symptoms of depression
Learning How to Cope with MS-Related Depression
Everyone can get depressed or feel blue at anytime in life. They could feel sad for a day or a week. Feeling blue is different from having depression. Sadness is an emotion that comes and goes. The main point is that it passes. It doesn’t control the person affected. Depression is different because it affects a person’s mental ability. This mental condition controls how the person is feeling.
There are a number of symptoms of depression. Mostly it distorts the way you are thinking and feeling. It also makes you tired, but you may not be able to sleep when you try. Depression can also cause pain to occur that has no linkable reason for happening, such as stomachaches or headaches.
Multiple sclerosis is another condition that controls a person’s emotions. MS occurs because the body’s immune system attacks its own nerves in the brain and spinal cord, causing loss of muscle control, vision, balance, and sensation. It is unknown what causes the immune system to attack the body’s nerves. The most common symptoms early on in MS development are muscle weakness, decreased coordination, blurred vision, eye pain, and double vision, according to Webmd.com. As the disease progresses, the symptoms get worse, which can result in mentally and physically shutting down the person.
With both depression and MS, the person affected is unable treat the conditions without medical assistance. Many people who suffer from MS also develop depression; it is also referred to as MS-related depression. It is understandable to see how an MS patient can develop depression. Many times depression occurs because the individual feels hopeless.
Researchers from the University of California may have discovered why MS-related depression occurs in MS patients. They believe that brain atrophy, shrinkage of brain mass, is the reason why 50 percent of MS patients are at risk for depression. The atrophy occurs in the hippocampus, where a number of memory and mood functions occur.
The study looked specifically at MRI brain scans to compare MS-related and healthy brain activity. The results showed that there were three major differences between the subregions in the hippocampus. These three important locations were smaller in MS patients than in healthy brain activity.
The researchers may have also come across the cause of brain atrophy to occur. They believe that the hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal (HPA) axis, part of the neuroendocrine system responsible for the reactions to stress and known for regulating many physiological functions, is responsible. Excessive activity of the system can cause the atrophy to occur. It may also be directly linked to the development of depression.
This is just the first step to determining what causes MS-related depression. Dr. Nancy Sicotte, senior study author and an associate professor of neurology, believes this research could lead to more of an understanding of how the HPA axis affects the hippocampus. There hasn’t been much research done on the connection between the HPA axis and atrophy yet, “despite the fact that the most consistently reproduced findings in psychiatric patients with depression (but without MS) include hyperactivity of the HPA axis and smaller volumes of the hippocampus,” said Sicotte.
http://www.nlm.nih.gov/medlineplus/news/fullstory_100800.html
http://www.webmd.com/multiple-sclerosis/guide/ms-depression
The Link Between Anxiety Disorders and Heart Disease
Anxiety disorders affect more people than most of us think. In society, though, anxiety disorders are commonly misunderstood. As a result, many people try to hide them. They don’t go out socially and their personal relationships suffer. It is important to get help for anxiety disorders, though, so you can enjoy life to the fullest. You don’t want to miss out on great activities due to anxiety.
There is another reason why you should get the problem under control as well. It has to do with the fact that studies show a link between anxiety disorders and heart disease. Anyone that has an anxiety disorder may also be at an increased the risk of a heart attack or stroke occurring. With heart disease being the number one cause of death in the United States, it is important to address such issues as early as possible.
This information is based on a large study involving 1,000 individuals. The study lasted for 5 ½ years and during that time more than 350 of the participants suffered from a heart attack or some other health problem that caused damage to the heart. There is a great deal of stress on the heart during an anxiety attack and that is where the risk is coming from. The more anxiety attacks that a person has and the longer they last, the higher the risk of permanent damage to the heart.
When anxiety disorders also cause symptoms of depression, there is also additional stress on the heart. When problems of anxiety are combined with other serious health problems, such as diabetes, it can be very serious due to the way in which the nerves that go to the heart are affected adversely. The way in which this all occurs is very complex and there is still a lot of research that has to be done. Still, there is enough information that has been uncovered to explain just how important the link between anxiety disorders and heart disease can be.
Taking steps to treat depression and to alleviate anxiety disorders is very important. There are breathing techniques that you can learn that can help when an anxiety attack is coming on. Therapy to help alter behavior has been very successful as a form of treatment. However, these types of solutions to anxiety problems seem to work best when the patient is also taking some form of medication to assist with reducing anxiety disorders.
It is believed that there is definitely a link between anxiety disorders and heart disease. The risk can increase as much as 75% which is dangerously high. For those individuals with a family history of heart disease, that percentage can be even higher. If you suffer from anxiety disorders, you definitely need to schedule an appointment with your doctor to discuss the related risk to your heart.
Don’t be afraid to explain the symptoms you are having, their severity, and their frequency. The more accurate information they have, the easier it will be for them to assist you. Be willing to try a combination of different forms of treatment so that you can keep your heart as healthy as possible. Offsetting heart disease can add many more years to your life.