Depression is a common problem in older adults with some data suggesting significant symptoms are present in over 40% of nursing home residents (Teresi, 2001). Clearly physical exercise has a number of benefits particularly with regards to cardiovascular health. Some of you may remember the Mental Elf blog back in September 2012 with positive results from [read the full story…]
The prevalence of autistic spectrum disorders has risen dramatically in the last thirty years, with recent estimates suggesting that 1 in 88 children in the United States have an autistic spectrum disorder. This increasing prevalence could simply be due to changes in the diagnosis of such disorders and so be of little interest. However, there [read the full story…]
People with serious mental illness have mortality rates 2-3 times as high as the general population. The primary cause of death is cardiovascular disease, which in turn is due to an extremely high prevalence of obesity (twice that of the overall population). Physical inactivity, unhealthy diets, and weight gain from psychotropic medication are all factors [read the full story…]
The NICE guideline for depression in children and young people was published way back in September 2005. Any elf worth his salt will tell you that a whole heap of evidence has been published since then, so it’s good to see an evidence update appear this week from NICE, which brings together research published from 17th [read the full story…]
There is a widespread clinical presumption that people who have both major depressive disorder (MDD) and a co-morbid chronic physical illness represent a ‘double trouble’ group. This leads to the expectation that the depression prognosis for these people would be poor with increasing likelihood of recurrence. Evidence supports the view that depression is prevalent among [read the full story…]
When trying to understand more about about mental health problems one of the big questions is: are the results of a study due to how the person is currently feeling or are the results due to a predisposition to how they are feeling now? While often the answer will be a bit of both, researchers [read the full story…]
Major depression all too often develops a chronic course, with every episode making future relapse more likely (Gilmer et al., 2005). Dysthymic disorders represent a less severe, but more persistent form of depression lasting for at least two years. In the affective disorder spectrum, chronic forms are unsurprisingly associated with greater functional impairment and overall [read the full story…]
This blog is coming across the woodland in stereo as the Diabetes and Mental Elf join forces. In 2011 the Diabetes Elf highlighted Depression and Diabetes: a two way street? a systematic review looking at cause and effect of diabetes and depression and the link between diabetes and cardiovascular disease is not contested. However moving forward [read the full story…]
Clinical depression is unfortunately relatively common in adolescence with a prevalence of about 5%. The rates of suicide per 100,000 are around 12.0 for females and 14.2 for males aged 15-24 years with suicidality (thoughts or uncompleted attempts at suicide) likely to be higher. Research and clinical experience suggests issues relating to suicide and depression [read the full story…]
One of the first lectures I attended at Medical School was an introduction to the “nature vs. nurture” debate. I recall the general consensus was a bit of both, however it wasn’t until many years later and well into my public health career that I began to see the value of this perspective in improving [read the full story…]
