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1 – 10 of over 23000Cosme Alvarado-Esquivel, Antonio Sifuentes-Alvarez and Carlos Salas-Martinez
We sought to evaluate the capacity of the Edinburgh Postnatal Depression Scale (EPDS) in discriminating mental disorders other than depression in pregnant women in northern…
Abstract
We sought to evaluate the capacity of the Edinburgh Postnatal Depression Scale (EPDS) in discriminating mental disorders other than depression in pregnant women in northern Mexico. Three hundred pregnant women attending prenatal consultations in a public hospital in Durango City, Mexico submitted a validated EPDS and were examined for mental disorders other than depression using the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders - 4th Ed. (DSM-IV) criteria. Sensitivity and specificity of cut-off points of the EPDS, and positive and negative predictive values were calculated. Of the 300 pregnant women studied, 21 had mental disorders other than depression by the DSM-IV criteria. The best EPDS score for screening mental disorders other than depression was 8/9. This threshold showed a sensitivity of 52.4%, a specificity of 67.0%, a positive predictive value of 11.5%, a negative predictive value of 95.4%, and an area under the curve of 0.643 (95% confidence interval: 0.52-0.76). The EPDS can be considered for screening mental disorders other than depression in Mexican pregnant women whenever a cut-off score of 8/9 is used. However, the tool showed small power to separate pregnant women with and without mental disorders other than depression.
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The purpose of this paper is to discuss two recent studies on depression in members of ethnic minorities, one based in the UK with older people, and one in the USA. The aim was to…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to discuss two recent studies on depression in members of ethnic minorities, one based in the UK with older people, and one in the USA. The aim was to examine what might lead to depression in these groups, and what might protect people from it.
Design/methodology/approach
The UK-based study examined depression and physical health in older members of the two largest ethnic minority groups in the UK: African Caribbean and South Asian. The US-based study examined whether a sense of belonging to the population group African Americans protected people from depression, as one social theory might predict, or whether racism prevented this protection, as predicted by another theory.
Findings
In London-based older South Asians, depression was explained by their poorer physical health compared to white Europeans. In older people of black Caribbean origin, depression was linked to their social disadvantage. The researchers did not measure people’s experience of discrimination, and other research suggests this can explain both physical illness and depression. The US-based study reported better well-being for people who identified with other African Americans, but not if they also felt negative about African Americans. However, these were weak links, so other things may affect well-being more, such as day-to-day relationships and a range of group memberships.
Originality/value
The London-based study was new in studying depression in older people belonging to the two largest ethnic minority groups in the UK and in white Europeans. The US study tested two competing social theories with different predictions about depression in relation to belonging to an ethnic minority. Both studies highlight the need for more research on discrimination and how to reduce it and its negative effects on both mental and physical health.
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Sarah McCue Horwitz, Julia Bell and Rebecca Grusky
Depression is a prevalent, debilitating condition that will replace cancer as the second leading cause of morbidity within the next decade and, according to the Global Burden of…
Abstract
Depression is a prevalent, debilitating condition that will replace cancer as the second leading cause of morbidity within the next decade and, according to the Global Burden of Disease Study, ranks number one in disability-adjusted life years for females 5 years and older worldwide (Blehar & Oren, 1997; Murray & Lopez, 1996). Depression in the workplace has been linked to increased absenteeism and productivity loss, is equal to the costs of diabetes and hypertension, and these costs are almost equal to the direct costs of depression treatment (Kessler et al., 1999; Marlowe, 2002; Druss, Rosenheck, & Sledge, 2000; Elinson, Houck, Marcus, & Pincus, 2004). A national study of individuals 15–54 years documented a lifetime prevalence of 17.1% and found that depression was more common in females, young adults, and those with less education (Blazer, Kessler, McGonagle, & Swartz, 1994; Kessler, McGonagle, Swartz, Blazer, & Nelson, 1993; Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration, 2000; Kessler et al., 1994a, 1994b; Bebbington et al., 2003).
Tetsushi Fujimoto, Sayaka K. Shinohara and Tsuyoshi Oohira
This study examines the impact of work-to-family conflict (WFC) on depression for employed husbands and wives in Japan, the moderating role of own psychological family involvement…
Abstract
Purpose
This study examines the impact of work-to-family conflict (WFC) on depression for employed husbands and wives in Japan, the moderating role of own psychological family involvement in the relationship between WFC and depression, and the moderating role of spouses’ family and job involvement in the relationship between WFC and depression.
Methodology/approach
We use a matched sample of Japanese employed husbands and wives to examine the relationships between inter-spousal dynamics about work–family conflict and psychological well-being.
Findings
We found that (1) the effect of WFC on depression was larger for wives, (2) husbands’ and wives’ own psychological family involvement did not moderate the relationship between WFC and their depression, and (3) spousal family and job involvement operated as a moderator only for husbands. While WFC reduced husbands’ depression when their wives were highly involved in their jobs psychologically and behaviorally, WFC increased husbands’ depression when their wives were highly involved in family at both psychological and behavioral levels.
Practical implications
Employers need to take into account the importance of looking simultaneously at the ways employed husbands and wives work when trying to understand how workplace conditions may be changed to ameliorate psychological well-being for spouses.
Originality/value of chapter
This study suggests that an experience of conflict between work and family is likely to deteriorate the psychological well-being for employed husbands and wives in non-Western contexts like Japan. Furthermore, spousal involvements in family and work domains are likely to play moderating roles in the relationship between WFC and depression.
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Purpose – The objective of this research is to know the correlation of stress level with the degree of depression in the elderly at a nursing home in Lhokseumawe in the year 2017…
Abstract
Purpose – The objective of this research is to know the correlation of stress level with the degree of depression in the elderly at a nursing home in Lhokseumawe in the year 2017.
