Blog

The following blog is from a guest blogger that is the mother of a child with Adolescent Depression.

Every mother wants a healthy child. And when they are born, we look for the physical signs of whether or not they are healthy. My child was a perfect, bouncing baby girl.

Dr. Kevin Rosi, an adolescent and young adult depression specialist, recently joined TMS Health Solutions. Since graduating from his Child and Adolescent Psychiatry Fellowship at Stanford University in 2007, Dr. Rosi has focused primarily on treating children, adolescents and young adults. He is certified in Adult Psychiatry by the American Board of Neurology and Psychiatry and completed a visiting fellowship in Transcranial Magnetic Stimulation (TMS) at Duke University in 2015.

We will be doing a series of blogs discussing Adolescent Depression (AD) and how it can be different than adult depression. Dr. Rosi has written the first blog to explain AD.

Increasingly demanding conditions in the American workplace have resulted in an increase in work-related stress. Left unchecked, chronic job stress can lead to illnesses including anxiety or depression. For state workers already prone to depressive episodes, or those managing major depression, the pressure of the workplace can induce episodes or worsen existing symptoms. Fortunately, there are a number of treatment options, including a revolutionary, non-invasive therapy called Transcranial Magnetic Stimulation (TMS), which has proven incredibly effective, especially for patients who don’t respond to other remedies.

Over the past 20 years, the U.S. workplace has changed dramatically, resulting in a sharp uptick in work-related stress. American employees have found themselves dealing with longer hours, heavier workloads, expectations of 24/7 connectivity, job insecurity, poor organizational support, stagnating wages, and a higher cost of living. It’s no wonder that 29 percent of workers in a recent Yale survey reported that they were "quite a bit or extremely stressed" at work. California state employees, in addition, also face a unique set of workplace challenges.

For the California government worker, the 2008 recession brought massive budget cuts, reorganization, and uncertainty. While the economy has stabilized, workers are experiencing a reduction in benefits, such as requirement to pay ahead for retiree health care. California's first-ever survey of California state workers, completed in August 2015, indicated that while employees generally feel that they do important work, they are underappreciated by management.

When Alex Tillich started coming home from work with headaches, his wife Monica chalked it up to allergies, which often flared up in early spring. They got so bad that Alex would often wake up in the middle of the night. While waiting for the pain relievers to kick in, he got into the habit of responding to work emails on his phone. Then Alex began to come home later and later, and just pick at his meals. Monica began to wonder if he ever slept. Could it actually be his job that was making him ill?

Postpartum depression (PPD) affects approximately 13 percent of women and is brought on by a change in hormone levels after childbirth. Being a new mom can be overwhelming and feelings of insecurity are normal. Unfortunately, for some women these feelings turn into extreme anxiety or sadness and can inhibit a woman’s ability to care for herself and her new baby.

Postpartum depression (PPD) is a treatable medical illness that’s brought on by a change in hormone levels after childbirth. Affecting approximately 13 percent of women, PPD can cause extreme feelings of anxiety or sadness and can interfere with a woman’s ability to care for herself or her new baby.

PPD can develop anywhere from a few weeks to a year after delivery, but it’s most commonly diagnosed during the first three month after birth. For some women, PPD can be difficult to diagnose since many of the symptoms can be similar to the “baby blues” or other illnesses. It’s important to talk to your doctor at the first signs of sadness or depression to get properly diagnosed and discuss treatment options.

Without treatment, depression can have long-term consequences for you and your baby, including inadequate mother-child bonding. Without this special bond, research shows that children can later have behavioral problems and developmental delays.

There are several treatment strategies for postpartum depression. For many women, utilizing all of these strategies together brings them the most successful outcome.

Postpartum depression can occur in any woman after giving birth, or having a miscarriage or stillbirth. According to the American Psychological Association, an estimated 9% to 16% of women will experience postpartum depression.

PPD can sometimes be confused with the “baby blues” which affects up to 80% of mothers. Baby blues can cause women to experience feelings of worry, unhappiness or fatigue after having a baby. The difference is that these feelings are mild, usually only last a couple of weeks and go away on their own. PPD can cause extreme feelings of anxiety or sadness and can interfere with a woman’s ability to care for herself or her new baby. PPD can begin any time after childbirth, but women usually start feeling depressed one week to a month after delivery. For some women PPD can start slowly and then build for three to four months.