Dr. Madhukar Trivedi, the Betty Jo Hay Distinguished Chair in Mental Health at the University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center, offers advice about how you can help your loved one recognize the symptoms of depression and take steps toward improving.
Q. What should I know about depression?
A. Major Depressive Disorder, or MDD, is more than just feeling sad. It is a mood disorder in which feelings of sadness, along with other symptoms, interfere with day-to-day activities for a long period of time. It is widely believed that major depressive disorder is the result of an imbalance of neurotransmitters in the brain, which is believed to influence a person’s mood. Although more than 15 million Americans suffer from MDD each year, the majority of people diagnosed can be effectively treated. Symptoms can include depressed mood, loss of interest or pleasure in daily activities, significant weight loss or gain, insomnia or sleeping too much, psychomotor agitation, fatigue, feelings of worthlessness or guilt, diminished ability to think or concentrate, and recurrent thoughts of death.
Q. How can I suggest to my loved one that they should get help?
A. You can begin by telling your loved one that you’ve noticed a change in them, that you’re concerned and suggest they may consider seeing a medical professional.Talking openly with a professional about their symptoms may help your loved one identify actions they can take, including medication. To help them feel more comfortable before the appointment, you can also help them draft a list of questions to ask. While it may be uncomfortable to bring up concerns about medication or side effects, it is important that your loved one try to establish an open line of communication with his or her healthcare professional. That’s what doctors are here for. The more they know, the better they can help tailor treatment to meet an individual’s needs.
Q. What types of medications are available?
A. There are a number of different antidepressant options available that can help reduce symptoms of depression. VIIBRYD® (vilazodone HCl), which became available in 2011, is the medication most recently approved by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) to treat depression in adults. While the exact way in which VIIBRYD—or any other medication for depression—works is unknown, it is thought to affect the activity of serotonin in the brain. Serotonin is a neurotransmitter known to play a key role in regulating mood.
Q. What else can I do?
A. After you take the first step by approaching your loved one and letting them know you are concerned, you can be a valuable source of support during their treatment. While the best way for friends and family to help a person who’s depressed will vary from patient to patient, just being there to listen when needed can be important. Have patience and understand that treatment takes time.
Depression hurts.
Cymbalta won’t help.
Duane
“I’d love to know how this made it to a Health and Wellness page in Appalachia…”
The department chair is looking into this….
Maybe your loved one just wants you to stop beating them. Or sexually abusing them. Or getting drunk. This “diagnose your loved ones” approach is red meat for predators and abusers. It might be as easy for a man to have his wife/girlfriend committed now than it was before no-fault divorce.
And does anyone ever ask a woman if she’s had a vacation, a three day weekend, or even just a full day off in living memory? If she would like some help to lighten her load? Can I get you anything?
Thankfully, the name “Viibryd” is just so wacky that none of my patients have asked me for it by name yet. Forest Labs must be getting more desperate, trying to get that name out there by any means necessary…
Worried parents are easily co-opted into the system, and when “your loved one” on antidepressants develops mania, s(he) is bipolar with prescriptions for Abilify, Zyprexa, Risperdal… as these drugs “are known to be effective”.
NAMI and the European network EUFAMI have been on the take for years, though forced towards change, as membership wanes and independent voices like 1BOM, Robert Whitaker, Joanna Moncrieff, Wiley, Alostrata, Duane et al are being heard, brewing better politics.
Undoubtedly, this article was offered to newspapers by the public relations department at Forest Labs, and sloppy editors with space to fill used it.
The article also ran in
Nisqually Valley News (Washington) http://yelmonline.com/ara/health_and_wellness/5e0a6d40-6b19-5ba9-8bb4-7c7aabc2c3e9.txt
The Press-Sentinel (Jessup, GA) http://www.thepress-sentinel.com/ara/health_and_wellness/5e0a6d40-6b19-5ba9-8bb4-7c7aabc2c3e9.txt
The Magee Courier (Missouri) http://www.mageecourier-countynews.com/ara/health_and_wellness/5e0a6d40-6b19-5ba9-8bb4-7c7aabc2c3e9.txt
etc.
The similarity of the URLs suggests the article is being served from a central source, probably TownNews.com, a purveyor of content management systems and other “solutions” for local online newspapers.
Alto,
That’s pretty fascinating! None of them say “advertisement.”
Excellent sleuthing…
Now look at Google’s yield!
fyi
http://www.townnews365.com/site/about/
TownNews.com provides state-of-the-art online, publishing and revenue solutions. We work with more than 1,500 news websites, producing more than 1 billion ad impressions, and nearly three quarters of one billion page views monthly. Member newspapers include dailies, weeklies, shoppers and specialty publications from groups and independents in all 50 states and Canada.
http://www.cjr.org/resources/?c=lee
http://www.insidermonkey.com/blog/lee-enterprises-emerging-from-the-shadows-of-bankruptcy-28168/
http://www.pbs.org/mediashift/2008/08/how-outside-firms-like-townnewscom-can-help-small-newspaper-sites218.html
The “important risk information” included looks like what is usually included with an advertisement. Was townnews paid anything by Forest for distributing this?
Annon,
I don’t know the answer but we’re all trying to figure out how to find out. Sevral of us have written UT Southwestern and I wrote the FDA. Any thoughts appreciated.