Depression: epidemic or pseudo-epidemic?

Is there an epidemic of child or adolescent depression?

BACKGROUND Both the professional and the general media have recently published concerns about an 'epidemic' of child and adolescent depression. Reasons for this concern include (1) increases in antidepressant prescriptions, (2) retrospective recall by successive birth cohorts of adults, (3) rising adolescent suicide rates until 1990, and (4) evidence of an increase in emotional problems across ...

The epidemic of depression with obesity.

I n this month's issue, Olvera and colleagues 1 provide important findings about the increasingly recognized link among depression, obesity, and metabolic syndrome. 2 Evaluating 1,768 Mexican American adults living on the United States/Mexico border from 2004 to 2010, they found that 30% had current depression, 14% had severe depression, 52% were obese, and 45% had metabolic syndrome. Depressio...

Epidemic$ and Pandemic$ are profitable?!

Global or Gaelic epidemic of hypothyroidism?

Something peculiar about the occurrence of hypothyroidism warrants consideration and further investigation. Recent epidemiological studies have shown a nine-fold difference in the number of new cases of hypothyroidism diagnosed in Tayside, UK, and in Denmark (figure). Most cases of hypothyroidism are caused by gradual thyroid failure, which is presumably of autoimmune origin. Once clinical susp...

Gluten sensitivity: new epidemic or new myth?

Fueled in part by recent bestselling books that warn of the evils of gluten in our diets, a significant proportion of our population is now either avoiding foods that contain gluten or eliminating gluten entirely from their diets, and these numbers continue to grow. The gluten-free trend-and the accompanying multibillion-dollar industry it has created-stems from the spreading belief that eating...