle' Treatment for Woman Battling Back From Depression
A local woman tells of a treatment that turned her life around.
Reporter: Rachelle Baillon

Posted Monday, July 11, 2011

MADISON--" I kept overdosing, medications just didn't really work for my depression and my post traumatic stress disorder," said Ava Martinez. "The last time i overdosed it was pretty significant overdose, I was unconscious for a couple days."

Martinez spent decades fighting crippling depression. But a few years ago she finally found a treatment that worked for her. "It's helped with my depression so much a year and a half ago I went off of Social Security disability," she said. "I'm working full time now."

Her new treatment is actually very old. It's called ECT.

"ECT is a treatment modality for treatment resistant depression that has been around for almost a hundred years now," said Dr. Tyler Rickers.
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Miracle Treatment for Woman Battling Back From Depression

The New Gulf War, depression

When we feel as if we wait for what we want, we feel in power of changing today with hope. When we believe that if we do a good job and work hard, we can hold our heads up high. The problem comes when we are at the mercy of others. In this case, BP.

The people living and working in the Gulf did nothing wrong to cause this to happen to them. This was totally out of their control, but they are left to suffer for what other people decided to do. There is very little hope for them of this getting better until BP stops the oil from escaping into the Gulf. Once they know that is done, then their outlook on the next day will change but the bigger problem comes as the days go on. Mental health help will ease some of the stress but without real change in their lives, their depression may last a long time.

Faced with oil spill, Gulf residents fight mental pain


By Agence France-Presse
Thursday, July 22nd, 2010 -- 2:29 pm


With the Gulf oil spill destroying livelihoods across southern Louisiana, anxiety over an uncertain future is prompting a desperate rise in depression, health officials and residents warn.

"This whole area is gonna die," cried fifth-generation fisherwoman Darla Brooks in an interview Wednesday with AFP, in the small fishing-based town of Buras.

"Down here, we have oil and we have fishing. We are water people. Everything we do involves the sea, and the spill has taken it all away from us," she said.

Brooks, 37, who grew up on the Gulf of Mexico being taught how to fish and shrimp by her father, lamented the loss of a way of life -- and being deprived of teaching a five-year-old grandson how to be fish boat captain just like her.

"I'm angry, I'm frustrated. I've been contemplating suicide to the point of making myself a hangman's noose; honest to God. Then I decided that's not going to do anything, apart from shut me up," she said, promising not to cry anymore.
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Gulf residents fight mental pain

Record suicide rates highest with jobless, middle-aged

Record suicide rates highest with jobless, middle-aged
By Chris Bergeron/Daily News staff
The MetroWest Daily News
Posted Jul 19, 2010 @ 12:00 AM
Over the last year a "record breaking" number of people, including more middle-aged men and women, called the Samaritans suicide prevention hot line, a trend site director Eileen Davis attributes to the current recession.

She said the Framingham and Boston centers of Samaritans Inc. fielded 132,000 calls between July 2009 and June 2010, up from 119,000 calls over the same period the prior year. Davis said the "biggest age group of callers" was men and women from 45 to 54 years old.

"Sadly, we're seeing definite increases in all age groups. But we believe we're getting more calls from people in their 40s and 50s who've been most affected by the downturn in jobs, housing and medical coverage," she said.

Davis' observation echoes a recent report by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention that men and women between 45 and 54 years old have the highest suicide rates in the country among nine different age groups.

Titled " U.S.A. Suicide: 2007 Official Final Data," the CDC report documents a steady increase in suicides for 45- to 54-year-old men and women over a 10-year-period. In 2007, the last year in which national data was available, 17.7 people out of 100,000 in that age group committed suicide.
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Record suicide rates highest with jobless middle aged

Antidepressant use doubles in U.S., study finds

Antidepressant use doubles in U.S., study finds
1 in 10 are taking medication to improve mood, fewer going to talk therapy
By Maggie Fox

updated 4:44 p.m. ET, Mon., Aug 3, 2009
WASHINGTON - Use of antidepressant drugs in the United States doubled between 1996 and 2005, probably because of a mix of factors, researchers reported on Monday.

