Tricyclic Antidepressants (TCA) Overview

About Tricyclic AntidepressantsTricyclic antidepressants (TCAs) are an old class of antidepressive drugs, much older than Prozac and other SSRIs. The first TCA imipramine was discovered back in the 1950s, when psychopharmacology was still a new science. The name "tricyclic" comes from their molecular structure which contains three rings of atoms.The TCAs are effective antidepressants, but because they tend to cause more side effects than newer drugs, they are rarely used to treat depression any more. They are, however, still commonly used in the treatment of chronic pain, sleep disorders and some other conditions, usually in doses much smaller...

Acupuncture Depression Treatment

Acupuncture is a centuries (if not millennia) old practice of Chinese medicine. It is truly an art form and an incredible way to heal just about everything that ails you. There is research going on into the effectiveness of acupuncture on depressed patients as a way to augment or replace chemical therapies.It is believed that acupuncture can be at least as good as and maybe better than drug therapies and even psychotherapy regimens. The studies that are surfacing are properly and scientifically controlled studies that use placebo, drug and talk therapy treatments in comparison to people with similar types of depression. The researchers are finding...

Youth Suicide: Risk Factors and Prevention

Facts and StatisticsTeenagers attempt suicide roughly 10 times more frequently than adults, although their fatality rate of 11.1 per 100,000 people is about the same as adults'. This is the third leading cause of death among 15-19 year-olds. For this age group, there were 5,174 motor-vehicle deaths in 1994, compared to 1,948 suicides. According to U.S. national data released in September 1991, about one million teens (out of about 25 million) attempt suicide each year, of which an estimated 276,000 sustained injuries serious enough to require medical treatment. Some other estimates (these are total, not per-year) are considerably higher: 3% of...

Deep Brain Stimulation for Treatment Resistant Depression

Deep brain stimulation (DBS) is an experimental surgical treatment involving the implantation of a medical device that sends electrical impulses to specific parts of the brain. DBS has been approved for treating tremor (a disease where parts of the body, usually the hands, shake when someone is intentionally moving), dystonia (a disorder where muscle contractions cause twisting and repetitive movements or abnormal postures), and Parkinson's Disease. DBS has also shown some promise in helping people with treatment-resistant depression.The pacemaker or stimulator that controls DBS is placed in specific areas of a person's brain (mapped out ahead...

Light Therapy for Depression

I have severe pain and trouble walking, I push myself to go outside in the sunlight. It makes the whole day change and lessons the intensity of pain. Of course it's hard for me to just sit there so I begin planting or just visiting my flower family. It truly works for me.Marcella FloydAbout Light TherapyWhat may be a good treatment for one type of depression may be good for another. Take light therapy for depression, for instance. Doctors have successfully treated seasonal affective disorder (SAD), a mild depression caused by reduced exposure to sunlight in winter months, with light therapy – spending a prescribed amount...

Vagus Nerve Stimulation for treating Depression

Vagus nerve stimulation, an effective epilepsy treatment, has produced encouraging preliminary results for patients suffering from "treatment-resistant depression," and a study beginning at University Medical Center of Arizona and a handful of other U.S. sites may verify the promising new therapy. Approximately 18 million Americans suffer from depression, and about 1 million of whom have severe treatment-resistant depression.FDA ApprovalFDA approval for the Vagal Nerve Stimulator (VNS) came July 1997 as adjunctive treatment of complex partial seizures for patients over 12 years old. As with any approved treatment, "off label" use...