Depression Information
 
Web World-SuperSite

Adult Men and Women Who Suffer From Chronic Depression


Market surveys on women, men and depression suggest an estimated 4.4 million Americans are believed to suffer from chronic treatment-resistant depression. Depression is a chronic, disabling disorder and a major worldwide public health problem. Depressive episodes usually recur over time, with risk for further episodes proportional to the number of prior episodes. After three major depressive episodes, the probability of recurrence is 90%. In the U.S. alone, approximately 18 million people suffer from depression over six million of which are receiving some form of medical treatment.

Market studies on women, men and depression also estimate that over 100,000 Americans each year are treated with electro convulsive therapy (ECT) for their depression. Roughly 15% of all people with severe depression that require hospitalization commit suicide. Disorders related to men and depression are also very expensive. Depression is ranked as the second leading cause of disability worldwide in 1990. Depression costs in the U.S. alone are estimated to exceed $50 billion annually, including over $12 billion in direct treatment costs. The total market in the U.S. for anti-depressants is estimated to exceed $6 billion.

Several general factors may be linked to women, men and depression but the exact causes of depressive disorders are unknown, although both biological abnormalities and psychological factors are thought to precipitate this disease. Diminished synaptic concentrations of neurotransmitters, especially serotonin and norepinephrine, are implicated in the pathogenesis of depression. Most current standard therapies regarding men and depression are thought to affect either one or both of these neurotransmitter systems (1) SSRI drugs (serotonin-specific reuptake inhibitors) or (2) MAOI drugs (monoamine oxidase inhibitors) that decrease the breakdown of norepinephrine and serotonin. It is of interest to note that several antiepileptic compounds, such as carbamazepine, valproate and lamotrigine, are used as mood stabilizers and that lamotrigine and gabapentin are also used as antidepressants.

There is a new alternative treatment for this debilitating disease. On June 15th, 2004 an FDA Medical Device Advisory Panel recommended approval of the vagus nerve stimulator as a treatment for chronic or treatment-resistant depression. Learn more about this remarkable device at www.VagusNerveStimulator.com.

Charles E. Donovan, III
Author
Out of the Black Hole: The Patient's Guide to Vagus Nerve Stimulation and Depression. Published November 1, 2004 by Wellness Publishers,L.L.C.


MORE RESOURCES:

CEP News

GM shares hit lowest price since Great Depression
BusinessWeek - 19 hours ago
Shares of General Motors Corp. plummeted to a low not seen since the days of the Great Depression as hope that the automakers could receive a financial ...
GM shares soar on news of auto loan compromise BusinessWeek
all 13 news articles


The Big Three Depression risk
CNNMoney.com - 14 hours ago
Some fear a loss of GM, Ford and Chrysler would take US into another depression. Even if that doesn't happen, a major auto failure would clearly hurt. ...
Auto Execs Reset Bailout Pitch; Republicans to Rewrite CAFE for Loans Ward's Auto (subscription)
Ailing automakers plead for $25b in loans Boston Globe (registration)
Live blog: Dodd says committee has many issues to sort through Detroit Free Press
Voice of America - Buffalo News
all 1,623 news articles


Perdue preparing to tackle worst economic mess since Depression
Triangle Business Journal, NC - 29 minutes ago
... has devoured all she has been able to find on O. Max Gardner, the governor who led the Tar Heel State through the deepest part of the Great Depression. ...
Audio: North Carolina Gov.-elect Beverly Perdue Bizjournals.com
NC lawmakers to create offshore drilling committee Forbes
Gov. Gardner made major changes to North Carolina during Depression Triangle Business Journal
all 16 news articles


An Eight-Point Plan to Avoid a Depression
TheStreet.com - 1 hour ago
It will take the Great Depression II off the table once and for all. This must be done now. Today. January is too late. Another depression will not be ...
'Mad Money Lightning Round': Go With Teva Pharmaceutical TheStreet.com
all 46 news articles


Some see a recession, some a depression, but it’s bad all over
Christian Science Monitor, MA - 5 minutes ago
For others, the word “depression” has entered the everyday lexicon. We sorted data from a recent Pew Research Center survey, conducted just before Election ...


Depression-era interviews of 700 Arizonans preserved
Arizona Republic, AZ - 9 hours ago
21, 2008 12:00 AM The Works Progress Administration, a government public-works program started during the Great Depression, didn't just leave Arizona with ...


Arthur Foulkes: The Great Depression is not the place to look for ...
Terre Haute Tribune Star, IN - 7 hours ago
The Great Depression, which started in 1929, lasted well over a decade with high unemployment and real economic well-being not significantly improving until ...


Business Media Institute

Stanford Prof.: US 'Not in Anything Resembling' Great Depression
Business Media Institute, VA - 17 hours ago
18 that the current financial crisis bears no comparison to the Great Depression. “Well, we’re not yet in anything remotely resembling the crisis, ...
Moderate socialism Daily Press
all 2 news articles


Magnetic treatment lifts some depression
Columbus Dispatch, OH - 28 minutes ago
The idea sounded like science fiction: the use of high-power magnets to cure depression -- a technique known as transcranial magnetic stimulation, or TMS. ...


Another Great Depression?
Wadena Pioneer Journal, MN - Nov 19, 2008
The predictions are everywhere: the current economic crisis is the worst since the Great Depression or “we’re entering another Great Depression,” some of ...

Depression - Google News

home | site map
© 2006