Depression Research Essay Paper
To complete this week, after reading chapter one in Melnyk and reviewing the lectures you need to consider the topic of interest to you. List a ONE to two-word topic that you want to explore further and why you are interested in this topic. This topic encompasses the question that you have been generating throughout your program.
As an example I may choose the topic of depression, as I am interested in all of the depression I am seeing in the primary care office. Next week I will explore the background of this topic and this will lead to my PICOT question.Depression Research Essay Paper
As you work on your capstone project proposal, you will want to share your progress with your peers and instructor and seek or provide guidance or share insights.
You must proofread your paper. But do not strictly rely on your computer’s spell-checker and grammar-checker; failure to do so indicates a lack of effort on your part and you can expect your grade to suffer accordingly. Papers with numerous misspelled words and grammatical mistakes will be penalized. Read over your paper – in silence and then aloud – before handing it in and make corrections as necessary. Often it is advantageous to have a friend proofread your paper for obvious errors. Handwritten corrections are preferable to uncorrected mistakes.
Use a standard 10 to 12 point (10 to 12 characters per inch) typeface. Smaller or compressed type and papers with small margins or single-spacing are hard to read. It is better to let your essay run over the recommended number of pages than to try to compress it into fewer pages.Depression Research Essay Paper
Likewise, large type, large margins, large indentations, triple-spacing, increased leading (space between lines), increased kerning (space between letters), and any other such attempts at “padding” to increase the length of a paper are unacceptable, wasteful of trees, and will not fool your professor.
The paper must be neatly formatted, double-spaced with a one-inch margin on the top, bottom, and sides of each page. When submitting hard copy, be sure to use white paper and print out using dark ink. If it is hard to read your essay, it will also be hard to follow your argument.
It is believed that much can be said about how a person reacts to a situation. In times of successes and positive moments, most people celebrate with joyous reactions. However, in troubled times, people react with different shades of negative emotions. Some spring back right away and take positive action while others dwell in doom and even fall into a dark depressive state. In this complicated world of ours, many people find it difficult to cope, especially in a fast-paced country like America where decisions must be made at every turn. When problems which people cannot handle beset them, their emotions run low. Such downward spiral of emotions usually comes with a host of symptoms that affect physical and mental functioning. For these people, how do they find their way back to the light?Depression Research Essay Paper
Depression may be caused by a host of factors and is usually manifested with negative behaviors stemming from negative emotions. Sometimes, the person experiencing it is not even aware that he is undergoing depression. Clinical Depression as a psychological disorder is characterized by severe and debilitating depressive episodes. People suffering from Clinical Depression experience inability to go on with work, establish harmonious relationships in their social and family life. They become withdrawn, and cease to enjoy things they have enjoyed before and eventually becomes hopeless. Causes for Clinical Disorder may be linked to organic neurological causes such as disruption in neural circuits and neurochemicals in the brain. It may also be genetically predisposed in the patient or caused by post-traumatic stress disorder, social anxiety disorder, panic disorder or generalized anxiety disorder (www.bipolarcenteral.com/otherillnesses/unipolar_disorder.asp).
Symptoms of unipolar depression include: the inability to concentrate or make decisions; being apathetic or neutralized emotional behavior; irritability, nervousness and anxiety; lowered energy and complaints of consistent fatigue; feelings of sadness, hopelessness, low self-esteem, worthlessness; withdrawal from social and family activities; decreased sexual desire and activity; suicidal tendencies and disturbance in eating and sleep patterns. Diagnosis of this disorder includes physical and mental evaluations to rule out the presence of other diseases or illnesses. The patient exhibits most, if not all of the symptoms for a prolonged period of time. Treatment may include Psychotherapy; Electroconvulsive Therapy in severe cases; pharmacotherapy with antidepressants such as selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors (SSRIs)-the tricyclics, and the monoamine oxidase inhibitors (MAOIs). The SSRIs-and other newer medications that affect neurotransmitters such as dopamine or norepinephrine-generally have fewer side effects than tricyclics.; or hospitalization in severe cases.Depression Research Essay Paper
Brent and Birmaher (2002) noted that depression in both children and adolescents is not always featured by sadness, but rather takes the form of irritability, boredom, and the inability to find pleasure. Symptoms of depression may also vary depending upon the stage of adolescence. Younger adolescents may show more anxiety-related symptoms—clinging behaviors, unexplained fears, and physical symptoms—while older adolescents may experience a greater loss of interest and pleasure and also have more morbid thinking (Mondimore, 2002). Lewinsohn, Rhode, and Seeley (1998) found that nearly 89% of depressed adolescents reported disturbances in sleep. Other symptoms that were frequently reported included a disturbance in weight/appetite (79.5%) and anhedonia (77.3%). The average length of a depressive episode is about 6 months however, about 25% of patients have episodes of more than a year and about 10-20% develop it chronically. About 80% of patients with major depression will experience further episodes (http://www.depression-guide.com/unipolar-depression.htm)
In America, depression may be more common than people know because of the high stress produced in work settings. For most depressed people, however, it is something they may keep to themselves, as it may not be acceptable in a generally positive environment. It may even go undetected and undiagnosed which may lead to a more serious disorder. Another reason why some depressed people may ignore this disorder is the need to keep working for a living no matter how poor their performance may be due to the depression.Depression Research Essay Paper
In any case, people should be more attune to their mental and psychological health. Depression may be interpreted as mere sadness or feeling low, but as earlier mentioned, may lead to more serious illnesses that may manifest physically as serious diseases such as ulcers or even cancer, since stressful states trigger strong physical sensations and symptoms (Lewinsohn, Rhode, and Seeley, 1998). Depression should not be taken lightly, and in the first signs, must be dealt with accordingly to prevent its progression into a more serious psychological and physical disorder.
