Gene/Protein Disease Symptom Drug Enzyme Compound
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Query: UMLS:C0011570 (depression)
 172,036 document(s) hit in 31,850,051 MEDLINE articles (0.00 seconds)

It is important to identify signs of clinical depression such as pessimism, refusal to eat, diminished concern about personal appearance, and reluctance to make decisions. Medical referral for clinical depression is imperative because there are medications and other interventions that can effectively alleviate the feelings of sadness and despair that accompany clinical depression. One must determine if loneliness is a symptom of depression or an emotional state that can be changed by one's own efforts. Whether the lonely person is the health care giver or a health care receiver, the ability to use creative strategies for coping with loneliness can turn loneliness into a more comfortable experience.
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PMID:Conquering loneliness. 1054 17

Despite there being a lot of biochemical data about metabotropic glutamate (mGlu) receptors, our knowledge of the behavioural effects of mGlu receptor agonists/antagonists is still inadequate. LY 354740 is a systemically active agonist of group II mGlu receptors. After peripheral administration, LY 354740 produced anxiolytic-like effects in the conflict drinking test in rats and a four-plate test in mice. It was also found that LY 354740 decreased spontaneous locomotor activity in mice, but did not disturb motor coordination. In behavioural models of depression including the despair test and a tail suspension test, LY 354740 did not produce antidepressant-like effects. LY 354740 inhibited the naloxone-induced symptoms of morphine withdrawal in morphine-dependent mice. The above results indicate that agonists of group II mGlu receptors may play a role in the therapy of anxiety and/or drug-dependence states. The brain sites of action of LY 354740 need to be identified and the mechanism of both the above described effects remains to be elucidated.
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PMID:Potential anti-anxiety, anti-addictive effects of LY 354740, a selective group II glutamate metabotropic receptors agonist in animal models. 1060 78

Life threatening illness, such as HIV/AIDS, also threaten people's sense of identity and taken-for-granted assumptions about the temporal framing of their lives. In response, people often experience transformations in values, spirituality and life priorities. Drawing on a combined quantitative and qualitative study of people living with HIV/AIDS in Australia, three different narratives that people use to make sense of their illness experience are identified: linear restitution narratives, linear chaotic narratives and polyphonic narratives. Linear illness narratives colonise the future, assuming that the future can be controlled through human action. They emphasise a faith in medical science, tend to be secular and self-centred and assume the end of life to be in the distant future. Hope is focused on concrete outcomes such as improved health or material possessions. Linear narratives can be either restitutive or chaotic. Restitutive linear narratives anticipate a life that will mirror the narrative. Chaotic linear narratives anticipate a life that will fail to meet the linear ideal resulting in despair and depression. In contrast, polyphonic illness narratives are oriented toward the present, emphasising the unpredictability of the future. These narratives tend to include spiritual experiences, a communally oriented value system, and to recount increased self-understanding and the gaining of new insights as a consequence of their illness. Hope in polyphonic narratives is more abstract and focused on a celebration of mystery, surprise and creativity.
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PMID:Illness narratives: time, hope and HIV. 1065 42

