depression
The lack of serotonin is associated with symptoms of depression
Serotonin is a powerful neurotransmitter that is synthesized from tryptophan, contained in food. The lack of serotonin is associated with symptoms of depression, anxiety, anguish and sadness. Foods rich in tryptophan, act as natural antidepressants, leading to increased serotonin without psychoactive drugs.
Scientific studies have demonstrated that increased serotonin is associated with a feeling of well-being, relaxation, increased self esteem and concentration.
Low levels of serotonin are also associated with aggressive states, depression and anxiety and even migraines, because when serotonin levels drop, blood vessels dilate.
Serotonergic function is essentially inhibitory. Influences on sleep and is also related to mood, emotion and depressive states. Affects vascular function as well as the frequency of the heartbeat, regulates the secretion of hormones such as growth. Changes in the level of this substance are associated with mental imbalances such as schizophrenia or autism. It also plays an important role in certain anxiety disorders. Read the rest of this entry »
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What is a Depression?
Depression (from Latin depressus, which means ‘killed’, ‘down’) is a mood disorder that occurs in colloquial terms as a state of depression and unhappiness that can be transient or permanent. The medical term refers to a syndrome or cluster of symptoms that affect mainly the emotional sphere: sadness pathological decay, irritability or mood disorder that can decrease performance at work or limit the normal life activity, regardless that their cause is known or unknown. Although this is the core of symptoms, depression can also be expressed through conditions of the cognitive, volitional or somatic. In most cases, the diagnosis is clinical, but must be differentiated from similar expression boxes, such as anxiety disorders. The person suffering from depression may not experiencing sadness, but loss of interest and inability to enjoy normal play activities, and a little experience motivating and slower over time. Its origin is multifactorial, although it is noted triggers such as stress and feelings (derived from a disappointment in love, contemplation or experience of an accident, murder or tragedy, the bad news disorder, grief, and having gone through an experience near-death). There are other sources, such as inadequate elaboration of mourning (for the death of a loved one) or even the consumption of certain substances (alcohol or other toxic substances) and predisposing factors such as genetics or educational status.
Depression can have important social and personal consequences, from incapacity to suicide. The different schools of psychiatry have proposed various treatments for depression: Biopsychiatry, through a pharmacological approach, endorsed by the success of recent generations of antidepressants (fluoxetine flagged by the “happy pill” of the twentieth century), school through procedures psychoanalytic or cognitive-behavioral therapy, through behavioral and cognitive proposals. Read the rest of this entry »
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Causes and Impact of Depression During Pregnancy
Pregnancy should be the happiest moment for a woman, but there are women who see pregnancy as a time of confusion, misery, pain, stress and depression. Some attempts from 10 to 20% of women to combat symptoms of depression and a quarter to half of exposed deep depression. In a study of 360 pregnant women, then 10% of them were during pregnancy and only 6.8% of the fall of depression after pregnancy.
Depression is a mood disorder, found in 1 in 4 women who are pregnant and this is something special. The disease continues to be the victims of those who are pregnant, but her depression often do not know this because they think it is normal for them, but if not treated properly can affect the baby.
Causes and symptoms of depression during pregnancy
Depression during pregnancy is the same mood disorders like depression, which occurred in the laity in general, where the incidence of depression occurs in the chemical modification of the brain. In this case, affects the hormonal changes during pregnancy, the chemistry of the brain itself, which is closely associated with the onset of depression and anxiety during pregnancy. Of those who may have a history of depression, returned to the difficulties of life, thank exploration during and after pregnancy, symptoms of depression during pregnancy.
Women who are depressed, some of the following experience about 2 weeks:
* The feeling of sadness
* Difficulty concentrating
* Sleeping too much or too little
* Loss of interest in an activity that is generally preferred
* Despair, sometimes, some people feel fear,
* Provides a feeling of guilt and worthlessness
* The change in eating habits
* Even fewer of them have no sense that I want to kill.
However, the incidence of depression is not simple – Incident eye at this time. In some cases, has led to depression during pregnancy, such factors as the sender is a problem with their husbands or mothers had a history of depression in your family. Some publications mention a story of many failures in pregnancy can also trigger the development of depression during pregnancy. Besides the heavy live event, the presence of complications during pregnancy, a trigger for depression during pregnancy.
Impact of depression during pregnancy
Depression is not treated, will have negative consequences for mother and baby. There are 2 important things the child is able to affect:
* The first is the interference with the fetus is still in the womb
* The emergence of mental health in the child’s future
Depression is known, if not detected and treated – the will to transfer the mother’s behavior – the negative things, like drinking, smoking, and it is not uncommon to attempt suicide. This solves the incidence of premature births, babies born with low birth weight and fetal development. Mothers who have depression do not intend to reflect on the development of fetuses and even their own health.
As an example of a case study of more than 300 pregnant women who are victims of 11 September (WTC), where all the research sample was near the body are carried out of the tragedy. From the results of research on children – the children she gave birth, the birth of his son, much less weight than those far from the scene of the tragedy. In addition to events more often prematurity among those who were near the scene of the tragedy that those who are far from the scene of the tragedy. This demonstrates the impact of depression in women have great influence on the future development of their fetuses.
Besides a study of women who are depressed during pregnancy performed with emotional disorders and children at age 4 years later. This shows that in the last weeks of pregnancy play an important role in brain development and maturity of the child if the mother’s depression can increase the incidence of premature and ultimately affect the baby’s brain development. In another study found that mothers in the UK, followed by those who suffer from depression during pregnancy, and then to their children until the age of 16 years that children are capable children – suffer from depression than those whose mothers did not suffer from depression during pregnancy.