To celebrate Terry White Chemists association with beyondblue, Good Healthy Advice would like to showcase a beyondblues TV commercial from their national advertsing campaign to help build awareness of depression, anxiety and related substance misuse disorders in Australia.

Source: General Hospital Psychiatry

Researchers have found a strong and consistent association between depression and obesity among middle-aged women, which is independent of confounding factors such as age, race, marital status and level of education.

Obesity and its consequences are a major public health problem. Since the 1970s epidemiological studies have examined a possible association between obesity and depression with mixed results – some found a negative association, others a positive association limited to women, and some found there to be no association at all.

Simon and co-workers suggest that methodological differences may account for this variability. In their current research, they used data from a large sample of middle-aged women to assess the association between various levels of obesity with depression severity.

A total of 4641 women aged between 40 and 65 years completed a population-based survey. The survey was conducted via a structured telephone interview that included self-reported height, weight, ethnicity, marital status, tobacco use and educational background, as well as an assessment of depression using the Patient Health Questionnaire (PHQ).

The results revealed that the prevalence of depression was progressively higher as body mass index (BMI) increased from normal to morbidly obese. This result was consistent when depression was defined by current major depressive episode or by PHQ score of 10 or more.

Compared to women with BMI less than 25, the relative odds of having a PHQ score ?10 were 3.83 for those with BMI between 25 and 30, 4.40 for those with BMI between 30 and 35, and 5.72 for those with BMI of 35 or more.

Furthermore, Simon et al. observed a step-wise increase in this association in both directions. “Increasing severity of depressive symptoms was strongly associated with higher risk of obesity, and increasing BMI was strongly associated with higher risk of depressive disorder,” they pointed out.

Analyses examining whether the association between depression and obesity varied according to age, race, marital status and educational attainment revealed no statistically significant association between any of these characteristics (p?0.23).

The authors concluded that a “strong and consistent relationship” exists between obesity and depression among middle-aged women.

Reference
Simon, G. Ludman, E. et al. 2008, ‘Association between obesity and depression in middle-aged women’ General Hospital Psychiatry; 30: 32–39

Source: beyondblue

NSW Minister for Ageing The Hon. Kristina Keneally will launch a new initiative to combat depression among older people in NSW.

The beyond maturity blues peer education program which is being funded by beyondblue: the national depression initiative has been developed by beyondblue in partnership with Council on the Ageing. The New South Wales program will be conducted by COTA NSW and the NSW Senior Peer Education Centre and will provide information sessions for older people to increase their awareness of depression and where to go for help.

COTA Chief Executive Ian Yates said: "Depression is not a normal part of ageing. It is a health problem, not a weakness. We will address the issue by providing seniors with information that will reduce stigmatising attitudes and increase seniors’ knowledge of where to receive appropriate help. Depression is a treatable illness – information and support is now available."

Beyondblue Acting CEO Dr Nicole Highet said: "Depression is not to be expected in old age, but it is a widespread health problem that’s very often not recognised, misdiagnosed and poorly treated.  Many older people and their carers either aren’t aware of the common signs and symptoms of depression, or don’t want to talk about how they’re feeling, for fear of burdening their families."

In 2006, beyondblue and Council on the Ageing South Australia conducted a successful pilot program aimed at older people to increase their awareness of depression.

This twelve-month pilot project examined the effectiveness of using existing peer support networks to deliver specific depression-awareness education to older people.

"We know that older people are receptive to health information from their peers.  We’re very excited to be working with COTA across Australia on this project.  We hope to make a difference in helping people to recognise depression in themselves or others and most importantly to know how to access help," Dr Highet said.

beyondblue’s evaluation showed the effectiveness of the pilot program. The percentage of people who could correctly identify the incidence of depression rose dramatically after the training.

As a result, the program is now being rolled out nationally through Councils on the Ageing in every state and territory. Trained peer educators will present talks to groups of seniors over the next 18 months.

"It isn’t good enough to tell a person who is depressed that they should just get over it or it’s all their own fault," said Mr Yates.

"Seniors talking to seniors through our peer education program is a very effective way of getting the message across. People who are depressed need help. This project will provide support to enable seniors to access that help."