Teenage depression is a growing problem in today’s society and is often a major contributing factor for most adolescent problems. The statistics about teenage runaways, alcoholism, drug problems, pregnancy, eating disorders, and suicide are alarming. The common link to all of these crises is often depression. The path into adolescence is a difficult one, and the choices a teen makes can leave lasting scars on the lives of an entire generation of young men and women. There is a growing realization that teenage depression can be life changing, even life- threatening.
Depression can be described in many ways. Its main description is that it is a serious mental disorder in which a person suffers long periods of sadness, loneliness, and other negative feelings. Teenagers have always been vulnerable to depression for a variety of reasons. It’s a confusing time of life because a teen’s body is changing along with their relationships. Teenagers constantly teeter-totter between striving for independence from family and still trying to be a child and depend on it. But today’s teens face an additional challenge: They’re growing up in a world quite different from that of their parent’s youth. Adolescents today are faced with stresses that were unknown to previous generations and are dealing with them in an often self – destructive way.
I am writing an abstract for the article Assessment and Treatment of Adolescent Depression and Suicidality taken from the Journal of Mental Health Counseling. It states that “from 1980-1997, the rate of suicide among 15-19 year old adolescents increased by 11% and among those aged 10-14 by 109%”
The thought of suicide is most commonly brought on by depression. Some types of significant loss can be a factor in triggering teenage depression.Depression Research Essay Paper
Depression is not only a state of being sad, it is a disease that conquers the ability to feel emotion, whether good or bad, whatsoever. Depression not only involves the mind, it also involves the body and thoughts. In different cultures some complain of excessive headaches and extreme pain and this is identified as depression, moderate or otherwise. This disease can be passed down through genes or can follow external events or can be caused by a chemical imbalance in the brain. Depression affects twenty percent of all Americans, some without even knowing it, at sometime during their lives. Depression is not a disease that only influences males or children of the age three to eleven. Every human being is prone to depression. Although women are three times more likely to become depressed than men, men are five times more likely to commit suicide when depressed than women. Some think that women have a less pleasing social role and their hormones make them more susceptible to depression. Men are more subject to keep their emotions bottled up inside of them because of their role in society and that they do not have the society’s permission to express their feelings openly.
Major Depression is the most severe case of depression that there is. The symptoms for Major Depression are just like any other type of depression. To be Majorly Depressed you do not have to have been hospitalized or medicated. Lots of people get depression confused with extreme sadness. Depression is not a term just to be thrown around; it is a severe state of being.
Dysthymic Depression is a low level of depression that lasts up to at least two years and in most cases longer. When one is diagnosed with Dysthymic Depression they are very resistant to treatment. Although Dysthymic Depression’s symptoms are not as severe as Major Depression’s symptoms, they are still important. Dysthymics will usually undergo a Major Depression episode sometime during their dysthymic period.
Bipolar Depression, also known as, Manic Depression, is yet another type of Depression. This type has very different symptoms than that of Major Depression or Dysthymia. The symptoms of Bipolar Disorder are having both very high and very low mood swings. When one has Manic Depression one day they could be extremely happy and the next in a very severe depressive mood. This change in mood can happen over hours or over a period of time.
