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Dacia Morris FOR THE DEPRESSED, THE HOLIDAYS ARE NOT SO MERRY New York, NY (November 20, 2002) –Clinical depression, when it strikes, hits hard. Sufferers who are not getting treatment for their depression experience a host of debilitating symptoms ranging from sleeplessness to social isolation. Holidays can be especially hard. At a time when families and friends around you are full of energy and excitement, and Christmas carols and holiday cheer abound, someone with depression, who has little ability to experience pleasure, may sink further into emptiness. Teen DepressionAdults aren’t the only ones who get depressed; children do too. Untreated depression is the number one cause of teen suicide and suicide is the second most frequent cause of death in white adolescents and third among blacks. During the upcoming holiday season, teens with depression may suffer even more. Depression may be especially painful for adolescents who see their peers socializing and taking part in activities of the season while they are battling persistent sadness and recurrent thoughts of suicide. Effective treatments, such as psychotherapy or antidepressant medications, are available for teenagers suffering from depression. The New York State Psychiatric Institute/Columbia is currently participating in TADS or the Treatment for Adolescents with Depression Study, a multi-site study funded by the National Institute of Mental Health, that is comparing the effectiveness of psychotherapy and medication treatment for adolescents. Depression in AdultsA loving family and a good job may not be enough to diminish someone’s feelings of worthlessness and lift them out of depression. Holiday gaiety may force some into further withdrawal. Worse still, some sufferers may even try to mask their depression by drinking themselves past consciousness, but that is merely a temporary fix and a destructive one at that. The Depression Evaluation Service at the New York State Psychiatric Institute/Columbia offers treatment in research studies for individuals suffering from depression. In addition, experts here have been studying the connection between substance abuse and depression and have found that people who use drugs or alcohol often do so to treat their depression. They know that antidepressants may help alleviate the depression while promoting abstinence from drugs or alcohol. Researchers are currently enrolling patients in a state-of-the-art brain imaging study to define the abnormalities seen in brain metabolism during depression and how these abnormalities respond to treatment with antidepressants. |