Though the numbers of patients with ARMD are high, associated referrals for vision rehabilitation are not. Practitioners need to refer patients with age-related maculopathy when medical and surgical treatment are no longer possible, and patients need to be educated to that fact. The impact of improving activities of daily living may be monumental and benefits society as a whole. People who are visually impaired are often ill-prepared to deal with the substantial adjustment involved, further stressing their entire support system. It may not be safe for visual and systemic reasons for older adults to cook, clean, and maintain their home. Poor vision contributes to the already increased risk of falls and subsequent fractures in these patients. Individuals who may have already been told they can no longer drive now face the possibility of being unable to live in their houses. Their independence may be threatened dramatically and abruptly. All these circumstances contribute to anxiety and depression. Patients with ARMD need to be educated about their disease process (teaching that can never be assumed to have been initiated). They need to be educated that they will not go completely blind and that, with assistance, they can accomplish a great deal. With today's technology, it is not difficult to help visually impaired individuals with ARMD, unless they are not referred or lack motivation. The primary complaint of an individual with ARMD is recognition of central detail. This affects all activities of daily living, and patient performance is subject to the duration and severity of the disease (including the size, density, and location of the central scotoma) and to their understanding of the disease. Rubin and coworkers, found that slow reading performance of patients with a dense central scotoma might reflect inherent limitations of peripheral retina for complex visual tasks. ARMD in most cases lends itself to magnification that enlarges the object beyond the blind spot for visual recognition. Visual devices for distance, intermediate, and near tasks are usually helpful after patient education regarding their predicament and education for adaptation. Eccentric fixation techniques should be one of the first exercises mastered prior to further visual rehabilitation. Activities of daily living should be addressed with every individual, and appropriate assessment of existing problems and modifications to those problems should be implemented. Orientation and mobility should be offered to any individual who is legally blind or has difficulty with safe travel. A great deal of empathy is required on the part of the vision rehabilitation team. However, when patients lack of motivation, feel despair, or exhibit psychosocial overtones of reliance on others, they needs to be confronted, and appropriate action must be taken. Social work consultation and access to a support group can go a long way in mental strengthening and socialization. The author conducted a support group that, over a 10-year period, had a negligible dropout rate owing to the positive socialization obtained from attending the meetings. Older adults who are still working should be referred to an agency for vocational and financial resources if so desired. There is the issue of driving. In the United States, maintaining a driver's license is an important part of the quality of life. Older adults are the most rapidly growing segment of the driving population in the United States. The percentage of drivers older than 65 is expected to increase 17% by the year 2020. The rate of traffic fatalities among older adults has increased substantially, although the overall rate of fatalities is declining. The elderly drive fewer miles but have the highest rate of crashes per miles driven. Many important issues regard the older adult driver. (ABSTRACT TRUNCATED)
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PMID:Vision rehabilitation for age-related macular degeneration. 1070 86

The utility of available animal models of depression for transgenic research is reviewed. Criteria for usefulness are non-dependence on a mechanism of action, pharmacological validity, existence of genetic determinants, availability of a mouse version, procedural simplicity, and reproducibility. The following models are reviewed: behavioral despair, tail suspension, learned helplessness, chronic mild stress, olfactory bulbectomy, DRL behavior and conditioned place preference. It is concluded that the behavioral despair and tail suspension models satisfy the criteria most closely. On the other hand, despite its procedural complexity and poor reproducibility, the chronic mild stress model shows high promise for the future.
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PMID:Animal models of depression: utility for transgenic research. 1071 55

To date, there is little information on the therapeutic effects of the life review beyond one year. This analysis followed fifty-two of 256 subjects who lived for at least three years in a nursing home. These participants received either a life review or friendly visit and took part in four repeated testings to determine the lasting effects of the life review at two and three years. Measures of integrity (life satisfaction, psychosocial well being, self-esteem) and despair (depression, hopelessness, and suicide intent) were used as pretest, posttest, and retest. Results showed a trend toward continued and by year three significant improvement over time in those who received the life review on measures of depression (t = -2.20, p < .03), life satisfaction (t = 2.51, p < .02), and self-esteem (t = -2.31, p < .03).
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PMID:The extended effects of the life review in nursing home residents. 1079 13

A standardised 50% aqueous ethanolic extract of Indian Hypericum perforatum (IHp) was investigated for its antidepressant activity on various experimental paradigms of depression, viz. behavioural despair (BD), learned helplessness (LH), tail suspension (TS) and reserpine-induced hypothermia (RIH) tests in rats and mice. Pilot studies indicated that single dose administration of IHp had very little or no acute behavioural effects, hence the IHp was administered orally at two dose levels (100 and 200 mg/kg, p.o.) once daily for three consecutive days, while imipramine (15 mg/kg, i.p.), a clinically used antidepressant agent, was administered acutely to rats (CF strain, 150 +/- 10 g) and mice (Wistar strain, 23 +/- 2 g) of either sex as the standard drug. Controls animals were treated similarly with equal volume of vehicle (0.3% carboxymethyl cellulose). Indian Hypericum perforatum extract showed significant antidepressant activity on all the paradigms of depression used. Thus IHp and imipramine treatments significantly reduced the immobility time in BD and TS tests. Significant reduction in escape failures was also observed in LH test. In RIH test IHp and imipramine inhibited reserpine induced hypothermia in a dose dependent manner. The observed antidepressant activity of IHp was qualitatively comparable to that induced by imipramine.
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PMID:Antidepressant activity of Indian Hypericum perforatum Linn in rodents. 1086 82

