WVIZ/PBS ideastream®: Facing Depression

• Risk factors: Having other biological relatives with depression, stressful life events, having a depressed mood as a child, illness such as cancer, heart disease, or Alzheimer’s, having recently given birth, long-term use of certain medications and certain personality traits, such as having low self-esteem.
• Symptoms: Feelings of sadness, changes in sleep or diet, difficulty concentrating, lack of interest in activities, irritability and thoughts of death or suicide.
• Treatments: Medication, psychotherapy, electroconvulsive therapy (ECT).
• Depression is a serious medical illness affecting nearly 18 million Americans in any given year.
• The World Health Organization estimates that by 2020, depression will be the leading cause of disability on the planet.
• Depression occurs twice as frequently in women as in men for reasons that are not yet fully understood.
• Between 80-90 percent of people diagnosed with major depression can be effectively treated.
• Psychotherapy and medication are the two most common forms of treatment for depression.

During the month of January, ideastream will present multi-media coverage—via TV, radio and web—examining depression with a special 30-minute local television broadcast, a series of in-depth reports, two Sound of Ideas radio programs, special segments on Feagler & Friends and Applause, and The Plain Dealer will have special coverage of depression in its Health Section January 12th.

We’ll follow the stories of local people in the community and hear how depression has affected them and treatments available. Noted medical experts will explain how depression manifests itself, what’s known about its causes, and what the risk factors are.  In addition, we’ll learn about the stigma that still plagues this disease, and how both patients and families cope with it.

Where To Go For Help

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Funding

Funding for Facing Depression comes from the Dr. Donald J. Goodman and Ruth Weber Goodman Philanthropic Fund of The Cleveland Foundation; The Margaret Clark Morgan Foundation; The McGregor Foundation; The Mt. Sinai Health Care Foundation; Saint Luke’s Foundation; and the Woodruff Foundation.