04-11-2007
Major Depression is Major in Occurances as Well
Major Depression
Each year, about 9.9 million American adults suffer from it. That is approximately five percent of the total adult population, give or take a few.
Major depression is unlike the normal feelings of sadness, loss, or passing mood states that most people have. The condition is more persistent and because of that persistence, it could significantly interfere with your thoughts, behavior, mood, activity, and even physical health. According to the World Health Organization (WHO), major depression is set to become the second leading cause of disability in the world, after heart illness.
What are the Symptoms?
The onset of major depression may be gradual so the symptoms are not immediately obvious. However, some of the signs to look out for to determine whether you are suffering from major depression or not include the following:
* Persistently sad mood, or high irritability
* Marked changes in normal habits, including sleep and appetite
* Pronounced changes in energy; often low energy almost daily
* Feelings of being slowed down or agitation
* Loss of interest in previously pleasurable activities
* Persistent feelings of guilt, worthlessness, hopelessness, and emptiness
* Recurrent thoughts of death or suicide
* Persistent physical symptoms like headaches, digestive disorders, and chronic pain with no known cause and do not respond to treatment
If you experience several of these symptoms of major depression and they occur at the same time for approximately longer than two weeks, and in such a way that they interfere with ordinary functioning, then do not hesitate to ask for professional treatment.
What are the Causes?
The causes of major depression are varied and the events that led to the development of the condition are sometimes too numerous to pinpoint a single one as the definitive cause. There are usually many factors involved physical, biological, and even environmental factors all play a role.
According to scientific research, however, major depression is primarily a brain disorder. The problem could be traced back to three chemicals or neurotransmitters, which serve as messengers that transmit electric signals between brain cells. These are norepinephrine, serotonin, and dopamine.
A person suffering from major depression often exhibits a chemical imbalance between these three neurotransmitters, thus producing a clinical state where depression occurs. In order to compensate for the imbalance, antidepressant drugs are introduced. These drugs work by increasing the availability of neurotransmitters or by changing the sensitivity of the receptors for these chemical messengers.
It is not enough however to treat major depression through psychotherapeutic drugs alone. Some individuals may respond better to cognitive therapy wherein they are given assistance in coping with the problem areas of their lives that contribute to depression. Additionally, persons with major depression may respond to treatment combining both approaches of medication and therapy.
Tags: Depression Treatments, Overcome Depression
May 9th, 2007 at 3:59 pm
A Chemical Imbalance
Neither GlaxoSmithKline or the MHRA can give answers as to what constitutes a proper chemical imbalance of serotonin in the brain - weird because Seroxat is prescribed for this ‘disorder’
The only thing that I can see is that Seroxat actually causes the chemical imbalance rather than rectifies it - A genius piece of marketing by GSK.
Prescribe a drug
Let the patient get hooked on the drug
Play down the risks by producing clinical trial studies beneficial to GSK
Employ ghost writers and patient support groups to back up the benefits of taking Seroxat
Robustly deny Seroxat causes aggression, suicidal tendancies etc
Always settle out of court for any litigation
Infiltrate the Medicines Regulatory Agency with former employees of GSK
Fund the government
Financially secure to research and market more SSRi type drugs
Credit where it is due, the marketing team at GlaxoSmithKline are without doubt highly skilled at manipulating doctors and the general public.
They don’t even klnow how Seroxat works - they are just pleased that it does work. Cases where it hasn’t worked - infact quite the reverse, seem to go unoticed - until the invention of the internet that is.
The MHRA are proud of the Yellow Card system - Why?
It is a completely flawed system and they only act on less than half of the Yellow Card reports.
A more robust system would be for the MHRA to employ a person or persons with a basic grasp of internet seaching. Then, they will see the REAL suffering from the REAL people.
Alas, they have ties to GlaxoSmithKline, namely Alistair Breckenridge and Ian Hudson. If they see GlaxoSmithKline have duped the public then they themselves have been duped by messrs Breckenridge and Hudson and that would cast a serious dark shadow on the MHRA’s integerity.
They (The MHRA) have been investigating GlaxoSmithKline for nigh on four years now - my guess is they are waiting for a ‘busy news day’ until they release their findings. This way the story will be pushed to some small article in the tabloids.
It is utterly shameful of any human being to cause human suffering. Both GlaxoSmithKline and The MHRA have continued to deny Seroxat is harmful in the adult population - forget the clever spin ‘dangerous in young adults’.
GlaxoSmithKline are currently being sued through the courts both here in the UK and in the United States. It now needs a firm of solicitors with huge balls to sue the MHRA. There is enough evidence I’m sure to successfully bring them to trial.
It will happen
Bob
Seroxat Sufferers
http://fiddaman.blogspot.com