late life depression

Examples of late life depression in the following topics:

• Depressants

  • A depressant (also called a central depressant) is a chemical compound that manipulates neurotransmission levels, thereby reducing arousal or stimulation in various parts of the brain.
  • Calming effects of depressants may be beneficial to those suffering from anxiety, sleep disorders, or pain; however, the more extreme effects can be dangerous and even life-threatening.
  • Depressants inhibit the next neuron from sending impulses by binding to receptor molecules. 
  • In the late 1950s, it became clear that the social cost of barbiturates was beginning to outweigh the medical benefits, which sparked a serious search for a class of replacement drugs.
  • Compare the effects of different types of depressants on the brain

• Neurodevelopmental Disorders: Mental Illnesses

  • Schizophrenia and depression are just two examples of mental illnesses caused by a disorder of the nervous system.
  • These disorders are severe enough to affect a person's quality of life and often make it difficult for people to perform the routine tasks of daily living.
  • A more detailed discussion of two mental illnesses, schizophrenia and major depression, is given below.
  • Many schizophrenic patients are diagnosed in their late adolescence or early 20s.
  • Major depression (also referred to as just "depression" or "major depressive disorder") affects approximately 6.7 percent of the adults in the United States each year and is one of the most common mental disorders.

• Depressive Disorders

  • When you have clinical depression, it interferes with daily life and causes significant pain for both you and those who care about you.
  • Major depressive disorder (also called major depression and clinical depression) is a mood disorder characterized by a pervasive and persistent low mood that is accompanied by low self-esteem and by a loss of interest or pleasure in normally enjoyable activities.
  • The symptoms must significantly interfere with one or more areas of an individual's life (such as work, relationships, school, etc.) and must not be directly caused by a medical condition or the use of substances.
  • People with persistent depressive disorder are chronically sad and melancholy but do not meet all the criteria for major depression.
  • However, episodes of full-blown major depressive disorder can occur during persistent depressive disorder (APA, 2013).

• Socioemotional Development in Late Adulthood

  • As people approach the end of life, changes occur and special challenges arise.
  • If an elderly person has to move away from friends, community, their home, or other familiar aspects of their life in order to enter a nursing home, they may experience isolation, depression, or loneliness.
  • She proposed five stages of grief in what became known as the Kübler-Ross model: denial, anger, bargaining, depression, and acceptance.
  • Depression: The realization that death is near sets in, and people become extremely sad.
  • Acceptance: People realize that all forms of life, including the self, come to an end, and they accept that life is ending.

• Explaining Mood Disorders

  • While everyone experiences negative mood at some point in their lives, mood disorders affect an individual's capacity to function in daily life.
  • When most people think of mood disorders, they typically think of depression (also called major depressive disorder and clinical depression) and bipolar disorder.
  • Major depression significantly affects a person's family and personal relationships, work or school life, sleeping and eating habits, and general health.
  • Dysthymia and major depression naturally have many symptoms in common, including depressed mood, disturbed sleep, low energy, and poor concentration.
  • Evidence suggests that recent life events and interpersonal relationships contribute to the likelihood of onsets and recurrences of bipolar mood episodes, as they do for onsets and recurrences of depression.

• Culture in the Thirties

  • Despite the Great Depression, culture in the 1930s, both commercial and funded by New Deal programs as part of the relief effort, flourished.
  • The New Deal, with its core idea of the government's intervention in the economy, politics, and social life, included also programs that funded and promoted various cultural projects, many of them focusing on the documentation of the experience of ordinary Americans during the dramatic economic depression.
  • As the late 1920s witnessed the popularization and commercialization of a sound film, both popular and more ambitious cinema flourished in the 1930s.
  • The Great Depression era produced some of the greatest works in American literature.
  • He often wrote about poor, working-class people and their struggle to lead a decent and honest life.

• Escaping Hard Times

  • Chaplin’s Modern Times shows his character, The Little Tramp, fighting through the pitfalls of life during the Depression and was named to the American Film Institute’s list of 100 Greatest Films.
  • Other examples of life in the Depression include A Man’s Castle (1933) starring Spencer Tracy, Our Daily Bread (1934), My Man Godfrey (1936), and the highly acclaimed Of Mice and Men (1939).
  • Toward the late 1930s, movies from foreign countries also began to play in American theaters.
  • The late 1920s saw the emergence of Walt Disney and his eponymous studio.
  • Charlie Chaplin's 1936 film, Modern Times, depicted life in the Great Depression with comedy and empathy and has been named one of the 100 Greatest Films.

• Introduction to American Agriculture: Its Changing Significance

  • Early in the nation's life, farmers were seen as exemplifying economic virtues such as hard work, initiative, and self-sufficiency.
  • Indeed, sometimes his success has created his biggest problem: the agricultural sector has suffered periodic bouts of overproduction that have depressed prices.
  • In the 1930s, for instance, overproduction, bad weather, and the Great Depression combined to present what seemed like insurmountable odds to many American farmers.
  • This large-scale intervention, which was unprecedented, continued until the late 1990s, when Congress dismantled many of the support programs.
  • By the late 1990s, the U.S. farm economy continued its own cycle of ups and downs, booming in 1996 and 1997, then entering another slump in the subsequent two years.

• Competing Solutions

  • While Hoover's response to the Great Depression was initially too narrow and more decisive actions came too late, Roosevelt's New Deal drew on some of Hoover's ideas but proposed a series of sweeping reforms and programs.
  • Hoover's response to the Great Depression is also associated with three other critical pieces of legislation.
  • Roosevelt's response to the Great Depression not only contrasted with his campaign rhetoric but also built upon some of the initiatives introduced by Hoover.
  • In short, the federal government introduced many large-scale programs and laws that had direct impact on the life of Americans (e.g., creating jobs through massive public projects; providing direct financial support, etc.) and pushed vast legislation that regulated the market and labor relations as well as proposed social reforms.
  • Roosevelt’s response to the Great Depression

• The Link Between Psychology and Health

  • When illness or accidents befall a person, their entire life is affected.
  • Depressed patients are often physically sedentary, which can cause a reduction in physical work capacity.
  • Another common symptom of depression is increased appetite and weight gain.
  • Additionally, physical activity releases endorphins which can help combat mild depressive symptoms physiologically.
  • Running is frequently recommended as therapy for people with clinical depression and people coping with addiction.