Johns Hopkins Health Alert
Research Update on Depression and Anxiety
Which comes first: depression or anxiety? This is the question researchers have begun to answer in a study reported in the Archives of General Psychiatry.
It has been believed that generalized anxiety disorder (GAD) typically precedes the development of depression. However, researchers now assert that depression occurs before anxiety as frequently as anxiety manifests before depression, and that the two disorders often develop at the same time.
The observations are from a long-term New Zealand study that followed 1,037 people and examined them for anxiety and depression at seven intervals between ages 11–32. In 37% of those diagnosed with depression, anxiety surfaced before or at the same time as depression, while in those diagnosed with anxiety, depression began before or concurrently with anxiety in 32%. Seventy-two percent of lifetime anxiety cases had a history of depression, while 48% of lifetime depression cases had anxiety. As adults, 12% of the participants had been diagnosed with both GAD and major depressive disorder; of these people, 66% had recurrent depression, 47% had recurrent anxiety, 64% had used mental health services, 47% had taken psychiatric medication, 8% had been hospitalized, and 11% had attempted suicide.
The authors suggested that the lifetime prevalence of coexisting anxiety and depression is probably higher than typically estimated, and that the two conditions could be classified in one category of distress disorders. [This study was reported in the Archives of General Psychiatry, Volume 64, page 651.]
Posted in Depression and Anxiety on August 27, 2008
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I watched a happy energetic little boy hit a brick wall of depression and anxiety when he turned about 14. They seemed to occur at the same time and the only possible explanation from physicians is neural networking gone wrong. He has been on medication ever since. In fact, next year will be his last year of college, a neuroscience major, attending a very respectable university. He continues to seek help at college and is careful with his medication, but now I am watching him slip more and more into a reclusive lifestyle. When I talk to him about it, he says that he has now been diagnosed with a social disorder and finds it too difficult to be in public. I can't tell if this is a result of the medication or if this problem has evolved into something more. If anyone could offer advice, I would be so grateful.
Posted by: Concerned Mom | May 31, 2010 6:18 AM
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Anxiety It is known that anxiety does raise blood pressure. It is also suggested that sever anxiety can alter unconscious automatic body functions, such as altering when the kidneys produce urine. Like limiting the production of urine during the day, then at night when you relax, the kidneys ramp up production and you are up every 1 - 2 hours to void, thus leading to lack of sleep. Which causes more anxiety and so on, to the point of exhaustion and depression.
Posted by: JoeMac | November 19, 2008 12:15 PM