When Depression Kills from Fox News by Dr. Keith Ablow

Hegel’s tragic story may, as much as anyone’s, demonstrate the fine line between psychiatric disorders and violent behavior. We don’t know whether Hegel suffered with major depression or psychotic thinking, but some of the students he held hostage noted that he seemed depressed and that he didn’t seem to have any clear goal in mind when he brandished two handguns, shot up a film projector, then refused to let them leave their classroom. [...] When depression takes hold, mood falls, sometimes dramatically, and anxiety levels often rise precipitously. More trouble for one’s state of mind comes as sleep becomes scarce (or excessive) and appetite falls off, triggering physiological changes that accelerate the disease process, making it impossible to concentrate and not infrequently convincing the depressed person that nothing will ever get better—only worse. He will never be able to work, never be able to learn, never have another friend, never have a romance, embarrass himself and his family and be a burden to everyone he once loved. Some depressed people have told me that they look at photos of their children and feel as though they are strangers. They feel utterly, completely alone, as though God has Himself forsaken them. [...] I am one psychiatrist and—even without my work in forensics—I have treated a billionaire with depression who believed he was utterly penniless and wanted to die, a depressed woman who was convinced her son had been kidnapped and replaced by a masquerading double (who she thought she might need to kill), a college student who came to believe that his arms were not his own arms and needed to be severed (which was prevented), a depressed mother who wanted to kill her new baby, and a depressed business professional who was convinced the CIA was pursuing him and would ultimately kill him—if he didn’t kill them first. They all recovered. It took the right medicines and a deep and empathetic exploration of past psychological [...]

Read the article, "When Depression Kills," at Fox News. See also: Living the Truth: Transform Your Life Through the Power of Insight and Honesty, Inside the Mind of John Mark Karr, Inside the Mind of Scott Peterson

"Don't Confuse Depression and Grief, Author Advises" from Psychiatric News by Aaron Levin

Kay Redfield Jamison, Ph.D., who has endured mental illness and her husband's death, realizes that depression is destructive and alienating, but that grief acts to preserve the self and draw people together. “It has been said that grief is a kind of madness,” Kay Redfield Jamison, Ph.D., told listeners at APA's Institute on Psychiatric Services in Boston in October. “I disagree.” Kay Redfield Jamison, Ph.D.: “Madness prepared me for grief. It gave me an unsentimental gauge by which to test my sanity within my grief and a respect for the true terror that is at the core of madness.” She spoke in hope of adding to the discussion over proposed elimination of the grief exclusion from the DSM-5's criteria for major depressive disorder. That possible change has been characterized by some as medicalizing normal human experience. “There is a kind of sanity to grief,” continued Jamison, a professor of psychiatry at the Johns Hopkins School of Medicine and honorary professor of English at the University of St. Andrews in Scotland. “It provides a path—albeit a broken one—by which those who grieve can find their way. Grief is not a disease; it is a necessity.”

Read that full article, here, at Psychiatric News. These are also good books on the topic of depression, by Kay Redfield Jamison: Nothing Was the Same, Touched with Fire: Manic-Depressive Illness and the Artistic Temperament, Exuberance: The Passion for Life, Night Falls Fast: Understanding Suicide

'Other People': A Family Portrait Of Depression from NPR by HELLER MCALPIN

"Every family has a secret and the secret is that it's not like other families," Alan Bennett writes in A Life Like Other People's. This family memoir, extracted from his 2006 autobiographical volume, Untold Stories, is at once a touching portrait of his parents, "the tenderest and most self-sufficient couple," and a sobering tale of depression and dementia.

You can find a lengthy excerpt of the book at NPR.org. See also: The Uncommon Reader: A Novella, Untold Stories, Writing Home, The Complete Talking Heads

667 Dealing with Depression Podcast from The People's Pharmacy® Radio Program

Depression is debilitating and surprisingly common. Scientists have found that 5 percent of the people in a large survey reported symptoms of depression during the previous year. Nearly 13 percent of Americans experience depression at some point during their lives. The big question is how to treat depression? It’s hard to get a good picture of the effectiveness of antidepressants from the published medical literature, because many studies that show little or no benefit don’t get published. Dr. Erick Turner explains how unpublished studies may skew medical opinion. Dr. David Mischoulon discusses the pros and cons of antidepressant medication and many alternative treatments for this devastating mental disorder. Guests: David Mischoulon, MD, PhD, is the Director of Research, Depression Clinical and Research Program, at the Massachusetts General Hospital Department of Psychiatry. He is also an Assistant Professor of Psychiatry at the Harvard Medical School. He is currently working on the second edition of his book, Natural Remedies for Psychiatric Disorders: Considering the Alternatives. (Photo is of Dr. Mischoulon.) Erick Turner, M.D. is Assistant Professor in the Department of Psychiatry at Oregon Health & Science University (OHSU) and in the Department of Pharmacology & Physiology. He is the Medical Director of the Portland VA Medical Center Mood Disorders Program, where he acts as site principal investigator (PI) on several multicenter clinical drug trials. His article, "Selective Publication of Antidepressant Trials and Its Influence on Apparent Efficacy," was published in the New England Journal of Medicine, Jan. 17, 2008.

Download the podcast here.

Brain Science Podcast #10 NeuroPlasticity (show notes) from Brain Science Podcast Archive by docartemis

In this episode of the Brain Science Podcast we explore the recent research that has established, contrary to long-standing dogma, that our brains our able to change throughout our lives, based on our experience. The reference for this episode is Train Your Mind, Change Your Brain: How a New Science Reveals Our Extraordinary Potential to Transform Ourselves, by Sharon Begley. This book describes the 2004 meeting between the Dalai Llama and several leading neuroscientists. To learn more about these meetings go to the Mind and Life Institute website. All the studies that I mention in the podcast are referenced in the back of the book.

Download the podcast of this show, here. See also: The Plastic Mind: New science reveals our extraordinary potential to transform ourselves, Train Your Mind, Change Your Brain: How a New Science Reveals Our Extraordinary Potential to Transform Ourselves Abridged on CD [Train Your Mind], The Brain That Changes Itself: Stories of Personal Triumph from the Frontiers of Brain Science (James H. Silberman Books), Change Your Brain, Change Your Life: The Breakthrough Program for Conquering Anxiety, Depression, Obsessiveness, Anger, and Impulsiveness, The Mind and the Brain: Neuroplasticity and the Power of Mental Force Check the Brain Science webpage on this episode, here.