About 6 percent of people were prescribed an antidepressant in 1996 — 13 million people. This rose to more than 10 percent or 27 million people by 2005, the researchers found.

"Significant increases in antidepressant use were evident across all sociodemographic groups examined, except African Americans," Dr. Mark Olfson of Columbia University in New York and Steven Marcus of the University of Pennsylvania in Philadelphia wrote in the Archives of General Psychiatry.
read more here
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/32274077/ns/health-mental_health/

Mental trouble is no less real

Mental trouble is no less real
By Mark M. Rasenick
August 2, 2009
Men and women serving in our armed forces are returning home with not only broken bodies, but broken brains. According to a recent Pentagon health survey, 31 percent of Marines, 38 percent of Army soldiers and 49 percent of National Guard members suffered from anger, depression or alcohol abuse after they came home from the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq.

The Army recently announced that it will fund the largest study ever undertaken about suicide and the mental health of military personnel.

Researchers will try to identify the risks and the factors that may protect soldiers from mental health problems.

The problems in the military cut across the entire U.S. population. According to the National Institute for Mental Health, suicide is the fourth leading cause of death among 25- to 44-year-olds in the U.S. Depression impairs 15 million Americans each year. That's more people than are affected by cancer, AIDS or coronary heart disease. Women are twice as likely as men to suffer from depression.
read more here
Mental trouble is no less real

LAPD officer awarded $3.1 million by jury in retaliation case

LAPD officer awarded $3.1 million by jury in retaliation case
Robert Hill, a 25-year veteran, said superiors retaliated against him after he reported that a sergeant used racial epithets and may have been involved in embezzlement. Jurors vote 11-1 in his favor.
By Victoria Kim, Los Angeles Times Staff Writer
September 23, 2008

A Los Angeles jury Monday awarded $3.1 million to a Los Angeles police officer who said he was retaliated against for reporting that his superior used racial epithets and might have been involved in embezzlement of department funds.

Robert Hill, a 25-year veteran of the department, said he was called a "rat" and moved to an inferior assignment at a less desirable division after he reported that Sgt. Gilbert Curtis used racial slurs -- "wetbacks," for instance -- and made derogatory statements including, "If God loved them, why did he make them black?"


The officer had also raised concerns that Curtis might have been stealing funds from the department's Youth Explorer Program. Curtis, who according to an LAPD roster is Latino, could not immediately be reached for comment.

Hill, who is white, alleged in court papers that he was told by superiors to drop the complaint against the sergeant if he wanted to save his job.

Gregory Smith, Hill's attorney, told jurors in the trial that Hill suffered from depression after his superiors "cooked up this scheme" to punish him for violating a "code of silence" that existed within the department.
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Memory loss haunts injured Iraq War veteran

Memory loss haunts injured Iraq War veteran


By TUCKER McQUEEN
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution

Published on: 08/10/08

Scott MacKenzie recalls little of his past. His parents remember every detail.

The young Marine corporal relies on Robert and Nan MacKenzie to fill in the gaps in his memory. His mother made a scrapbook of baby pictures and tells him about his childhood. Bits and pieces come back, he said, in a slide show of flashbacks.

"I remember my younger sister Savannah was born at 6:29 p.m. and weighed 6 pounds 3 ounces, " he said at his Canton home on a recent furlough. "But I met someone I grew up with and I didn't know his name."

MacKenzie, 23, will retire from the Marines this month with 40 percent disability.

Two years ago in October, he was injured by a roadside bomb in Iraq. A traumatic brain injury wiped away memories of his high school graduation, boot camp and the trip to Iraq.

Six weeks into his tour, he was on foot patrol when an explosion threw him into the air. The lieutenant walking next to him lost both legs.