Although all age groups are open to depression, teenagers are the most common to be heard of being affected by the disease. This is probably because of peer pressure and the changes in their life. Although the rate of suicide as a whole has decreased in the past twenty five years, the fixed amount of suicide from those between fifteen and nineteen has sky rocketed and quadrupled. The number of deaths due to suicide each year is roughly the same number of deaths from AIDS.Depression Research Essay Paper
Depression’s cost to the United States economy every year is estimated at forty-four billion dollars. This disease is second only to cancer on the impact of our society. By itself depression can cause extreme sadness, anxiety, insomnia and even thoughts of suicide. And yet, we don’t have a big organization to help the people who suffer from it. There is no “Depression Society” or “American Depressed Associated.” Why is this? Why don’t the people of the United States put something together to support and guide the people who are suffering from depression?
One great risk for becoming depressed is if you smoke. Some scientists hold to believe that smoking may be linked to Depression. Tobacco smoke kills off an enzyme that is responsible for breaking down a nerve cell chemical that activates pleasure seeking behavior. So smokers have a high count of this nerve cell chemical and a very low count of the enzyme, which in turn may make them want to smoke even more. Although some scientists argue the facts about homosexuality, homosexuals also have a bigger risk of being depressed. Homosexuals are prone to be teased and made fun of and therefore they don’t have as many friends and can’t talk about their problems. This may also be linked to depression.
Genes also have a lot to do with Depression. While studying twins, scientists have found that there is a powerful genetic influence in depression. Identical twins are three times as possible to have depression than fraternal twins raised in the same environment. This is because fraternal twins only have around fifty percent of the same genes in common. Additionally, identical twins are five times more likely to have bipolar disorder. This suggests that depression and bipolar disorder can be inherited. Even if twins are adopted they still have the vulnerability to become depressed.
Abnormal activity in the brain may also be influenced by the genes. Research shows that neurotransmitters help in regulating moods and emotions. People who are depressed have a lower than normal count of these neurotransmitters involved with depression. Antidepressants can solve this problem by producing more of these neurotransmitters associated with depression. An imbalance of hormones can also be connected to depression. When having too high of count of a hormone related to stress, depression may occur.
Sigmund Freud believed that a person’s oblivious anger over a loss weakened the “ego,” which resulted in self hate and self injurious behavior. Aaron Beck steered in a different way. He believed that depressives looked at everything in a negative light and blamed themselves for everything that went wrong. This negative thinking made situations appear much worse than held true and raised the chance of depression. Martin Seligman, an American psychologist, thought that depression came from “learned helplessness,” an idea that one cannot control the effect of happenings. All of these theories may hold true in some cases.
Depression Research Essay Paper
There are many symptoms of depression. Sadness and loss of satisfaction in things once enjoyed are probably the most known symptoms. But some symptoms are sometimes overlooked. Guilt is one symptom that coincides with depression immensely. When feelings of guilt are put on a person they lose what hope they once had. They blame themselves for things that they are not accountable for and have extreme feelings of hopelessness. Other symptoms overlooked are insomnia and loss of appetite. Not getting enough sleep may be linked to stress and guilt. Stress is another great factor in depression. Stressful events or experiences can stimulate depression in people who are predetermined to the disorder.
Although depression is not effortless to overcome there is treatment for it. Seventy percent of those who have depression are responsive to antidepressants. There are many types of antidepressants ranging from Monoamine Oxidase (MAO) Inhibitors (the enzyme that breaks down the nerve cell chemical) to Selective Serotonin Reuptake Inhibitors (which the medicines Prozac and Zoloft are under). When taking antidepressants it is highly recommended to see a counselor or psychologist at the same time. This is so the psychiatrist who prescribes the medication knows if they are improving and if the medicine is beneficial to them.
If medication does not work there is also another way to overcome depression, which is electroconvulsive therapy. In this therapy a low voltage current is moved through the brain for one to two seconds at a time to produce a controlled seizure. Although electroconvulsive therapy can be dangerous and cause memory loss or disorientation is proves to help those in need of it.
Depression Research Essay Paper
Sometimes depression can be avoided all together. Having a good home life and a high self-esteem would be primary for people not to be depressed. Although in some cases you are predisposition to have depression, little things do help. Talking about your problems and not bottling them up helps immensely to avoid emotional breakdowns and blowups. Avoiding extreme “stressers,” like putting yourself in a situation you cannot get out of, also helps. Avoidance of cigarettes and alcohol also helps with staying healthy and happy.
Depression is not a matter to take lightly. It is not something to dismiss regularly, but to take to heart and find help. Hundreds of people commit suicide each day because of depression. If you are or know someone who is depressed get help. Do not hold it in forever, for you may be liable to do the same thing.Depression Research Essay Paper