CALDWELL – Caldwell College will celebrate its alumni’s professional excellence at its 25th Veritas Awards Dinner at 6 p.m. Friday March 26, at the Essex Fells Country Club in Essex Fells.
Mary Jo Codey, Class of 1977, will receive the Excellence in Mental Health Advocacy Award; Nancy Costello Miller, an attorney and Class of 1979, will receive the Excellence in Jurisprudence Award; and Edward Collins, Class of 1998, will receive the Excellence in Financial Management Award.
The Veritas Award is the highest honor the college bestows on its alumni for their professional excellence.
Codey has worked to raise awareness about postpartum depression and breast cancer. During her time as First Lady for the state, Codey advocated on behalf of the governor’s newly created Task Force on Mental Health as she had suffered from postpartum depression.Codey helped to launch a statewide campaign offering evidence-based data, as well as local screening and medical resources for women, their families and health care professionals.
The campaign – “Recognizing Postpartum Depression: Speak Up When You’re Down” – featured Mary Jo in radio and public service announcements on TV.
As a result, New Jersey became the first state to commit resources to uninsured new mothers for postpartum depression screenings and treatment after the Postpartum Depression Screening and Education law was passed in 2006…
Friday, March 5, 2010
Codey, Miller, Collins receive awards from Caldwell College
Rosemount woman will compete for state crown
By: Nathan Hansen, Rosemount Town Pages
It took three years for Marie Kurle to feel comfortable talking to people about the depression she suffered after the birth of her second daughter. Now that she’s started, she can’t seem to stop.
This weekend Kurle will compete in the Mrs. Minnesota International pageant in St. Paul. Her platform will be postpartum depression, the impact it can have on a woman’s life and the need for increased understanding and better resources.
“I just want to be an example that you will get through,” said Kurle, a Rosemount resident. “It is not permanent and it is something that, you will have a life afterward.” …
Blogger Labels: Marie Kurle,postpartum depression,Mrs. Minnesota International Pageant
Read More: http://www.rosemounttownpages.com/event/article/id/24163/group/Communities/
Wednesday, March 3, 2010
Screening for depression before, during and after pregnancy can help: Physicians believe this can make a difference to the mother and child [Pittsburgh Post-Gazette]
… "We have been screening at Magee almost four years now," added Dr. Wisner, an investigator at Magee Womens Research Institute and a multidisciplinary professor at the University of Pittsburgh.
"What we found is roughly 14 percent are positive for [postpartum] depression, so that's our rate in Pittsburgh, actually 14.1 percent," Dr. Wisner said.
"Of women that were in that 14.1 percent, when we talked to them and asked when did [the depression] begin, it began post-birth in a third of them, during pregnancy in a third, and before pregnancy in the other third."
The results were even more startling in a collaborative screening program Magee has with DuBois Regional Medical Center, located about 100 miles northeast of Pittsburgh. "Their postpartum depression rate is 20 percent now," she said. The DuBois center screens for depression during pregnancy, as well, and those numbers are even more troublesome than those of depressed women postpartum: 29 percent during the first prenatal visit.
"Again the rural area has a higher rate of positive screens," Dr. Wisner said. "Some population groups are going to have a higher rate, so it's a big problem."
For example, according to the University of Pittsburgh Office of Child Development, the rate of depression is higher among low-income families and more prevalent among parents who did not earn a high school diploma.
Depression can interfere with a woman's ability to care for her child. Interaction between mother and child can enhance a child's development if it is stimulating and responsive and nurturing.
"There is no question that if the mother is dealing with depression that you are going to have greater neonatal adaptation for the baby. There we're talking about what people typically refer to as bonding," said Ronald Thomas, director of the Division of Maternal-Fetal Medicine for the West Penn Allegheny Health System.
A doctor's ability to detect depression has limitations, according to neonatologist Nilima T. Karamchandani, chief of the Division of Neonatology, and medical director, of the Infant Apnea Center, both at the Western Pennsylvania Hospital.
Mother-infant bonding can be hard to measure, she said: "It is subjective to a certain point."
Entire families are affected, said Dr. David Wolfson, medical director of Children's Community Pediatrics, a network of pediatric practices and 104 pediatricians in the greater Pittsburgh area. It is affiliated with Children's Hospital.
"The issue is identifying these kids who are at risk because of parental depression. ... Anybody who thinks they're not seeing these families is just not recognizing [them]."
Each Children's Community practice either has access to, or has its own, behavioral therapist to provide family, child-centered, care.
The network also is planning a joint conference with women's health care specialists to learn more about postpartum depression and how to conduct screening. Dr. Wisner is among the speakers.
The local experts agreed more study was needed but that it shouldn't get in the way of screening and care.
"We know depression is not a good thing for the mother at least and probably not for the whole family, so let's give them the care while we do the research," Dr. Wolfson said.
