DEPRESSION, The Disease Men Don't Talk About (PART 2) ~ Bloggerin Info

WHILE alcohol can cause obvious changes in mood and behaviour, the effect of nicotine and some other drugs may be less conspicious. Not long before the first game of the 1997 season, American baseball player Pete Harnisch quit chewing tobacco. In a few days he noticed that his energy and his sense of humour were vanishing. Over five or six nights, Harnisch quit chewing tobacco. In a few days he noticed that his energy and his sense of humour were vanishing. Over five or six nights, Harnisch got no more than 20 hours of sleep. Then he began to lose weight.

Finally, exhausted and worried, he went to a doctor. Tests showed no disease, but the doctor suspected that his problem was a chemical imbalance, perhaps related to nicotine withdrawal, and prescribed an antidepressant. Within a couple of months, Harnisch was his old self again.

The Dangers Accelerate

LEAVING DEPRESSION untreated can be fatal. "There is a 15-per-cent risk of suicide with untreated depression," says Dr.Merry Miller, associate professor of psychiatry at East Tennessee State University. "Men are more likely than women to choose a lethal method -- like shooting themselves -- if they are thinking about suicide."

In the television film Dead Blue, American TV reporter Mike Wallace speaks eloquently of the suicidal he had during a bout of major depression. "This cloud descends upon you again," Wallace says in the documentary. "And you really do begin to think about how to get rid of this pain, this shame, this fraud, this endless darkness."

It was only after he returned ill from an assignment in famineravaged Ethiopia that he got help. Physically depleted, he checked into New York's Lenox Hill Hospital. There he was diagnosed with depression and put on antidepressants.

Depression can shorten men's lives in other ways as well. A 40-year American study found that men who have suffered from depression have more than double the risk of developing heart disease. A Swedish study showed that, even after excluding suicide, depressive disorders were associated with death rates on a par with those for cancer, diabetes and heart disease. Another long-term study, published in the American Journal of Psychiatry, indicated that the bodies of depressed men seem to age at an accelerated rate.

How to Recognise the Symptoms

A TEMPORARY DOWNTURN in mood in response to unhappy events is common, even appropriate. That's not depression. In depression, the duration and intensity of the mood is much greater than a passing episode of feeling down.

Watch out for these symptoms in your mate: a bad or sad mood that continues for two weeks or more, or an inability to enjoy the things that usually give him pleasure (a condition known as anhedonia). Depression is especially likely if either of the above is accompanied by four or more of the following:

1. Excessive sleepiness or insomnia
2. Appetite changes
3. Fatigue, lethargy or apathy
4. Feelings of excessive or inappropriate guilt, of worthlessness and of hopelessness
5. Forgetfulness, indecisiveness or lack of concentration
6. Thoughts of, or attempts at, committing suicide.

Call your local hospital or mental-health professional. And if someone you care about starts talking about death or suicide, get him to an emergency room.

Treatments That Work

CERTAIN TYPES of psychotherapy often help. In major depression, doctors will usually prescribe anti-depressants as well, which work by keeping more of the mood-modulating neurotransmitters circulating within the brain. The antidepressant bupropion is also used for people who want to stop smoking. It seems to dampen nicotine cravings and moderate nicotine-withdrawal symptoms.

For men whose depression is traced to testosterone deficiency, doctors can prescribe testosterone-replacement therapy via injections or skin patches similar to the ones used to replace oestrogen in women.

If testosterone enhances mood, what about testosterone for men whose depression is due to other causes? Katznelson doesn't recommend it. Testosterone can stimulate the growth of a previously undetected prostate cancer, and therefore should be administered only when indicated for the treatment of an actual deficiency.

THE IMPORTANT THING to remember is that depression is not a sign of weakness, and it's not just a women's problem. It's an illness, just like heart disease, diabetes and flu. And, like other illnesses, it can be treated. No-one has to tough it out alone.