Depression

In some cases, marital fights can escalate into more than temporary hurt feelings. Recent studies show that such fights can sometimes be the root of depression in women. According to research, women who have a history of depression are more likely to develop depression as the result of ongoing conflict with their husbands. Fifty percent of married women who are depressed have marital problems, and half of the women who have marital problems are depressed. Steven L. Sayers, assistant professor of psychiatry at the Medical College of Pennsylvania, is currently seeking couples to participate in a study on negative martial communication and depression in women.

Pete Harnisch, who left the New York Mets this month under puzzling circumstances, is being treated for depression and is not sure when he will return to the team. "I've been diagnosed with depression," the pitcher said yesterday in his first public comment on his condition. "It's being treated medicinally and with therapy. " Harnisch, 30, who started on Opening Day for the Mets, said doctors told him that his problem was caused by a chemical imbalance. He said there was "some family history" of depression, but declined to give details.

I suspect I have a different relationship with oranges than do most people. My father always placed one in the foot of our Christmas stockings, as was the old Depression-era custom. Then, an orange given for Christmas was a rare and wonderful gift - a burst of sweetness in a grim diet of oatmeal. My father never made a big deal about it, but I think he wanted us to know the shadow that lay behind the sunny, affluent '50s. His father had been the wealthy owner of car dealerships.

Terry Bradshaw became one of the best quarterbacks in NFL history while fighting depression. Bradshaw, now a football commentator on Fox, said in an interview with the HBO show "Real Sports" that he has had depression since he was 18. The show's first airing is tonight at 10 o'clock. He was a No. 1 pick out of Louisiana Tech in 1970 and won four Super Bowls with the Pittsburgh Steelers. "I am happy that I had the courage to get help," Bradshaw said. "That's a big step because I'm a man. Men don't get depressed.

Arthur Miller's The American Clock is subtitled A Vaudeville, and that's pretty much what it is: a vaudeville-style show about the Depression. Yes, about the Depression. Written in the 1970s, and currently offered by Temple University Theater, the play intersperses skits about the effect of the Depression - on Americans in general and on one family in particular - with song-and-dance numbers incorporating the popular songs of the day. The skits, for the most part, are pretty grim.

Media Borough Solicitor Paul L. Patchel was suffering from depression when the car he was driving struck and killed two women on U.S. Route 1 in Middletown Township on June 11, his attorney said in a legal brief filed Monday. His mental condition may have caused him to flee from the accident and fail to help the victims, the brief said. Patchel, 37, is charged with vehicular homicide and other offenses, including accidental involuntary death, speeding, reckless driving, failure to stop after an accident and render aid to the victims, and failure to report an accident to police.

A Wynnewood psychiatrist yesterday told a federal judge that a 4-year-old black child should be moved from his black foster parents and returned to his former white foster parents to help overcome his depression. Marshall Schechter, a member of a panel of psychiatrists who evaluated Raymond Bullard, testified that the boy has been depressed since his separation two years ago from John and Marilyn McLaughlin, a white Northeast Philadelphia couple. The McLaughlins cared for the child for two years and are now seeking a preliminary injunction in U.S. District Court to have him moved to their care and out of the home of the Rev. Willie and Elaine Williams, a black Overbrook couple.

A decorous, respectable adaptation of Sara Gruen's engaging bestseller, "Water for Elephants" would have come more excitingly alive with stronger doses of Depression-era grit and sexual spunk. The 1931 circus setting and a love triangle involving three exceedingly attractive people provides a constant wash of scenic pleasure and the film's fidelity to its source will receive nodding approval from the book's many fans, which should result in solid, if unspectacular commercial results for this Fox release.

Diuretic improves dental numbing Dentists usually inject a two-drug solution to anesthetize the lower jaw during painful dental procedures, but studies have found that, in up to 39 percent of cases, it doesn't adequately numb the teeth. A study by Ohio State University researchers found that adding Mannitol to the standard injection of lidocaine and epinephrine significantly improved effectiveness. Mannitol, a sugar alcohol that occurs naturally in fruits and vegetables, is approved as a diuretic to increase urine output.

I TRAVELED TO WASHINGTON last month for an informal news conference that had been called by Sen. Pete Domenici, whose daughter suffers from a severe mental illness, and Sen. Paul Wellstone, whose brother is mentally ill. I went not as a reporter but as a depressive who is disappointed that Congress continues to allow mental illness to be treated as a stepchild. If you've got a "physical" illness, diabetes or a broken arm, measles or a heart problem, then you're legitimately "sick" in the eyes of the health care establishment: the insurance companies and the health maintenance organizations.

