At McLean Hospital in Belmont, brain researchers have hit upon what could become a totally new way to treat depression – blocking a brain chemical called dynorphin, the “evil cousin” of endorphin, which triggers the “runner’s high.”
Rushing Off Antidepressants Can Bring On More Distress
At first, Zoloft seemed like “manna from heaven,” says this 53-year-old woman, a teacher who lives in Watertown.
It was the summer of 1999 and, for reasons she still doesn’t fully understand, she had slipped into a “terrible slump.” Her doctor suggested Zoloft, America’s second most popular antidepressant, after Prozac. And for a while, it was great, says the woman, who does not want her name used.
Is Moderate Drinking The Answer?
Until four months ago, Paul Robert, a hard-working, 42-year-old Connecticut businessman, would get home from work and knock back six drinks a night – 45 drinks a week. Sometimes wine, sometimes beer, sometimes the hard stuff.
Ambiguous Losses Leave Survivors In Limbo
This is a love story – but one with the kind of anguished twist that millions of Americans must grapple with.
“Betsy, Betsy, Betsy, I love you,” Frederick “Pete” Peterson, now 84 and living in an assisted-living facility in Peabody, used to say, before Alzheimer’s disease slowly stole his brain.
Treatments For Manic Depression Are Improving
Michael Penney, 53, of Holliston used to have, as he puts it, “a charmed life.” Marriage. A son. A master’s degree in marine economics and law, and good jobs, including an eight-year stint at the state office of Coastal Zone Management.
Go the medical route if herb doesn’t relieve depression
So, you’re depressed. Given that the Globe’s analysis showed that, at least in lab tests, there is considerable variation among St. John’s wort brands, should you take it at all?
St. John’s Wort: Less Than Meets The Eye
Globe Analysis Shows Popular Herbal Antidepressant Varies Widely In Content, Quality.
We thought it would be easy.
After all, we had just two seemingly simple questions: Does St. John’s wort, the popular herbal adtidepressant on which Americans spend $250 million a year, work – at least on rat brain cells in a test tube? And do the product labels accurately reflect what’s inside the tablets?
FDA loosens reins
The US Food and Drug Administration once had the power to force manufacturers of over-the-counter dietary supplements, including herbal remedies, to prove those products were safe, if the agency felt such a pre-market review was warranted.
Trendy pill should be taken with a grain of salt
She’s a young woman from the South Shore, finally able both to work and to study for an advanced degree.
But for years, she’s been plagued by severe depression that stems, she says, from physical abuse she suffered as a child, and from sexual abuse when she was 17.
Here’s to your health: the benefits of drinking outweigh the risks, but only within limits
On Thursday, the French will go nuts.
We know this because they go nuts every year on the third Thursday of November, the day the latest crop of just-off-the-vine wines hit the market.
Wine-lovers will swarm to those cute little bistros, swell with Gallic pride, swill a glass of this fairly flimsy red stuff, and proclaim, “Le Beaujolais Nouveau est arrive!”