Author: The North Shore Practice

Although depression is common during a woman’s transition to menopause, understanding who is at-risk of experiencing major depressive disorder (MDD) during this period of hormonal fluctuation were previously unknown. Now, a new study shows that women who experience multiple traumatic events during childhood or adolescence have a significantly increased risk of depression in the years leading into menopause (known as perimenopause). In particular, women who experienced their first traumatic event in their teens are especially susceptible to depression during perimenopause, even if they had previously never had depression. Conducted by researchers at the Perelman School of Medicine at the University…

FINDINGS: For non-depressed, pregnant women with histories of major depressive disorder, preventive treatment with antidepressants may not necessarily protect against postpartum depression, according to new UCLA research. In addition, asking questions about daily activities — especially work — appears to be an effective screening tool for helping doctors identify women at risk of depression after they have their babies. BACKGROUND: Twenty percent of adult women will experience an episode of major depressive disorder at some point in their lives. Women with a history of depression are particularly vulnerable to depression after they give birth. UCLA researchers recognized that there is…

Past research has suggested that certain proteins, including oligophrenin-1 and Bmal1, play a role in cognitive processes. Recent research focusing on the brains of rats found that these proteins were found in lower amounts in rats that displayed symptoms similar to those in human depression than in rats without these depressive symptoms. This research might eventually help to further explain why cognitive difficulties, such as difficulties with memory, decision making, and concentration, are common in human depression.  *** Depression is associated with sadness, fatigue and a lack of motivation. But people with depression can also have trouble processing information and…

Psoriasis is a lifelong disease that is associated with significant cosmetic and physical disability and puts patients at increased risk for many major medical disorders. A multidisciplinary team of researchers at the University of Calgary, Canada, have found that psoriasis patients who developed depression were at a 37% greater risk of subsequently developing psoriatic arthritis, compared with psoriasis patients who did not develop depression. Their findings are published in the Journal of Investigative Dermatology. Psoriasis is a long-lasting inflammatory skin disease. Approximately 8.5% of psoriasis patients have psoriatic arthritis, which is characterized by psoriasis plus inflammation of and around the…

Moms may be notorious worriers, but babies of anxious mothers may also spend more time focusing on threats in their environment, according to a team of researchers. In a study, researchers used eye-tracking technology to measure how long babies spent looking at happy, neutral and angry faces. They found that the babies with anxious moms had a harder time looking away from an angry face — which they could view as a threat — than babies whose moms were not anxious. Koraly Pérez-Edgar, professor of psychology at Penn State, said the findings — recently published in the journal Emotion –…

University of Alabama at Birmingham neurobiologist Lynn Dobrunz, Ph.D., has discovered a novel mechanism for how stress-induced anxiety — the type of experience that can produce post-traumatic stress disorder, or PTSD — affects circuit function in the hippocampus, the area of the brain where aversive memories are formed. These studies by Dobrunz and colleagues fill an important gap in knowledge between the molecular, circuit and behavioral effects of the brain-signaling molecule called neuropeptide Y. Their findings, published in the Journal of Neuroscience, could pave the way for new therapeutic targets to increase neuropeptide Y release in the appropriate brain pathway…

The prevalence of smoking has remained fairly stable over the past decade after declining sharply for many years. To determine whether an increase in certain barriers to successful cessation and sustained abstinence may be contributing to this slowed decline, researchers at Columbia University’s Mailman School of Public Health analyzed changes in the prevalence of depression among current, former and never smokers in the U.S. The team found that depression appeared to have significantly increased in the U.S. from 2005 to 2013 among smokers, as well as among former and never smokers. While the prevalence of depression is consistently highest among…

Currently, more than 34 million people in the U.S. care for terminally ill love ones, but few resources are available to help them navigate the challenges they encounter. A study at the University of Missouri School of Medicine found that nearly one-quarter of caregivers were moderately or severely depressed and nearly one-third had moderate or severe anxiety. The researchers recommend that health providers remember to treat the whole family, providing ongoing screening to family caregivers to identify early signs of depression and anxiety.  “While some sadness and worry are expected components of caring for a dying family member or loved…

Research shows that having a strong sense of coherence and good coping skills- can help women facing adversity to overcome anxiety. The work found that women encountering difficult circumstances, such as living in a deprived community, who reported good coping skills did not have anxiety. However, women living in deprived communities but without these coping skills were at high risk of suffering from anxiety. This work, presented at the ECNP Conference, is the largest study ever conducted on coping and the anxiety that arises from facing adverse circumstances, such as living in deprivation. This study opens the possibility that teaching…

With age comes a greater risk of depression, especially in women. With 15% of the female population in the US being 65 or older, and the number expected to double in the next 50 years, there is a major focus on age-related disorders, including depression. A new study published in Menopause, the journal of The North American Menopause Society (NAMS), documents an association between hot flashes and a greater risk of depression. Although previous studies have shown an association between hot flashes and depressive symptoms, this new study specifically looked at the impact of hot flashes, along with a number…