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Depression Claims Another Victim
Posted by PATRICK EDABURN, Assistant Editor in Arts & Entertainment, Media.
Feb 25th, 2010 | 16 responses
Feb 25th, 2010 | 16 responses
Sad news out of Vancouver Canada.
Actor Andrew Koening, son of Walter (aka Chekov) has been missing for several weeks.
His body was found today, the victim of a suicide brought on by depression.
If you know somebody who is dealing with this horrible condition please be sure to watch over them.
A heartbreaking video of his parents press conference.
http://www.eonline.com/uberblog/andrew_koenig/index.html
16 Responses to “Depression Claims Another Victim”
This is so sad. He probably could have been helped with medication/therapy for it.
dear kritt, his folks say he stopped taking his anti-depressant medications a year ago. Enough time for half-life of the meddies to support his chemistry for a while, but then… ran out. So sorry. THis issue about compliance with meds in those who take antidepressants is a story in itself.
May his family be comforted, may his soul rest in peace now
dr.e
I hope he's in a better place now.
I think it's even worse if you have been taking anti-depressant medication for a long time and then suddenly go off them than if you never took them at all. That may be another way of saying what you were saying, I just wanted to add it.
From personal observation, the folks on anti-depressants seem to want very badly to get off them because of all the nasty side effects, and then when they do, they get worse and desperate. Is there no real answer? Pharma's not doing the trick IMO.
Dr. E. –
Pursuing the depression angle of this story…
Drugs are so expensive. In our recessionary times, are there alternative ways to treat it? I'm thinking here of my own experience. Sometimes when I've been on a low ebb, I get a “kick start” by getting out and exercising extra. Has anyone studied regular exercise as either a preventative for depression, or even something of a treatment?
My younger nephew is suffering from this. It's agonizing and frustrating for my brother when it's at its worst.
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“Has anyone studied regular exercise as either a preventative for depression, or even something of a treatment?”
I believe this was done long ago, either during or shortly after the running craze and the knowledge of endorphins.
I can only go by my experience and that of another family member who has been taking anti-depressant medication for a long time, and based on that experience I would say that there are no major side effects after the first few weeks. Or, put another way, if there are going to be any serious side effects, they would come in the first few weeks after starting the medication, and even then there usually aren't severe side effects.
Anti-depressants are not magic happy pills, and they are not the entire answer or even any answer at all for some given percentage of depressed people, but in general they work very well. Sometimes you have to work with your doctor to find the right one, and of course even after you find one that works, dosage and use still have to be monitored regularly.
For me and my family member, these meds have been very effective and quite possibly life-saving.
Exercise *has* been known to help with depression. In fact, Sheryl Crow is one very well-known example of someone who overcame clinical depression largely through exercise.
However, there is a huge BUT. Like other depression treatments, no one solution is right for everyone, and sometimes a combination is needed. Also, it very much depends on what form of depression you have. People can have episodes of clinical depression that get better either on their own or through specific treatments, like exercise, but that doesn't mean exercise is the cure. In Sheryl Crow's case, she has written about how much exercise helped, but she has also never claimed that it would be the answer for everyone. I don't know what form of depression she had, but it may very well have been short-term depression. That's just as real as any other kind of depression, but it simply doesn't last as long.
When clinical depression does not end, even after treatment, but continues, long-term or even indefinitely, that is called major depression. I don't think anyone would ever argue against the efficacy and benefit of exercise for anyone, under any conditions (other than physical limitations), but it's not going to make major depression go away. It could be one element in an entire regimen.
It troubles me a bit that you would frame the exercise to help depression idea as an alternative to medications because “drugs are expensive in our recessionary times.” This is why we need health care reform, redbus (well, one of the many reasons we do). That's not acceptable, in my view, to suggest we should explore free solutions to clinical depression because drugs cost too much. If drugs cost too much, the solution is to make them cost less.