Design/Methodology/Approach – This research is analytic using a cross-sectional approach with a total sampling method. The total number of samples was 55 respondents.
Findings – The results showed that the elderly in a Lhokseumawe nursing home at average are at mild stress level to medium degree of depression. Pearson correlation test results show that there is a correlation between stress level and degree of depression in elderly in the Lhokseumawe nursing home in 2017 with medium strong relationship (r = 0.406; p = 0.002).
Research Limitations/Implications – We expect that the elderly living in the orphanage avoid negative thinking about themselves and the future, eliminating feelings of guilt or regret about past mistakes, taking adequate rest and maintaining a diet to avoid stress so as to prevent the onset of depression.
Originality/Value – In addition the study increases the theoretical understanding of the correlation between stress level and degree of depression in elderly at nursing home.
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Marta B. Rodríguez-Galán and Luis M. Falcón
To examine aging Puerto Ricans’ experiences with and perceptions of depression treatment.
Abstract
Purpose
To examine aging Puerto Ricans’ experiences with and perceptions of depression treatment.
Methodology/approach
In-depth analysis of eight exemplary cases from ethnographic interviews with a subsample of 16 aging Puerto Ricans in the Boston area who are part of the Boston Puerto Rican Health Study.
Findings
The results show that respondents were resistant to accepting pharmacological treatment for their depression, and they often characterized antidepressants as “dope.” Moreover, they claimed that in addition to their health problems, social stressors such as financial strain, lack of jobs, housing problems, and social isolation are triggering or contributing to their depression. Because of this, they express reluctance in accepting clinical treatment only, and suggest that broader social issues and other health needs ought to be addressed as part of an effective treatment. For many, pharmacological treatment is acceptable only in the more severe forms of depression.
Research limitations/implications
These results have important implications for improving the quality of depression treatment and reducing health disparities for mainland Puerto Ricans.
Originality/value of chapter
Even though recent studies continue to show a high frequency of depression among Puerto Ricans, issues of treatment quality are still understudied and ethnographic accounts are especially lacking. Our study offers an exploratory investigation of this unresolved research issue.
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This chapter enquires into the contribution of two British writers, Herbert Somerton Foxwell and Henry Riverdale Grenfell, who elaborated upon the hints provided by Jevons towards…
Abstract
This chapter enquires into the contribution of two British writers, Herbert Somerton Foxwell and Henry Riverdale Grenfell, who elaborated upon the hints provided by Jevons towards a description of long waves in the oscillations of prices. Writing two decades after Jevons, they witnessed the era of high prices turning into the great depression of the last quarter of the nineteenth century, the causes of which they saw in the end of bimetallism. Not only did they take up Jevons’s specific explanation of the long fluctuations, but they also based their discussion upon graphical representation of data and incorporated in their treatment a specific trait (the superposition principle) of the ‘waves’ metaphor emphasized by the Manchester statisticians in the 1850s and 1860s. Their contribution is also interesting for their understanding of crises versus depressions at the time of the emergence of the interpretation of oscillations as a cycle, which they have only partially grasped – as distinct from the approach of later long wave theorists.
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This study explores the social, biological, and genetic determinants of depression in later life. It adds complexity to the idea that later life depression is a natural outgrowth…
Abstract
Purpose
This study explores the social, biological, and genetic determinants of depression in later life. It adds complexity to the idea that later life depression is a natural outgrowth of vascular impairment, antagonistic pleiotropy, or compromised neuroanatomical structures, arguing instead for the importance of education as a fundamental cause.
Methodology/approach
The study uses the NAS-NRC Twin Registry of World War II Veterans. The use of twins permits the exploration of gene-environment interplay. A recent survey instrument associated with the registry contains numerous indicators of health, including a measure of depression.
Findings
The results show that education has a strong negative relationship with depression among those in their 70s and early 80s. Although this relationship is partly explained by lower rates of cardiovascular disease and diabetes among the well-educated, the relationship between education and many common physical illnesses is quite small. Most people of this age experience at least one chronic illness. The relationship between education and depression is explained, instead, by how education reduces impairments in activities of daily living. These impairments are not an inevitable outgrowth of declining health. The well-educated are better able to moderate the impact of poor health on daily functioning. Moreover, the well-educated are able to avoid the otherwise strong genetic risks for depression in later life. Gene × environment models show a high heritability for later life depression on average, but also reveal that this heritability declines with increasing education. Among those with a four-year college degree, the heritability of depression is very small.
Originality/value
These patterns are interpreted in light of compensatory gene × environment interactions, which emphasize the importance of especially enriched environments for overcoming genetic risk.
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This chapter addresses one of the most common and long-standing problems among college students, namely depression, as well as a potential consequence of depression, suicide. A…
Abstract
This chapter addresses one of the most common and long-standing problems among college students, namely depression, as well as a potential consequence of depression, suicide. A formal definition of depression is presented, and symptoms of depression are discussed. Notably, clinical depression is differentiated from “feeling down” or having “the blues.” Common measures of depression for college students are described, and the current prevalence of depression among college students is explored, along with data pertaining to trends and trajectories. Particular attention is devoted to differences in rates and severity of depression among students of various ethnicities, gender identities, disabilities and sexual orientations. Next, the chapter covers various theories about and studies on the causes and consequences of depression, as well as preventive and remedial efforts that students can engage in to minimize the adverse effects of depression. The chapter concludes with a focus on college student suicide, including its prevalence, predictors of suicidal thoughts and behaviors and prevention and treatment of college student suicide.
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