1. The use of animal models in certain types of psychobiological studies (for instance, the relationship between anxiety and depression) requires that the behavior measured is stable over time. 2. The test-retest reliability of the elevated plus-maze indexes of anxiety and the immobility time in the behavioral despair were evaluated. 3. The behavior of two groups of drug naive mice was measured on two occasions on the same test, 1 week apart, on the elevated plus-maze or on the behavioral despair and then the intraclass correlation coefficient and kappa were calculated. 4. These behaviors showed a very low intraclass correlation coefficient (0.02 - 0.05) and low kappa (-0.08 - 0.21) in the test-retest design, which suggest a poor reliability of these measures. 5. These results suggest that the behavioral parameters of the elevated plus-maze and the behavioral despair are not stable and therefore they are possibly more related to state than trait characteristics. Therefore they appear to be not appropriate to evaluate trait characteristics which are supposed to be stable over time without treatment.
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PMID:Animal models: trait or state measure? The test-retest reliability of the elevated plus-maze and behavioral despair. 1095 50

Various studies have shown that calcium channel blockers (CCB) affect the release of central neurotransmitters including noradrenaline (NA) and 5-hydroxytryptamine (5-HT), which are involved in depression. The behavioural despair test was used to investigate the effect of CCB on depression. The mice were treated acutely with CCB. Verapamil (5, 10, 20, and 40 mgkg(-1), i.p.) and diltiazem (10, 20, and 40 mgkg(-1), i.p.) produced a dose-dependent increase in immobility time, indicating the facilitation of depression, while nifedipine (12.5, 25, and 50 mgkg(-1), i.p.) significantly decreased the immobility time, indicating an antidepressant activity. Verapamil ( 40 mgkg(-1), i.p.) and diltiazem ( 40 mgkg(-1), i.p.) blocked the antidepressant effect of desipramine, clomipramine, mianserin, and tranylcypromine, indicating the involvement of various mechanisms in the facilitatory effect of verapamil and diltiazem on depression. The antidepressant effect of nifedipine may be attributed to the blockade of presynaptic alpha -2-receptors (autoreceptors), as nifedipine blocked the clonidine-induced facilitation of depression.
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PMID:The differential effects of calcium channel blockers in the behavioural despair test in mice. 1098 86

PURPOSE: Depression-related symptoms, such as despair and loneliness, may prevent women from using preventive screening for diseases. This study aimed to assess if depression-related variables affect the likelihood of implementation of breast self-examination (BSE) in single African-American women aged 65 and older.METHODS: Subjects for this study included 325 African-American women, aged 65 and older, who were widowed, divorced, separated, or never-married, and lived in ten public housing tenements in Nashville, Tennessee. In-person interviews were conducted to collect information on breast screening behavior, knowledge and attitudes, social networks and activities, medical care use and depression. Depression variables included 19 factors, such as feeling guilty, feeling sad or blue, and feeling worthless.RESULTS: Using logistic regression with adjustment for potential confounders, we found that, compared with women who did not perform BSE, those who performed BSE were less likely to have felt guilty in the preceding year (p < 0.05, odds ratio (OR) = 0.3, confidence interval (CI) = 0.13-0.71). However, the other depression-related variables were not associated with BSE. For example, women who performed BSE and those who did not perform BSE reported feeling sad or blue in equal frequencies (OR = 0.93, CI 0.49-1.7).CONCLUSIONS: In general, this study suggests that there is no overall association between depression-related symptoms and breast self-examination in single African-American women aged 65 and older.
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PMID:Depression-related variables and breast self-examination in single older african-american women. 1101 81


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