MacKenzie had three surgeries to repair a fractured jaw and shrapnel injuries.

"When I woke up, I didn't know my last name, my rank or what a square was," he said.

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Obituary of Lt. Col. Donald P. Christy USAF

Obit Reveals: Ex-Commander in Iraq Dies -- Suffering from 'Depression'

Greg Mitchell


Editor & Publisher

May 02, 2008

April 30, 2008, New York - Even after so many tragic final chapters in the lives of so many U.S. military personnel in Iraq or veterans back home, the brutally frank opening line in a newspaper obituary from five days ago seemed particularly haunting: "Donald P. Christy, Lt. Col, USAF, passed away April 21, 2008 in Colorado Springs after an extended bout of anxiety and depression."

Further on, the obit mentioned that in 2004 "Don served a tour of duty as the Deputy Commander at Baghdad Airport in Iraq."

The little-noted obituary does not reveal how Christy died, or exactly why.

go here for more

http://www.veteransforcommonsense.org/ArticleID/10000

Anti-addiction drugs linked to depression

updated 6:04 p.m. EDT, Wed April 23, 2008


Anti-addiction drugs linked to depression
Story Highlights
"Super pills" intended to curb addiction by blocking brain's pleasure centers

Research indicates drugs may block too much pleasure, risking depression, suicide

Expert: "The door is closing" on this approach to curbing addiction


CHICAGO, Illinois (AP) -- Two years ago, scientists had high hopes for new pills that would help people quit smoking, lose weight and maybe kick other tough addictions such as alcohol and cocaine.


The so-called "super pills" worked in a novel way, by blocking pleasure centers in the brain that provide the feel-good response from smoking or eating. Now it seems the drugs may block pleasure too well, possibly raising the risk of depression and suicide.

Margaret Bastian of suburban Rochester, New York, was among patients who reported problems with Chantix, a highly touted quit-smoking pill from Pfizer Inc. that has been linked to dozens of reports of suicides and hundreds of suicidal behaviors.

"I started to get severely depressed and just going down into that hole ... the one you can't crawl out of," said Bastian, whose doctor took her off Chantix after she swallowed too many sleeping pills and other medicines one night.

Side effects also plague two other drugs:

• Rimonabant, an obesity pill sold as Acomplia in Europe, was tied to higher rates of depression and a suicide in a study last month. The maker, Sanofi-Aventis SA, still hopes to win its approval in the United States.

• Taranabant, a similar pill in late-stage testing, led to higher rates of depression and other side effects in a study last month. Its maker, Merck & Co., stopped testing it at middle and high doses.

The makers of the new drugs insist they are safe, although perhaps not for everyone, such as people with a history of depression. Having to restrict the drugs' use would be a big setback because it would deprive the very people who need help the most, since addictions and depression often go hand-in-hand, doctors say.

go here for more
http://www.cnn.com/2008/HEALTH/04/23/super.pills.ap/index.html

Brain study in depression shows reward painful

Depressed brain shows conflict with reward


Published: March 26, 2008 at 7:52 PM

STANFORD, Calif., March 26 (UPI) -- Some forms of depression may be experienced not as the absence of pleasure but as the presence of emotional pain or disappointment, U.S. researchers said.

Researchers at Stanford University in California recruited both depressed and non-depressed volunteers to undergo brain scans, using functional magnetic resonance imaging, while they participated in an activity in which they won and lost money.

First author Dr. Brian Knutson said when study participants anticipated winning money, both depressed and non-depressed people showed neural activation in the nucleus accumbens, a region implicated in the anticipation of reward.
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Army imports suicide prevention program from Europe

Army imports suicide prevention program from Europe

Published: Thursday, March 20, 2008 10:50 AM CDT
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Sarah Maxwell, U.S. Army Center for Health Promotion and Preventive Medicine

FORT DETRICK, Md. - In an effort to keep Soldiers and their family members spiritually, emotionally and mentally fit, the Suicide Prevention Task Force process developed in Europe is being implemented at some Army installations in the continental United States.

