Mothers Can Pass Depression On To Children

According to a US study, mothers can pass depression on to their children. On the other hand, if the mother is successfully treated for depression, the chances of her children developing psychiatric disorders goes down significantly.


This is the first study to look at a link between a child's mental health and his/her mother's (successful or not) treatment for depression.


Sadly, if the mother's depression continues, her children run a sizeable risk of having mental health problems.


The author of the study, Myrna Weissman, said "If you have a depression mother, you ought to do everything you can to get her better, because there's a double effect…. While depression may be a genetic disorder, it has a strong environmental component. And, for a child, a parent's illness is a very strong environmental effect. You want to reduce that effect so that you can have a beneficial effect on the child."


The study looked at 151 mothers with depression and 151 of their children, aged 7-17, during 2001 - 2004.


At the start of the study over 30% of the children had mental health problems, such as depression, anxiety and behavioural problems. Three months later one third of the mothers were successfully treated for depression. Among those mothers, the number of children with mental health problems fell by 11%. However, after three months there was an 8% increase in the number of children with mental health problems among the mothers whose depression did not go into remission (did not get better).


The researchers also noticed that the mother's depression tends to effect the whole family.


Post Natal Depression (PND) or Post Natal Illness (PNI)?


Many organisations that help women with Post Natal Illness, prefer to use this term, rather than Post Natal Depression. The reason being that many women who experience this illness found that the term 'depression' did not reflect how it felt for them.


Many find the term Post Natal Depression misleading and unhelpful and prefer the use of Post Natal Illness as a descriptive and useful name.


For a description of Post Natal Illness, go to
www.pni

Exploring The Roles Of The Pituitary Gland And Sympathetic Nervous System In The Inflammatory Process

University of Iowa researchers are ready to find the causes of interstitial cystitis, thanks to a five-year, $4.8 million grant from the National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases, part of the National Institutes of Health. The grant is the largest ever received by the University of Iowa Department of Urology.



Interstitial cystitis is a painful bladder condition that causes excessively frequent urination and associated pain. An estimated 1.3 million Americans have the condition, more than one million of them women, according to an NIH report published in 2007.



"Some people with interstitial cystitis can't work because their symptoms are so severe. The condition has been difficult to treat because we don't know the causes," said the grant's principal investigator Karl Kreder, M.D., professor of urology at the University of Iowa Carver College of Medicine.



"This NIH grant will allow us to explore inflammatory factors in the bladder and, as some recent evidence suggests, whether interstitial cystitis is a total body condition," said Kreder, who also is director of urodynamics, female and reconstructive urology in the Department of Urology at University of Iowa Hospitals and Clinics.



The funding makes the UI a "Discovery Site" for the NIH's Multidisciplinary Approach to the Study of Chronic Pelvic Pain Research Network. In particular, the UI researchers will explore the roles of the pituitary gland and sympathetic nervous system in the inflammatory process. Kreder said the project involves five different, but interrelated, projects and will draw on the UI's Institute for Clinical and Translational Science.



One project, led by Susan Lutgendorf, Ph.D., professor of psychology in the UI College of Liberal Arts and Sciences, examines the hypothalamic pituitary-adrenal axis, which helps regulate temperature, the immune system, mood, sexuality, and energy, as well as reactions to stress and injury.



A second project examining brain pathways that may govern painful syndromes is led by Satish Rao, M.D., Ph.D., UI professor of internal medicine.



Catherine Bradley, M.D., UI associate professor of obstetrics and gynecology, leads a third project that is focused on the epidemiology of interstitial cystitis and categorizes it by pain mapping.



The research is rounded out by two basic sciences projects -- one to develop animal models that mimic the disorder, led by Yi Luo, Ph.D., UI assistant professor of urology, and one, led by Michael O'Donnell, M.D., UI professor of urology, that examines how certain bladder factors may predispose a person to interstitial cystitis.







Click here to learn more about interstitial cystitis.



