I was going to do something like this from my office...

...but the government beat me to it.

Is depression a sin?

Tim Chester tackles an important question, one that I've been asked before. I think he handles it pretty well.

(TY, Justin Buzzard)

blogger beware

It seems everyone with a blog is linking to a certain article in The New York Times, "In Web World of 24/7 Stress, Writers Blog Till They Drop." NYT even claims that it's the most blogged-about article in the "technology" section of their site. Several known (though not to me) bloggers have died within the past months, and some have reported depression-like symptoms of sleeplessness and appetite problems. But do the symptoms - and deaths - of a few people point to a larger problem?

To be sure, there is no official diagnosis of death by blogging, and the premature demise of two people obviously does not qualify as an epidemic. There is also no certainty that the stress of the work contributed to their deaths. But friends and family of the deceased, and fellow information workers, say those deaths have them thinking about the dangers of their work style.

I really can't see how we can examine what happened to a few people and say with any degree of definitiveness, See? Blogging will be the death of you! What other lifestyle factors might have figured in to the deaths of Russell Shaw and Marc Orchant, the two mentioned in the article?What about other jobs that have "dangers of work style?" Go here to read about America's most dangerous professions.

There have certainly been studies that examined a link between suicide rates and specific types of employment, and there are some stastically signicant rates of suicide for white male physicians, black male guards, and white female artists. However, no study has been able to convincingly show that if someone takes a specific job, it's more likely that she will die.

It would certainly be difficult, though not impossible, to conduct a study on the prevalence of depressive symptoms for bloggers. The difficulty lies in the fact that bloggers, although they're usually white males, can come from all aspects of life. The study would have to specifically focus on those who blog as their primary profession or means of financial support. I'm sure we'll see something about this in a psychological research journal within the next few years.

depressed Indiana

There is a decent article by Shari Rudavsky of the Indianapolis Star on the state of the state's mental health, specifically the levels of depression. Rudavsky points to this study, which analyzes depression among the states.

"Ranking the States: An Analysis of Depression Across the States" was researched and written by Mental Health America and Thomson Healthcare. It looks at data from 2002-2006 and was conducted from July to November 2007. The report compares depression levels and suicide rates in all 50 states and the District of Columbia and uses the information to highlight solutions to improve states' mental health status.

Mental Health America has two goals for the report: (1) spur the development of a public health surveillance system to monitor the mental health of Americans and the specific impact of depression, and (2) to stimulate action by communities, public health professionals, federal and state policy makers, and others to address depression in their populations.

The top five least depressed states are South Dakota, Hawaii, New Jersey, Iowa, and Maryland. The five most depressed states are Utah, West Virginia, Kentucky, Rhode Island, and Nevada. Indiana rates at #39.

treating depression leads to a longer life

From the Grey Lady:

Treating depression in older adults may be a life-saving intervention, a new study suggests. It has been known for some time that depressed people are more likely to die, but it has never been clear that treating their depression would help extend their lives.

Researchers studied 1,226 patients over 60 in the care of general practice doctors; of those, 599 met the diagnostic criteria for either major depression or clinically significant minor depression. The researchers randomly assigned about half the patients to a depression treatment program within the general practice that included psychotherapy and drugs. The study was published in the May 15 issue of The Annals of Internal Medicine.

The scientists found no difference in the survival of people with minor depression in the treated or untreated groups. But after controlling for age, sex, smoking status, education level and current physical illnesses, people with major depression who were treated were about half as likely to die during a five-year follow-up as those who were left untreated. For reasons that are unclear, the reduction in deaths seemed to come almost entirely in the group of patients who had cancer.

a human Lincoln

I'm currently reading Joshua Shenk's Lincoln's Melancholy, a fascinating account of the depressive periods our 16th president often experienced. I'll talk about it more fully once I complete the book, but for now I want to mention some things I hadn't known about Lincoln before.

• He proposed to several women - and was rejected - before marrying Mary Todd
• He loved to tell stories and jokes, particularly "dirty" ones
• He enjoyed reading poetry that focused on death and loss
• He liked popcorn and oysters