Screening of pregnant and postpartum women can be as simple as observing their behavior, asking some questions, or administering any of several screening forms available for that use…
timestranscript.com - Take a mind-body approach to treating depression, anxiety | Dr. Martin Gleixner - Breaking News, New Brunswick, Canada
Dr. Martin Gleixner
Depression and anxiety are common mood disorders affecting many Canadians.
It can be debilitating, but it is treatable.
"Stop feeling sorry for yourself," "Calm down," "Try to relax," "Get out more," or "Get over it," are common pieces of advice that only contribute to making the person feel even more helpless.
A January 2010 report published in the Journal of the American Medical Association, involving nearly 800 patients, examined the effectiveness of two commonly prescribed antidepressants, paroxetine (Paxil) and imipramine. This study found the drugs produced benefits only slightly greater than a placebo in patients with mild to moderate depression. Treatment alternatives without drug side-effects are therefore warranted.
Naturopathic care includes a medical assessment and diagnosis evaluation, including the interpretation of laboratory results. Treatments includes nutritional and exercise suggestions, the use of specific vitamins or minerals in medicinal doses as well individualized herbal or homeopathic combinations to address underlying functional or pathological imbalances.
Equally important is a mind-body approach that includes the integration of counselling practices and relaxation and stress management techniques.
Is it as simple as using natural remedies such as St. John's Wort or vitamin B12 commonly used to treat mood disorders? Although these remedies can be helpful, for a more deep acting and long-lasting effect it is important to consider a whole-body approach.
Whether it's seratonin (or other neurotransmitter) imbalances in the brain, hormone deficiencies, or inflammation in the body, the key is to first understand and address your own unique medical predispositions that are contributing to depression and anxiety.
In previous articles, I used the bucket analogy to explain detoxification and how one can prevent unpleasant symptoms after smoking cessation (see www.monctonnaturopathic.com for previous columns).
This same concept is also very useful to help us understand the underlying causes of mood changes.
Let me review this analogy again. Let's think of our body as a bucket (see embedded figure). Generally we are born in a state of health; our bucket is empty. As we go through life, a number of factors can interfere with our health. Perhaps it's a lack of sleep or exercise, a stressful job, pushing oneself too hard, feeling exhausted, excessive worrying or poor dietary choices that can contribute to increasing the level in our bucket. The level in our bucket represents our health status. Declining health comes with rising levels, an indication that the body is out of balance.
We are also exposed to a great number of toxins during the course of our lifetime. Our lung, kidneys, digestive tract, and liver can normally remove most toxins on a daily basis, but sometimes these detox mechanisms become inefficient or overwhelmed.
In addition, key systems in the body (such as the nervous or hormonal systems) can become imbalanced which can put the 'squeeze' on the bucket thereby significantly contributing to raising the level in the bucket. Deficient or inappropriate secretions of neurotransmitters or hormones are very important factors involved in both anxiety and depression.
Eventually, our bucket can overfill, leading to changes in our mood as well as other symptoms such as insomnia, fatigue, skin reactions, muscle aches and pains, and unexplained weight gain (or loss).
So what can one do to address an overfilled bucket? We don't want to put a lid on the bucket by suppressing symptoms. Such quick fixes or band-aid solutions rarely work for the long-term and do not enhance overall health status. Rather, a more long-lasting way to improve our mood is to address all aspects that are causing our bucket to overfill…
Tuesday, March 2, 2010
Date: Wednesday March 3, 2010
Time: 6:30pm-8:00pm
Location: D.D. and Velma Davis Center, Boardman YMCA - Community Room
45 McClurg Road Boardman, OH 44512
Support Group Meetings will be held at this location the 1st and 3rd Wednesday of every month.
For more information contact Leslie at leslie@poemonline.org or (330)550-2838
That’s why we’re here.
www.poemonline.org
MedEdPPD.org March 2010 Newsletter
March 2010
Dear Colleague,
Numerous studies have linked infant temperament and childhood behavioral problems to postpartum depression in mothers, but a new study finds that mothers who are depressed during pregnancy are more likely to have children who become aggressive or violent during their teenage years. Dr. Dale Hay and colleagues at Cardiff University followed 120 British children from inner city areas and interviewed them at ages 4, 11, and 16. Teens whose mothers were depressed during pregnancy were nearly 4 times as likely to display antisocial behaviors compared with teens born to mothers who were not depressed during pregnancy. In addition, the researchers found that women who themselves were aggressive or violent teenagers were more likely to become depressed prenatally.
To learn more about the effects of perinatal depression in mothers, please view MedEdPPD's previously recorded teleconference, Effects of Maternal Depression, presented by Lisa Segre, PhD. This presentation includes information about how maternal depression can affect conduct in children and includes earlier research findings of Dale Hay, PhD…
