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T here are different types of depression, ranging from the normal 'blues' to mild depression (dysthymia) to major depression. Women have a much higher incidence than man. Normal depressed mood is a healthy reaction to, say a death in the family, changes in life or work, temporary financial problems etc. It often stimulates the person to make changes that will render the situation bearable. Persons with more debilitating depression have feelings of doom and gloom, despair and hopelessness. They will cry for no apparent reason, have loss of appetite, are tired and want to sleep all the time but may also have difficulty doing so. Another usual complaint is loss of interest in activities they previously found pleasurable. For some, thoughts of suicide are prevalent. People with manic depressive disorder, or bipolar disorder, have alternating bouts of depression with episodes of intense excitement and mania. Depression can be either primary or secondary in occurrence. Primary depression comes about without other precipitating physical conditions or disorders, whereas secondary depression is usually the development of a preexisting physical or mental disorder, or of medications. Western medicine still does not know the cause for primary depression, but biopsychosocial factors including heredity, stress, personality type and gender may interact with each other to cause depression.
Secondary depression can be caused by a medical condition, medication, recreational drugs and other psychiatric disorders. Physical problems that may lead to depression include infectious diseases, endocrine problems and neurologic conditions, as well as nutritional deficiencies. Some of the medications that can cause depression include steroids, amphetamines, some antibiotics and analgesics. Stopping certain medication can also lead to depression. In the US alone, more then 5 million people are taking Prozac. Over the last 7 years there have been over 31.000 reported cases of adverse reactions to this common drug.
As more and more people are struggling with depression, a lot of them are starting to wonder if there is a natural, safe way to treat depression. Traditional Chinese medicine (TCM) is one very valuable alternative. Prozac is not familiar to most Chinese people or even Chinese health professionals, and the majority of western anti-depressive drugs are not commonly available in public hospitals. This is not because the Chinese don't get depressed or stressed, but because they tend to deal with it differently. They turn to their centuries old medicine, Acupuncture and Chinese herbs.
''Depression'' in Chinese medicine is defined as a disorder caused by emotional constraint with stagnation of Qi (energy), with typical symptoms such as: lowering of the spirits, irritability, inclination to cry, distention and pain in hypochondria area, insomnia and sometimes a feeling of a foreign body in the throat (A plumb stone throat). It is not the exact equivalent of depression in Western medicine, but they share common features. The first medical book, ''the yellow emperor's classic of internal Medicine'' (I've referred to many times in previous articles) already contained theories on the origin of depression. In TCM, mental and/or emotional problems such as depression are attributed to an imbalance or blockage in one or more of the internal organs (Zang-Fu) Some of the more common patterns of disharmony that can manifest as depression are:
· Stagnation of Liver Qi with such symptoms as uneasiness, hypochondriac distention, belching, anorexia etc.
· Accumulation of phlegm with symptoms such as distention and pain in the flanks, depressed mood,
· Heart yin deficiency with symptoms such as Palpitations, forgetfulness, insomnia etc..
Usually people begin to experience some signs and symptoms such as the ones mentioned above. left untreated, the disorder will spread and involve other organs. That is why in TCM we recommend early diagnosis and treatment. The longer a person waits to be treated, the more treatments he or she will need. Acupuncture is used as the main modality, but is often supplemented with Chinese herbal formulas. A new pilot study in the university of Arizona confirmed that TCM is a promising treatment for mild to major depression. 70% of participants experienced at least 50% reduction of symptoms, comparable to the success rates of psychotherapy and medication. This was the first (to my knowledge) randomized, controlled double blinded study of Acupuncture's effectiveness for depression reported in Western scientific literature.
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