Adapted from a recent online discussion. Question: Just spent weekend with Son and Daughter-in-Law. Son behaved horribly toward Wife, to the point that I had to get between them, and concerned for the safety of all, I told him to leave. Daughter-in-Law, however, lit into me for "placating" son, not seeing the "real" him, creating a monster. She started all over again in the morning. I saw a completely different side of her as she verbally attacked me. This is the side Son has only recently shared with me. Please hear me: He was over-the-top angry and wrong.

Question: I'm depressed about the direction my professional life has taken. I feel like I could cry at any moment. I need a warm word or a hug. I get this kind of support from my sister and parents but not from my wife. She has been supportive during this time, but she never comes around to giving me any kind of show of support through either an encouraging word or a hug or anything. Her support is mostly silent (and sometimes it seems to be waning or even critical). I think she cares about what I'm going through, but she doesn't show it. How can I convey how upset I am to her?

"I couldn't connect to anyone. I felt like a zombie. I felt very detached. " Words not usually associated with that most joyous, accomplished thesp, Gwyneth Paltrow . But that is exactly how Paltrow, 39, says she felt after the birth of her second baby, Moses, in April 2006. Paltrow tells talk-show host Amanda de Cadenet she didn't realize it at the time, but she was in the throes of postpartum depression. "I couldn't connect with my son the way that I had with my daughter [Apple, now 7]

REGINA M. Donnelly, a kindhearted and caring woman who delighted in lavishing gifts upon her scores of nieces and nephews, died Sunday of natural causes. The Port Richmond native was 88. "She was everybody's Aunt Jeannie, even if you weren't related by blood or marriage," said a niece, Mary Lee Dougherty. "Aunt Jeannie made everybody she liked a niece or nephew. " And she liked most everybody she met. "A nice guy was called an 'Ace.' A nice gal was called a 'Doll.' She liked her Aces to be sharp dressers, and her Dolls smartly attired," said Dougherty.

DEAR ABBY: When I was 13, I would cut myself. I stopped around 15 after an attempted overdose that didn't work. I did it because my parents were stressed due to money problems and ignored me or yelled at me a lot. I was also bullied in school. Suddenly, in the last week, I have begun binge eating. I see no hope for my life or my future. I wake up wanting to go back to sleep or overdose. My wrists have throbbed at the thought of wanting to cut again, and last night I had a dream of jumping off a building.

ST. LOUIS - Caroll Marlow, 71, said she has been rescued from clinical depression by researchers at Washington University who want to help people older than 60. After more than 40 years of living with depression, she said, experiences and feelings that are routine for most other people are new for her. She goes to lunch to laugh with her sisters; she's closer to her children and friends. She dates her husband. And she found a job. "I love it; I work a swing shift and I just love it," she said.

Diuretic improves dental numbing Dentists usually inject a two-drug solution to anesthetize the lower jaw during painful dental procedures, but studies have found that, in up to 39 percent of cases, it doesn't adequately numb the teeth. A study by Ohio State University researchers found that adding Mannitol to the standard injection of lidocaine and epinephrine significantly improved effectiveness. Mannitol, a sugar alcohol that occurs naturally in fruits and vegetables, is approved as a diuretic to increase urine output.

Question: I heard of a study that showed lower Vitamin D levels in people who are depressed. Does taking Vitamin D help with depression? Answer: Vitamin D, the so-called sunshine vitamin, is the hottest vitamin under study these days, with studies coming out every month showing how supplemental D may protect against osteoporosis, heart disease, ovarian cancer, colon cancer, kidney cancer, prostate cancer, Parkinson's disease, multiple sclerosis,...

Question: My husband has been dealing with depression for years, and one of the "side effects" is the alienation of friends and family. He'll get mad about something and go off. Most recently he told our friends (and dinner party guests) that all lawyers need to die. They are lawyers, and so they quickly left. My husband doesn't see anything wrong with what he did and refuses to apologize for his behavior. Do I apologize for him? Do I just allow another friendship to die? Answer: Oh my. Apparently he wasn't joking?

IN "MELANCHOLIA," Lars von Trier has made the wedding movie to end all wedding movies, a description that's more literal than you can imagine. It's most definitely not a romantic comedy, not a date movie, and very much in step with von Trier's recent output, which is to say that its view of human behavior is pessimistic in the extreme. The movie comes in two parts. Part one is the wedding, hosted by a well-to-do man (Kiefer Sutherland) on his fabulous estate for the benefit of the depression-prone bride and future sister-in-law (Kirsten Dunst, who won the Cannes best-actress award for her performance)