U.S. Army Center for Health Promotion and Prevention Medicine Europe representatives briefed military medical professionals on their SPTF efforts at installations across Europe during a presentation last summer at CHPPM's annual Force Health Protection Conference. Since then, CHPPM is replicating the process at Fort Lewis, Wash., and other CONUS sites to be determined.


The process is not intended to replace the current Army G-1 Suicide Prevention Program - it is intended to focus on prevention strategies. The strategies pull together existing installation resources that address personal issues such as mental health, relationships, finances - issues that are known to contribute to suicidal thinking.

"The Army already has a suicide intervention model established - that's not what we are focused on," said Kym Ocasio chief of health promotion and wellness at CHPPM West, Fort Lewis, and one of the developers of the process.

"As well, the Army already has a lot of great health and wellness programs. We don't think brand new ones need to be developed, but we need to standardize what we already have," she added.



In addition to standardization, Ocasio and the other health promotion coordinators at CHPPM Europe wanted to move the focus away from the act of suicide to those interventions that may stop people from taking their own lives.

"We believe the SPTF needs to focus on the word 'prevention,' which is about more than reviewing suicide statistics. We look at things like dealing with depression and loneliness, stress management and the many factors that influence behaviors before a person considers suicide," she emphasized. "The SPTF looks at what resources are available, how they are accessed, and how they are marketed and integrated within the community."
go here for the rest
http://www.ftleavenworthlamp.com/articles/2008/03/20/dod_news/dod6.txt

Vicki Van Meter, set flying records at 11, 12 kills self at 26

March 18, 2008, 4:11PM
Woman who set flying records at 11, 12 kills self at 26


By RAMIT PLUSHNICK-MASTI
Associated Press


PITTSBURGH — Vicki Van Meter, who made headlines in the 1990s for piloting a plane across the country at age 11 and from the U.S. to Europe at age 12, has died, an apparent suicide. She was 26.

Van Meter died Saturday of an apparently self-inflicted gunshot wound, the Crawford County coroner said. Her body was found in her Meadville home on Sunday.

Her brother said she battled depression, but her family thought she had been dealing with her problems.

"She was unhappy, but it was hard for her to open up about that and we all thought that she was coping," Daniel Van Meter said. He said she had opposed taking medication.

Van Meter was celebrated in 1993 and 1994 when she made her cross-country and trans-Atlantic flights accompanied only by a flight instructor. Her instructors said she was at the controls during the entirety of both trips.

"If you put your mind to it, you can accomplish anything," Van Meter said before her second trip. In her teens, she said she hoped to become an astronaut when she grew up.
go here for the rest
http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/front/5630173.html

Veterans Helping Hands Give Help to PTSD Veterans

Reporter: Andrew Del Greco
Local Soldiers Can Find Help For Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder

Posted: Jan 31, 2008 11:37 PM EST


According to the U.S. Army, suicides among active-duty soldiers in 2007 hit the highest level since the Army began keeping track in 1980.

The president of "Veterans Helping Hands" says many of our soldiers come back home with Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder. He says he wants them to know they're not alone in any feelings of depression, and that there is help available.

These are numbers from the U.S. Army: In 2007, 121 soldiers took their own lives, which is an increase of about 20% over 2006. Also in 2007, about 2,100 soldiers attempted suicide. In 2002, prior to the Iraq war, that number was 350. Jerry Schmidt and others helps veterans and their widows file claims with the V.A. and get benefits and other services.

He says the soldiers' Post-Tramautic Stress Disorder stems from the horrors of warfare that many of us will never know. And there are 'new' horrors in Iraq where suicide bombs explode suddenly and kill innocent people.

