Physical causes of depression need to be addressed

Chinese doctors have found that depression can cause brain damage, and say it is necessary for patients to take medication to repair the damage and cure their depression.

Doctors at the Buddhist Tzu Chi General Hospital in Taiwan carried out a study to fi nd out if depression, which is on the rise in many countries, is a psychological problem or a physical disease.

Tzu Chi doctors studied 20 theses from various countries on depression patients' brain structures as analyzed by magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) and concluded that depressed people not only feel sad, but also suff er from a brain disease.

Th e MRI analysis showed that the gray matter of the anterior cingulate cortex, which controls emotion and social cognition, is damaged, according to the study led by Dr Lai Chien-han.

"Th is shows that anti-depressants can reduce or heal the damage to anterior cingulate gray matter, giving hope for relieving or curing depression," Dr Lai says.

"We urge depression patients to seek treatment. If they let their depression worsen, it will aff ect brain function and in the long term will cause their brain structure to shrink," he says.

However, Yang Tzung-tsai, a psychiatrist from the Cardinal Tien Hospital, says one should not see depression purely as a physical disease.

"Depression is caused by many factors, including hereditary factors, personal character and traumatic events. Medication is one part of the treatment, while psychological counseling is the other part and should not be neglected," he adds.

Take a break from listening to loud music

Not only can listening to loud music through your MP3 player damage your hearing but even lengthy listening at a moderate sound volume can be harmful. Th at warning came from experts at the Medcare Hospital in Dubai as part of International Noise Awareness Day.

An individual's hearing can be permanently impaired when they listen to music at a moderate level over a period of hours. Listening to music at 90 decibels for eight hours will cause defi nite hearing loss, say audiologists in Dubai. Ninety decibels is the equivalent of a lawnmower or traffi c on a busy highway.

Th e ear can withstand about eight hours of this sound pressure before cells in the inner ear begin to be damaged. For every fi ve decibels above this, the listening time is halved, meaning you can only tolerate four hours exposure at 95 decibels and two hours at 100 decibels. Th e experts warn that instant and irreversible damage can be caused at 120 decibels and above.

Th e experts say MP3 players or similar appliances are safe to use with their volume set at 50 percent. Music can be listened to for fi ve hours at 60 percent of the player's volume before one's hearing can be damaged.

At 90 percent of the volume, the time should be limited to just 10-15 minutes with regular rest periods so the ears can recover.

Treatment for 'wake-up strokes' needs improvement

Nearly 15 percent of people who have a stroke are not eligible for clotbusting treatment because the stroke happened while they slept, a new study reports.

Clot-busting drugs can prevent permanent disability aft er a stroke - but the treatment must be given within a four-and-a-half-hour window aft er the stroke symptoms begin.

Since people who have a stroke while asleep can't know when it occurred, they can't get the treatment if they slept for more than four and a half hours, explains study author Dr Jason Mackey at the University of Cincinnati.

When Mackey and his colleagues compared these so-called "wakeup" strokes to strokes that occur during the day, they saw no major diff erences between the two types, indicating that the same advice for preventing and treating daytime strokes applies to those that take place while asleep, he says.

Strokes that occur while people are asleep or awake are "largely indistinguishable", he notes, so people concerned about either type should focus on staying generally healthy, controlling their blood pressure, eating well, exercising and checking their cholesterol.

Strokes can be treated if people act quickly, Mackey adds, so anyone who wakes up with typical signs - such as trouble speaking or walking, or weakness on one side in the arm, face or leg - should work fast.

Reuters - DPA