24. Depression called "the cancer of the 21st Century"

By Tom O'Connell

The Journal published by the Centre for Addiction and Mental Health in Toronto includes some fascinating research on the subject of depression in its May/June 2000 issue. Apparently, this is a subject whose time has come. The following excerpts from the Journal of Addiction and Mental Health are included for your consideration. 

*DEPRESSION TAKES PROMINENCE ON THE GLOBAL AGENDA: This past winter, delegates to the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland were urged by U.S. and Hong Kong mental health specialists to direct more funds toward depression research. Portrayed as the "cancer of the 21st Century," depression already costs corporations, and entire nations, substantial losses due to treatment expense and reduced productivity. Depression is known to affect about one in five individuals worldwide, in both developing and developed countries.

*SUICIDE, MENTAL ILLNESS, AND ADDICTION LINKED: Statistics Canada reports that 3,500 Canadians committed suicide last year, while statistics from the United States, Sweden, Finland and the United Kingdom indicate that some 90 percent of people who commit suicide suffer from mental illness or addiction.

*MIGRAINE AND DEPRESSION MAY HAVE COMMON CAUSE: Major depression is three times more common among those who suffer from migraine or severe headaches than among the general population. In a Detroit study at the Henry Ford Health System, 1,287 subjects were interviewed: 536 with migraines, 162 with severe headaches, and 586  controls. The researchers found the lifetime prevalance of major depression to be 41 percent among migraine sufferers, 36 percent among those with severe headaches, and 16 percent among the control group....severe headaches predicted depression but were not predicted by depression. In other words, the depression was due to the effects of the headache. --Neurology, January 2000

*LOOK ON THE BRIGHT SIDE TO AVOID DEPRESSION: Instilling feelings of optimism in children may prevent them from experiencing depression, according to researchers at the University of Pennsylvania. Using an experimental intervention strategy based on writings from Martin Seligman's "The Optimistic Child," counselors teach depression-prone children in Grades 5 and 6 to not be so hard on themselves for events which are beyond their control. Children who go through the program are found to experience 50 percent less depression than those who do not. Work at the University of Pennsylvania has led researchers to propose that low levels of optimism may not be a symptom, but a cause of depression.

*CANADIAN MILITARY RECOGNIZES PTSD AS A DISABILITY: Canadian veterans suffering from postraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) now qualify to receive financial and health-care benefits. After its first update since being drawn in 1919, the Veterans Affairs table of disabilities will now contain a section covering stress and anxiety disorders, under which PTSD falls. The announcement may be of relief to Canadians who served in Croatia during the early 1990s and who have, since returning, reported symptoms as diverse as unexplained bleeding and blindness.

*CIGARETTE GIRLS DESCRIBED AS "ANGELS OF DEATH": The cigarette girl has returned. In an attempt to skirt the near total ban on tobacco advertising in Australia, cigarette companies have started using cigarette girls in Sydney's trendiest night clubs, according to Marketing Magazine. Labeled "angels of death" by those in the anti-smoking movement, the scantily clad girls circulate through bars offering half-priced cigarettes....Cigarette boys are also used to promote cigarettes but in predominantly gay venues.  

NOTE: According to Sheila Lacroix at The Journal, "The Canadian Network for Mood and Anxiety Treatments (CANMAT)'s Website (www.canmat.org) is an amazing resource for both the public and professionals." Go there to increase your understanding of mood and anxiety disorders and obtain information you can use. It even includes an Am I Clinically Depressed questionnaire.

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