Schmidt says in East Idaho, there should be more psychiatrists or pyschologists trained in military P.T.S.D., with just two doctors in Pocatello and one in Idaho Falls. But those kinds of counselors are available for our local soldiers - and veterans like Jerry are available too.
go here for the rest
http://www.kpvi.com/Global/story.asp?S=7806641

Veterans battling PTSD, depression

Veterans battling PTSD, depression

Family members are also affected, in need of services

By Bill Byrd
Times West Virginian

FAIRMONT — A recent survey of West Virginia’s combat veterans of Iraq, Afghanistan and Kosovo suggests that nearly half may have symptoms of post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) and/or depression.

It’s not only the nearly 3,000 of the state’s 6,400 veterans of those conflicts who are affected by PTSD or depression, said Dr. Joseph R. Scotti.

Their spouses or partners and children are also affected, said Scotti, a clinical psychologist who teaches at West Virginia University.

“This represents over 5,000 family members who may be impacted and who may themselves be in need of services,” said Scotti.

“There are effective treatments for PTSD and depression,” but they require a lot of work by the individuals affected, Scotti said.

The first of its kind in the state, the survey will provide a baseline. He hopes it leads to more research and that more ways to provide outreach, counseling and assistance for the state’s veterans are developed soon.

A psychology professor for 18 years, Scotti has worked with a number of trauma survivors, including persons who have been in bad car wrecks and industrial accidents. He also has worked with veterans of World War II, Korea and Vietnam who have PTSD and depression.

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PTSD and depression hits home for veterans

A Pentagon report that appeared in the Journal of the American Medical Association confirmed that 17 percent of soldiers return home with signs of post-traumatic stress disorder, depression or other situations that involve relating to nonveterans. The study of 88,000 veterans showed that percentage to nearly double six months later.

"Some of them come through, and they don’t start realizing that they have changed because of some situation, or until they have been home for a number of months," Bayer said. "It’s something the government is very aware of."

In Wisconsin, the problem may be even worse because, Bayer said, most new veterans are with the National Guard, a specific high-risk group according to the study.
About 42 percent of Guard members and reserves were identified as needing mental health treatment.

Depression hits home for veterans
BY ROGER ANDERSON
Journal Times
Saturday, December 29, 2007 11:00 PM CST



Quinn Copeland never thought the day his platoon gathered to take its first picture would turn out to be one of the roughest days of his life. He also didn’t expect to find himself living on unemployment six years after enlisting in the Army.



Between Sept. 11, 2001 (when the picture was taken) and today, Copeland has drilled at multiple bases, trained in Kuwait and served in Iraq.



He’s also earned a bachelor’s degree and found himself without a job, a scenario thousands of U.S. veterans face every day.



Steven Bardouche applied to the University of Wisconsin-Parkside six months before he finished his four years of active duty with the Marine Corps. Having finished his first semester, he says he’s among only two of about 30 close friends who served with him who are now going to school.



Both men agree that the transition back to civilian life has been a difficult journey. And while they count on the future being brighter, the present is one of questions.



"I expect it to be easier, but I don’t really know," Bardouche said. "I don’t know if it’s going to be a light bulb, or how it’s going to change."
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Warning about Paxil and Seroxat

We really have to wonder if some of the suicides are linked to the medication they are given.

According to a Norwegian study, adults taking the antidepressant drug paroxetine are at a higher risk of attempting to commit suicide than those not taking medication.
In this new analysis, of previous clinical data on paroxetine use, the antidepressant is added to the list of Selective Serotonin Reuptake Inhibitors (SSRIs) that have been shown to increase suicidal tendencies in adult patients with depression.

In their study Ivar Aursnes and colleagues from the University of Oslo, Norway, re-examined data from 16 selected paroxetine trials, in which patients diagnosed with depression had been randomly given either paroxetine or a placebo drug.

Neither the participants nor the researchers conducting the initial studies knew what the participants had been given.

Aursnes and his team did a statistical analysis of the results of these studies, in order to evaluate the incidence of suicide attempts in both groups.