Kathy, no doubt you may have been paying attention to the Pristiq commercials (more out of your own experience rather than they are aimed at women). The drug development is moving beyond serotonin. While I was in Michigan last year I got time to watch some TV and the ads were on then.
http://pristiq.com/treating_depression.aspx
For your information, “make them cost less” isn't easy or guaranteed, though it's certainly possible. Also, I refer to the Pristiq ads, but actually I believe these are the type of ads (pharma ads) that ought to be prohibited as much as tobacco or even alcohol ads (if these may be regulated — they're not political speech — not wanting to reintroduce that controversy here, though).
hello there redbus; drugs can be very expensive, you're right. Most drug companies have free or near free drug distribution programs for people who cannot afford meddies of many kinds. One has to jump through some hoops with their docs, but the programs are there. There appear to be more in the area of common ailment meddies like ulcer probs, high blood pressure, anti-depressants, etc. I ever hope there will be more.
Your question about alternative ways to treat depression… yes there are, depending on the constitution of the individual and how far out of balance their body chemistry is/ has gone. As a post trauma specialist for 40 years now, one of the first instruction we give to victims at disaster sites is to not sit and stare if possible, but to have others help them to gently move, and to keep moving each day thereafter.
The efficacy seems in part to come from not allowing the brain to write the same images over and over in the mind, to occupy at least part of the brain with other charges. We also know that vigorous excercising after trauma, for those who can do it, helps many. It appears in part, to release from the body the 'fear stare and the fear lock' that comes on people who have been assuulted or hurt or badly shocked.
We do know that exercise, vigorous, but also walking for instance say for twenty minutes a day, can even out breath, thereby heartbeat, and… we know that breathing deeply for a period of time, in slow-then quick- rthyms (sp), instead of shallowly, can calm many people very much.
I've had persons as patients who have wanted very much to have exercise help their anxiety states, panic reactions or depressive episodes. For endogenous depression, that come as a result of the body going out of balance chemicologically, it can assist, but cannot rev enough of the chemistry needed to even mood.
In an exogenous depression (caused by an outside event, or triggered in an already depressive tendency by an outer event) exercise might be a bit more helpful. Again, it very much seems to be depending on the chemical and physiologic constitution of the individual.
In the years I've practiced, I've seen many offerings for how to 'cure' depression, including water diets, cleansing diets, electro-convulsive 'therapy,' and various editions of medicines, etc. It appears that in many depressions, medicine helps to lift the person out of depressive thinking… which said one way, is perseveration on the same horrible depressive thought or feeling over and over again, without being able to will oneself to focus on goodness, beauty, hope or meaning that also surrounds one's life.
I'm sorry to have gone on so long here, there is much more. But, I will stop there, and thank you for asking. My sense about your last question is yes, exercise may be a prophylactic against depression and anxiety states, because the body becomes used to the chemical arousal that comes from it… It is, in all, a very custom endeavor, because though we are the same in so many ways, it appears chemicologically even a minute difference in this vs that, can put any of us in sorts or out of.
dr.e
My own observations who've been on them have shown me completely different results, especially regarding your claim that there “are no major side effects after the first few weeks”. My own family and friends who take them find them intolerable but continue to take them because they do help. They have told me they can never make up their mind whether to keep taking them or not, whether they're helping them or not.
Now these folks I'm talking about have serious issues, and (of course) this is anecdotal, but I'm always bothered by their responses and I think our culture is so accepting of pills folks just stop asking questions or are discouraged from challenging the status quo.
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My understanding is that current drugs are in reality not what works on depression, but rather it is their metabolites that produce the desired effect. There is ongoing research into drugs that will work directly on the desired brain chemistry modifications and that these would be expected to have fewer side effects, if any.
KK – I wasn't meaning to frame this as either exercise or meds. I suspect there are many among the uninsured who don't get anti-depressants, but could use them. I wonder if Medicaid covers these? If so, then perhaps our dollars should go there first?
Medicaid does cover these kinds of medications, but you don't get Medicaid unless you are indigent, or close to indigent, and there are lots of people who don't qualify for Medicaid but also don't have health insurance.