Linda Erwin - Gallagher, LMFT » Depression

Depressed Vets at Risk for Early Death

linda — Thu, 04 Oct 2012 20:36:11 +0000

1-800-Therapist
Linda Erwin-Gallagher, LMFT, CEAP, SAP
Depressed Vets at Risk for Early Death
Depression among veterans increases health risks

Although veterans are at risk for developing post-traumatic stress syndrome, they also should be aware for other mental health conditions, such as a depression.
A recent study has found that depression among veterans is actually a risk factor for an earlier death.
A comparison of depressed and non-depressed veterans found that the depressed vets died sooner, even if the cause of death was the same.
The study was led by Kara Zivin, PhD, of the National Serious Mental Illness Treatment Research and Evaluation Center and the Health Services Research and Development Center for Clinical Management Research within the u.S. Department of Veterans Affairs.
The researchers used VA data from 2007 to look at almost five million veterans’ deaths, involving 13 different causes of death.
2.5 and 8.7 years earlier than the non-depressed patients even within individual categories of causes of death.
“These findings highlight the importance of depression as a potential contributor to early mortality,” the authors wrote. “Because depression is treatable, these findings raise the possibility that depression treatment could have a measurable impact on risk of early death.”
The study was published August 1 in the journal Psychiatric Services. The research was funded by two grants from the u.S. Department of Veterans Affairs Health Services Research and Development Service. The authors declared no conflicts of interest.
Reporter: Tara Haelle Reviewer: Robert Carlson, M.D. Published: August 21, 2012
Linda Erwin-Gallagher LMFT, CEAP, SAP
They sought to determine the average age of death and the years of potential life lost among the veterans who had depression compared to those who didn’t.
There were 701,659 vets with depression in the study data and 4,245,193 without depression.
The researchers found that the average age of death among the depressed vets was 71.1, compared to 75.9 for the non-depressed vets.
The depressed veterans also had a greater number of years of potential life lost: 13.4 instead of 10.2 among the non¬depressed vets.
The years of potential life lost is an estimate of how much longer a person would have lived if they had not died before their time of a specific condition.
Although the precise number of years lost depended on the particular cause of death, depressed patients died between

Linda is a Licensed Marriage and Family Therapist specializing in individual, couples and family therapy, and maintains a private practice in San Diego, CA.

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San Diego Pain Management Specialist | Pain Management By “Adele”

Erwin Gallagher Therapy — Sun, 24 Jun 2012 17:46:50 +0000

San Diego Pain Management Specialist Linda Erwin Gallagher presents this wonderful article on Pain Management.

Music therapy may be of great benefit in the treatment of pain anxiety and depression

Most people listen to music for their own pleasure, but many are unaware of how profoundly it affects them. These effects may lead music to become an important psychological treatment.

Pain, anxiety and depression can ruin your day.

Thanks to new data from French researchers, people who suffer from these issues may not have to look further than their radios for a little relief.

Stéphane Guétin, PhD, the director of the Association for Music Therapy Research and Clinical Applications (AMARC) and a researcher at the Centre of Memory Resources and Research Team at the Montpellier University Hospital in Montpellier, France, led the study to examine how music can affect treatment outcomes for patients being treated for pain, anxiety and/or depression.

Nineteen men and 68 women participated in the study at the Regional University Hospital Centre (CHRU) in Montpellier, France. All participants were hospitalized for chronic mechanical, inflammatory, fibromyalgic or neurological pain. Forty-four were put in an intervention group and 43 in a control group.

Pain, anxiety and depression were quantified before the study began using the Visual Analogue pain Scale (VAS) and the Hospital Anxiety and Depression scale (HAD). Both groups rated their pain, anxiety and depression at roughly the same level before the trials began.

The study lasted was three months, including the first ten days in the hospital. Researchers followed up with the patients twice, at day 60 and day 90.

During the hospitalization period, patients were treated intravenously with pain relieving, antianxiety or antidepressant medication for five days. For the last five days, they were given oral medication as needed.

Thirty-three patients in the intervention group and 30 in the control group also received physical therapy during their hospital stay.

The intervention group received music therapy in addition to medication. Using a program developed by CHRU and a music publication company called Music Care, patients would listen to a standardized 20-minute session of instrumental music from various genres.

The style of music was pre-determined for each patient based on his or her individual taste in music, identified in questionnaires given before the trial.

These sessions occurred twice daily until day 60. While in the hospital, the music sessions were supervised by a nurse, though patients also received training on how to use the equipment. After discharge from the hospital, patients from the intervention group took the music therapy equipment home with them for continued use.

