No Sleep For the Wicked

Well, the insomnia is kicking up again. I swear it has something to do with hormones and/or depression. Probably both! I didn't sleep at all last night. It's killing me. But, I'm still not tired. It's strange. Very strange. Any suggestions would be helpful. I've tried OTC pills, Ambien, and hot tea - not together obviously! - but nothing seems to help! UGH!

TMR

Today's Word of the Day

Main Entry: an·xi·o·lyt·ic
Pronunciation: "a[ng]-zE-O-'li-tik, "a[ng](k)-sE-
Function: noun
Etymology: anxiety + -o- + -lytic
: a drug that relieves anxiety
- anxiolytic adjective

Exercise and Depression

Exercise may help with hard-to-treat depression

Thu Jul 19, 3:35 PM ET

Regular exercise may improve depression symptoms in people who've failed to get better with antidepressant medication, the results of a small study suggest.

The study found that depressed women who started a supervised exercise regimen had significant improvements in their symptoms over the next 8 months. Those who didn't exercise showed only marginal improvements.

Before the study, all of the women had tried taking antidepressant medication for at least two months but had failed to improve.

A number of studies have found that physically active people are less likely than couch potatoes to suffer depression. Some clinical trials have shown regular exercise can help treat the disorder, and perhaps be as effective as antidepressant drugs in some cases.

The new findings suggest that exercise can even help people whose symptoms have been resistant to medication, according to the study authors.

Dr. Alessandra Pilu of the University of Cagliari in Italy and co-investigators report their findings in the online journal of Clinical Practice and Epidemiology in Mental Health.

The study included 30 women ages 40 to 60 who'd been diagnosed with major depression. The researchers randomly assigned the women to either stick with antidepressants alone or to start an exercise program. All of the patients continued to take their medication.

The exercisers worked out as a group twice a week for 1 hour, using cardio-fitness machines. At the beginning of the study and 8 months later, women in both groups completed standard measures used to assess depression severity.

Pilu's team found that women in the exercise group showed marked improvements in their depression symptoms, while those on medication alone made only modest gains.

The findings suggest that exercise could be an effective additional treatment for depression over the long term, the researchers point out.

There are several theories on why exercise might improve depression. Physical activity seems to affect some key nervous system chemicals -- norepinephrine and serotonin -- that are targets of antidepressant drugs, as well as brain neurotrophins, which help protect nerve cells from injury and transmit signals in brain regions related to mood.

Beyond that, people who take group exercise classes may feel better from simply getting out and being with other people.

SOURCE: Clinical Practice and Epidemiology in Mental Health, online July 9, 2007.

Good times, bad times...

Well, kids, it's been a strange month so far. I seem to be having one good day, then one bad day, and so on...I'm not sure why. One minute I'm fine; the next I'm crying. Depression is a strange thing. After 15 years, I'm still not used to the mood swings, the sleep problems, the fatalistic thoughts, etc. You'd think I would be.

TMR

New Antidepressant/Suicide Study

Antidepressants lower the risk of suicide attempt in adults with depression

Medical Studies/Trials

Published: Monday, 9-Jul-2007

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Antidepressants lower the risk of suicide attempt in adults with depression, according to a study published in the July issue of the American Journal of Psychiatry. The researchers also found that the lower risk held true for young adults ages 18 to 25. "The risk of suicide attempt among depressed patients treated with SSRI drugs was about one-third that of patients who were not treated with an SSRI," said the lead author Robert Gibbons, director of the Center for Health Statistics and professor of biostatistics and psychiatry at the University of Illinois at Chicago. "We would not expect a lower risk in this patient population because patients treated with SSRIs are generally more severely depressed and would have a higher risk of suicide attempt." The researchers analyzed medical data of 226,866 patients newly diagnosed with depression in 2003 or 2004 at the Veterans Administration healthcare system. They compared risk of suicide in four age groups (ages 18 to 25; 26 to 45; 46 to 65; and older than 65) before and after treatment with selective serotonin reuptake inhibitor medications, also known as SSRI drugs. All age groups of depressed patients who received selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors -- the most commonly prescribed antidepressant medication -- showed a significantly lower risk of suicide attempt when compared to those who did not receive antidepressant treatment. Among 82,828 patients, there were 183 suicide attempts before treatment with SSRI drugs and 102 suicide attempts after treatment with SSRI drugs (a rate that fell from 221 to 123 per 100,000 after treatment). In 2004, the Food and Drug Administration issued a black box warning suggesting that SSRI drugs increase the risk of suicidal behavior in children and adolescents. An FDA advisory committee recently recommended extending this black box warning to young adults. Gibbons cautions that extending this warning to young adults may further decrease antidepressant treatment of depression and contribute to higher rates of suicide. In previous research, Gibbons reported an inverse relationship between antidepressant prescriptions and the rates of suicide in children and adolescents. Co-authors of the study include Kwan Hur and Dulal Bhaumik, UIC Center for Health Statistics; C. Hendricks Brown, University of South Florida; Sue Marcus, Mount Sinai School of Medicine; and J. John Mann, Columbia University. Funding for the study was provided by the National Institute of Mental Health. UIC ranks among the nation's top 50 universities in federal research funding and is Chicago's largest university with 25,000 students, 12,000 faculty and staff, 15 colleges and the state's major public medical center. A hallmark of the campus is the Great Cities Commitment, through which UIC faculty, students and staff engage with community, corporate, foundation and government partners in hundreds of programs to improve the quality of life in metropolitan areas around the world. http://www.uic.edu

Back by popular demand...

As of July 4th, TAR is open once again to submissions of all kinds. The current submission period will run through September 1st. All submissions received during this time period will be eligible for publication in the Fall 2007 issue. Please read our submission guidelines for more details.

Thanks and take care,
Tracy