AN EPIDEMIC is sweeping the Western world. One in five of us is already suffering the symptoms and the numbers are set to grow. And what is this rampant disease? Bird flu? Obesity? No. Depression.

Russell Jones, a mental health nurse writing in Nursing Times (Sept 26), says that dire warnings from the World Health Organisation about the growing prevalence of depression mean that nurses must be extra vigilant about screening patients.

But he questions whether we are right to be so alarmed. Pharmaceutical companies make huge profits from anti-depressants, he says, while research creates ever more complex types of depression.

“But surely the key should be to look at the whole person over time and accept the vital roles that friends, family, faith, music, art and exercise can play in recovery.”

Acknowledging the distressing nature of depression, he points out that in a society obsessed with quick fixes, “the pressure to diagnose and prescribe often prevails”.

A report in Pulse (Sept 28) seems to confirm his theory about pressure to prescribe. Research reported in the magazine suggests that thorough assessment by GPs can help to cut antidepressant prescribing.

Pulse says that controversial indicators used to assess levels of depression can benefit patients by ensuring that prescribing is appropriate. A study found that before the severity assessment was introduced, 40 per cent of prescribed antidepressants were given to people with mild illness. The figure dropped to 13 per cent afterwards.

But if all else fails, try dancing. Mental Health Practice (Oct) says that researchers are to test their theory that doing the salsa can help to beat depression. It might be wise to book your lessons now. The depression epidemic could make them hard to find in future. A protein linked to heart disease is more likely to be found in people on low incomes, in minorities and in women, says a study by the University of Southern California. The research, in Brain, Behavior and Immunity (Sept), found that people below the poverty line are twice as likely to have elevated levels of C-reactive protein, which is produced as part of the immune response to inflammation and is linked to chronic illnesses such as heart disease and dementia.

Men working as painters and decorators may have up to six times the risk of having children born with birth defects, claims a preliminary study released by Alberta University (Sept 26). The study of 700 painters and carpenters found that occupational exposure to organic solvents can double the risk of having children with low birthweight. The researchers are, however, unsure how the solvents could be affecting the babies’ development.

Heavy, chronic drinking may accelerate the time it takes for a person infected with HIV to develop full-blown Aids, say Louisiana State University doctors in Alcoholism: Clinical & Experimental Research (Oct). The study claims that chronic binge drinking can reduce the time from infection to end-stage disease by more than half.

Nutritional information on food labels may not help people because too few consumers have the skills to interpret it properly, says a report in the American Journal of Preventive Medicine (Nov). A survey of 200 primary care patients of varying academic abilities by Vanderbilt University, Tennessee, found that only 60 per cent could calculate the number of carbohydrates consumed if they ate half a bagel when the information on the label was for a whole bagel.

The superbug MRSA is increasingly infecting the muscles of children in the US, Baylor College of Medicine doctors report in Clinical Infectious Diseases (Oct 15). The study says that the bacterial infection is acquired in the community by otherwise healthy children and that community-acquired MRSA can spread more quickly than the hospital-acquired version.

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