Over the course of the study, patients in the control group saw a 26 percent reduction in pain scale scores, while the intervention group reported 54 percent less. The scores for depression and anxiety were even more striking.

Depression, as measured by the HAD scale, was only 5 percent lower for the control group. The intervention group reported depression HAD scores that were 53 percent lower by comparison.

As far as anxiety goes, control group patients scored 7 percent lower on the HAD scale while intervention group patients saw a 50 percent reduction.

Additionally, intervention group patients had less need for antianxiety medication. The control group patients had a 24 percent higher rate of use for anti-anxiety medication. For pain relief and antidepressant medication, there were not such startling differences between groups, though there was a roughly 10 percent lower use rate.

Based on these results, Guétin and his team concluded that their study confirms the benefit of music therapy for the treatment of pain, anxiety and depression. Because of the inexpensive nature of music treatment, as well as the total lack of side effects, this technique could be applied to many situations with great benefit.

This clinical study was published in the May volume of the Clinical Journal of Pain. CNP Assurances, a major French insurance company, provided the funding for this study. There were no reported conflicts of interest.

Reporter: Sarah Wickline

Reviewer: Robert Carlson, M.D.

Published: June 18, 2012

if you are looking for a San Diego Pain Management Specialist please give me a call, I can help!

Depression Treatment | What is Depression?

Erwin Gallagher Therapy — Tue, 17 Apr 2012 21:29:46 +0000

Depression Treatment and Depression Therapy

Many people experiencing the symptoms of depression might begin to wonder if there is something really wrong with them. One typical fear is that they might be going crazy. Unfortunately, the reactions and comments from other people such as, “Just get yourself together!” are not very helpful.

Although you might feel alone in your struggle against depressive moods, the reality is that many people experience these moods from time to time, or even regularly. In fact, it is estimated that I in every 4 people experience significantly depressed mood at some time in their life.

Depression can affect any kind of person at any stage of their life. You may be an introvert or an extrovert, socially active or shy, youthful or elderly, male or female, wealthy or poor. Whatever your distinction, you can become depressed. That means that any person you know is fair game. So remember, you are not alone.

Depression is a word used in everyday language to describe a number of feelings, including sadness, frustration, disappointment and sometimes lethargy. However, in clinical practice, the term “Depression” or “Major Depression” differs from these everyday ‘down’ periods in three main ways:

Major Depression is more intense
Major Depression lasts longer (two weeks or more)
Major Depression significantly interferes with effective day-to-day functioning

In this handout, the word depression is referring to Major Depression or a clinical depression.

Depression as a Syndrome

A syndrome is a collection of events, behaviors, or feelings that often go together. The depression syndrome is a collection of feelings and behaviors that have been found to characterize depressed people as a group. You may find that you experience all or some of these feelings and behaviors. There are many individual differences to the number of symptoms and the extent to which different symptoms are experienced. These symptoms are described in this next section.

Mood

Depression is considered to be a disorder of mood. Individuals, who are depressed, describe low mood that has persisted for longer than two weeks. In mild forms of depression, individuals may not feel bad all day but still

describe a dismal outlook and a sense of gloom. Their mood may lift with a positive experience, but fall again with even a minor disappointment. In severe depression, a low mood could persist throughout the day, failing to lift even when pleasant things occur. The low mood may fluctuate during the day — it may be worse in the morning and relatively better in the afternoon. This is called ‘diurnal variation,’ which often accompanies a more severe type of depression.

In addition to sadness, another mood common to depression is anxiety.

Thinking

Individuals who are depressed think in certain ways, and this thinking is an essential feature of depression. It is as much a key symptom of depression as mood or physical symptoms. Those who are depressed tend to see themselves in a negative light. They dwell on how bad they feel, how the world is full of difficulties, how hopeless the future seems and how things might never get better. People who are depressed often have a sense of guilt, blaming themselves for everything, including the fact they think negatively. Often their self-esteem and self-confidence become very low.

Physical

Some people experience physical symptoms of depression.

Sleep patterns could change. Some people have difficulty falling asleep, or have interrupted sleep, others sleep more and have difficulty staying awake
Appetite may decline and weight loss occurs, while others eat more than usual and thus gain weight
Sexual interest may decline
Energy levels may fall, as does motivation to carry out everyday activities. Depressed individuals may stop doing the things they used to enjoy because they feel unmotivated or lethargic

Interacting with Other People

Many depressed people express concern about their personal relationships. They may become unhappy and dissatisfied with their family, and other close, relationships. They may feel shy and anxious when they are with other people, especially in a group. They may feel lonely and isolated, yet at the same time, are unwilling or unable to reach out to others, even when they have the opportunities for doing so.

Source: Centre For Clinical Interventions