Their work took into account the amount of time the participants had been exposed to paroxetine, and their results discovered that there were seven suicide attempts in the group on paroxetine, but only one among the patients on the placebo.

Although it is recognised that Paroxetine can increase suicidal attempt rates in children and teenagers, previous studies have failed to reach a conclusion regarding the effects of the drug on suicide attempt rates in adult patients.

Way back in February this year, David Gunnell of Bristol University and colleagues, warned doctors about an increased risk of suicidal behaviour in patients treated with SSRIs.
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Paroxetine (Paxil, Seroxat) is a selective serotonin reuptake inhibitor (SSRI) antidepressant. It was released in 1992 by the pharmaceutical company GlaxoSmithKline. In 2006 it was the fifth-most prescribed antidepressant in the United States retail market, with more than 19.7 million prescriptions.[1] The prescription of this drug is controversial because of side effects such as suicidal ideation and withdrawal syndrome which have resulted in legal proceedings against the manufacturer.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paroxetine

Depression linked to events and genetic causes

Genes and life events predict depression (August 6, 2007) --
GRANADA, Spain, Aug. 6 (UPI) -- A group of Spanish scientists has identified a specific combination of genetic and environmental factors that lead to the onset of depression.

A single variation in a gene controlling the transport of the neurotransmitter serotonin, combined with exposure to threatening life events, led to clinical depression in their patient sample.
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Brain blood flow helps treat depression (August 13, 2007) -- Israeli scientists have confirmed the usefulness of established molecular imaging approaches in the treatment of depression. Individuals in a ... > full story
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Depression may be over diagnosed, say some (August 17, 2007) -- Two Australian psychiatrists disagree on whether too many people are being diagnosed with depression. Gordon Parker, of the University of New South ... > full story
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In all three of these, the events cause depression as well as genetics. There is a huge difference between feeling depressed and having clinical depression. There is also a difference between having PTSD and having a genetic mental illness. Post Traumatic Stress Disorder is after trauma and that is where the term came from. It is after trauma.
Kathie Costos

University of Pennsylvania assistant professor thinks depression in PTSD is new?

Depression Taking Toll on Returning U.S. Vets

By E.J. Mundell
HealthDay Reporter
Friday, August 17, 2007; 12:00 AM

FRIDAY, Aug. 17 (HealthDay News) -- Depression may be a largely unrecognized problem for many U.S. soldiers returning from duty in Iraq or Afghanistan, placing a tremendous strain on them and their families, a new study suggests.

Researchers studied the home life of 168 soldiers diagnosed with psychological symptoms upon their return home from deployment. Nearly half -- 42 percent -- of these veterans said they now felt like a "guest in their own home," and one in five felt their children did not respond warmly to them, or were even afraid of them.


In many of these cases, depression or another psychological problem, post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), played a major role, the researchers said.

The PTSD finding has been observed in other studies, but the link between returning veterans' depression and family trouble is new, experts said. (Bull! Read below for this part)

"It seems like other kinds of mental health issues, besides PTSD, are also resulting in family problems," said lead researcher Steven Sayers, an assistant professor of psychology in psychiatry and medicine at the University of Pennsylvania.

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Depression is new according to the experts? Who the hell are the "experts" saying depression in PTSD wounded is new? Ask any Vietnam Veteran with PTSD and they will tell you that it has always been that way. Ask any wife/spouse and they will tell you it has always been a part of the life of PTSD. It is not new. Family problems are not new either. The average PTSD vet gets divorced many times. The stress of PTSD in a family is very hard to live with. Add in the self-medicating and you have a time bomb. I should know that depression is not new at all. Do these "experts" ever read the signs of PTSD before they open their mouths? Where do they get these people to interview from anyway?

I'm really surprised this came out of the Washington Post after all the great reporting they have done on PTSD up until now. I just hope they return to asking the people living with it what the truth is and what a "expert" claims it is.

Kathie Costos