Depression in neurological disorders: Parkinson's disease, multiple sclerosis, and stroke | Journal of Neurology, Neurosurgery & Psychiatry.
In addition, recent data have shown that depression is a risk factor for the development of several neurologic disorders, including epilepsy, stroke, and Parkinson's disease and bears a negative impact on the course and outcome of most neurologic disorders.
In this chapter, the term is used to refer to unipolar/major depression that is characterized by persistent low mood or sadness and accompanied by both physical and psychological symptoms of at least 2 weeks duration and with associated impact on social functioning.
Depression is a global chronic medical illness that leads to low mood, loss of interest, change in appetite, insomnia, and neurocognitive dysfunction. Despite the prevalence of depression, there are still many aspects to be explored and understood.
Illness-related anxiety and stress also can trigger symptoms of depression. Depression is common among people who have chronic illnesses such as: Alzheimer's disease. Autoimmune diseases, including systemic lupus erythematosus, rheumatoid arthritis, and psoriasis.
Depression is a common mental health condition that causes a persistent feeling of sadness and changes in how you think, sleep, eat and act. There are several different types.
Diagnosing Depression
Because several medical conditions mimic depression symptoms, neurologists can help confirm a diagnosis of depression. Symptoms that look similar to depression are common among adults who have substance abuse issues, medication side effects, medical problems, or other mental health conditions.
A PET scan can compare brain activity during periods of depression (left) with normal brain activity (right). An increase of blue and green colors, along with decreased white and yellow areas, shows decreased brain activity due to depression.
The main subcortical limbic brain regions implicated in depression are the amygdala, hippocampus, and the dorsomedial thalamus. Both structural and functional abnormalities in these areas have been found in depression.
Depression leads to changes in autonomic control of the body and changes the autonomic balance in favor of an increased sympathetic tone, which can be detected with fair accuracy with HRV analysis.
A depression not only makes a person feel sad and dejected – it can also damage the brain permanently, so the person has difficulties remembering and concentrating once the disease is over. Up to 20 percent of depression patients never make a full recovery.
Neurobehavioral difficulties involve two primary categories: cognitive decline, including memory problems and dementia; and neuropsychiatric disorders, including neurasthenia (a collection of symptoms including difficulty concentrating, headache, insomnia, and fatigue), depression, posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD), ...
There's no single cause of depression. It can occur for a variety of reasons and it has many different triggers. For some people, an upsetting or stressful life event, such as bereavement, divorce, illness, redundancy and job or money worries, can be the cause. Different causes can often combine to trigger depression.
Untreated clinical depression is a serious problem. Untreated depression increases the chance of risky behaviors such as drug or alcohol addiction. It also can ruin relationships, cause problems at work, and make it difficult to overcome serious illnesses.
Loss of volume of the part of the Brain
Results of several MRI scan studies have demonstrated people with depression had a hippocampus volume that was up to 10% lower than people without depression.
Thus, seeing a neurologist to address the trauma to the brain would make sense, and seeing a psychiatrist to treat the depression symptoms would also be wise. There are several other conditions and symptoms that might be treated by both doctors, including: Hallucinating. Issues sleeping.
Neurologists prescribe antidepressants to treat depression in neurological patients, chronic pain syndromes and neuropathic pain, panic attacks, eating disorders, premenstrual syndrome and for migraine prevention.
The main way a GP will tell if you have depression is by asking you questions about your general health and how the way you're feeling is affecting you mentally and physically. Try to be as open and honest as you can be with your answers.
To be diagnosed with depression, an individual must have five depression symptoms every day, nearly all day, for at least 2 weeks. One of the symptoms must be a depressed mood or a loss of interest or pleasure in almost all activities. Children and adolescents may be irritable rather than sad.
It has become clear that disorders of the mind are rooted in dysfunction of the brain, while neurological disorders interact strongly with psychological and social factors and often cause psychological symptoms.
They include a diverse range of diseases and conditions such as depression, schizophrenia, dementia, Alzheimer's disease, anxiety, and substance abuse disorders, among many others.
Depression can happen to anyone. People who have lived through abuse, severe losses or other stressful events are more likely to develop depression. Women are more likely to have depression than men.