Source: Becky Soglin


University of Iowa

ACOG Calls On Health Care Providers, Employers To Support Women Who Choose To Breast-Feed

The American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists on Wednesday in a committee opinion called on health care providers, employers and hospitals to support women who choose to breast-feed their infants in an effort to increase the number of women in the U.S. who breast-feed, Reuters Health reports (Reuters Health, 1/31). According to the committee opinion -- titled "Breast-feeding: Maternal and Infant Aspects" and published in this month's issue of the journal Obstetrics & Gynecology -- breast-feeding is the "preferred method of feeding for newborns and infants, and nearly every woman can breast-feed her child." A woman should not breast-feed if she uses illicit drugs or is a heavy drinker; if she has HIV or certain other viruses; or the infant has galactosemia, an uncommon condition involving high galactose sugar levels in the blood, the group said. ACOG recommends that women exclusively breast-feed their infants for at least the first six months after birth (ACOG release, 2/1). The goal of the federal government's Healthy People 2010 campaign is to have 50% or more of women breast-feeding at six months and 25% at one year. According to ACOG, this goal can be achieved if women receive proper support services and education. "Women should be supported in integrating breast-feeding into their daily lives in the community and in the workplace to enable them to continue breast-feeding as long as possible," ACOG said (Reuters Health, 1/31).

"Reprinted with permission from kaisernetwork. You can view the entire Kaiser Daily Health Policy Report, search the archives, or sign up for email delivery at kaisernetwork/dailyreports/healthpolicy. The Kaiser Daily Health Policy Report is published for kaisernetwork, a free service of The Henry J. Kaiser Family Foundation . © 2005 Advisory Board Company and Kaiser Family Foundation. All rights reserved.

Marriage Good For Men Physically And Women Mentally, Both Live Longer

Marriage does not only increase male and female longevity, but also tends to benefit wives mentally and husbands physically, researchers from Cardiff University, Wales, wrote in the BMJ (British Medical Journal. The authors include both the "smug marrieds" and those in long-term committed relationships.


Authors David Gallacher and John Gallacher wrote:


". . . on balance, it is probably worth making the effort."


The authors believe males benefit from long-term stable relationships because their lifestyles are conducive to better health, compared to other men, and. . . . :


". . . . the mental bonus for women may be due to a greater emphasis on the importance of the relationship."


True love does not necessarily run smoothly in all cases, the authors added, relationships during the teen years are linked to a greater risk of adolescent depressive symptoms, this improves as people get older.


18 to 25 year olds tend to enjoy better mental but not physical health if they are in a romantic relationship.


Single individuals enjoy better mental health than their counterparts in strained relationships. It would be wrong to assume that any kind of relationship is better than being on one's own.


Splitting up can also have a negative impact on the mental and physical health of both men and women - "exiting a relationship is distressing".


Those with several partners tend to have shorter lifespans than people in long-term relationships.


The investigators concluded that it is not advisable to avoid relationships to prevent damage to health if they go wrong. It might be better to focus on avoiding bad relationships, because the benefits of a good one far outweigh any fallout risks from unpleasant ones.


A one-billion person years' study across seven European nations found that those in stable relationships had age adjusted mortality rates that were ten to fifteen percent lower than the general population's, indicating that on balance making the effort is likely to be worth it.


"Are relationships good for your health? Choose your partners carefully"

David Gallacher, John Gallacher

Student BMJ 2011;19:d404

GOP House Members Send Obama Letter Asking Him To Reinstate 'Conscience' Rule

House GOP members on Tuesday sent a letter to President Obama praising him for saying that he wants to "honor the conscience of those who disagree with abortion" during his commencement address at the University of Notre Dame last weekend, The Hill reports. The Republican lawmakers -- Reps. James Sensenbrenner (Wis.), Chris Smith (N.J.) and John Fleming (La.) -- said Obama's speech indicated to them that he would reinstate the HHS provider "conscience" rule, which expanded the ability of health workers to refuse to provide services or information they objected to on moral or religious grounds and prohibited federal funding for health entities that do not comply.

In March, Obama began the process for rescinding the Bush-era rule, and it is currently undergoing a White House review. In the letter, the representatives said that they "agree with [Obama] that pro-life health care providers should have the right to refuse to participate in procedures that they find morally reprehensible." Smith said he has "renewed hope, hopefully not false" that Obama will "completely forgo the rescinding of this rule" after his remarks during Sunday's speech (Hooper, The Hill, 5/19).


Reprinted with kind permission from nationalpartnership. You can view the entire Daily Women's Health Policy Report, search the archives, or sign up for email delivery here. The Daily Women's Health Policy Report is a free service of the National Partnership for Women & Families, published by The Advisory Board Company.


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