Depressed? You must like chocolate

Reuters, Julie Steenhuysen, CHICAGO, Mon Apr 26, 2010 4:03pm EDT

(Reuters) - People who are depressed eat more chocolate than people who are not, U.S. researchers said on Monday, in a study that puts numbers behind the link between mood and chocolate.

They said people who were depressed ate an average of 8.4 servings of chocolate per month, compared with 5.4 servings among those who were not.

And people who had major depression based on results of a screening test ate even more -- 11.8 servings per month. A serving was considered to be one small bar, or 1 ounce (28 grams), of chocolate.

"Depressed mood was significantly related to higher chocolate consumption," Dr. Natalie Rose of the University of California, Davis, and University of California, San Diego, and colleagues wrote in the Archives of Internal Medicine.

Many people consider chocolate a mood-booster but few studies have actually confirmed the connection between the confection and mood. And most studies have looked only at women.

Rose and colleagues studied the relationship between chocolate and mood among 931 women and men who were not using antidepressants. People in the study reported how much chocolate they consumed and most also completed a food frequency questionnaire about their overall diet.

Their moods were assessed using a commonly used depression scale. What they found was a marked association between chocolate consumption and depression. And unlike other studies that looked only at women, the link was true of both men and women.

What the study could not say was why people who are depressed eat more chocolate.

It could be that depression stimulates chocolate cravings, and people eat chocolate as a sort of self treatment, confirming some studies on rats that suggest chocolate can improve mood, the authors said.

Or, it could be that depression may stimulate chocolate cravings for some other reason without providing any mood benefit. People in the study did not have any such "treatment benefit" from chocolate, the team said.

And they said it may be that eating a lot of chocolate actually causes people to feel depressed, another possible explanation for the association they saw in the study.

It may be something physiological about chocolate, such as providing additional antioxidants. Or the mood-boosting effect of chocolate could be fleeting, like the temporary euphoria from drinking alcohol, leaving people feeling even lower after the brief euphoria has passed.

"Distinguishing among these possibilities will require different study designs," the team said.

They said future studies will be needed to determine whether chocolate is a cause of depression, or a temporary salve.

(Editing by Eric Beech)

Many suicidal men had problems in childhood: study

Reuters, Mon Apr 6, 2009 5:41pm EDT

A high school student (L) walks towards a group of female students chatting in front of a school in Tokyo November 9, 2006. (REUTERS/Kiyoshi Ota)

CHICAGO (Reuters) - Teenage and young adult men who make serious suicide attempts often had emotional problems at age 8, while most suicidal women succumb to depressions that develop after puberty, Finnish researchers said on Monday.

Nearly four out of five suicidal men tracked in a study in Finland had exhibited problems as 8-year-olds that were evident to their teachers or parents.

"Most males who commit suicide or need hospital care after a suicide attempt have high levels of psychiatric problems at the age of 8 years," wrote Dr. Andre Sourander of Turku University Hospital in Finland and colleagues.

"The main finding of our study is that severe suicidality in adolescence and early adulthood has different childhood trajectories among males and females," they wrote in a report published in the Archives of General Psychiatry.

The study tracked 5,302 people born in 1981, of whom 27 men and 27 women made serious suicide attempts by age 24. Of those, 13 men and two women died.

According to the World Health Organization, 877,000 people worldwide kill themselves each year. For every suicide death, anywhere from 10 to 40 attempts are made, the U.N. agency estimates.

Males tended to use "more lethal" methods, while female suicide attempts were mostly by intoxication or poisoning, according to the Finnish study.

In what they termed a "pathway of persistence," 78 percent of the suicidal males had displayed bad conduct at age 8 such as disruptive fits of temper, disobedience, aggression or cruelty toward others, destroying of property, stealing, lying, inattention or hyperactivity.

No such pattern was seen for the girls. Sourander's team said previous research has shown "female suicide attempts are often used to communicate distress or to modify the behavior and reactions of others." Most mood disorders affect girls after puberty, they added.

They urged effective screening to detect and treat childhood disorders, in the hope of reducing suicide rates.

"This focus is particularly important among males with severe conduct problems because, during adolescence, they usually do not seek mental health services," Sourander wrote.

(Reporting by Andrew Stern; Editing by Maggie Fox)

U.S. rehab centers see bankers driven to drink

By Claudia Parsons, Reuters, Tue Mar 24, 2009 8:05am EDT

A bartender at Suspenders bar in New York's as a television screen flashes the Dow Jones industrial average, March 18, 2009. REUTERS/Brendan McDermid

NEW CANAAN, Connecticut (Reuters) - Cocaine and martinis On Wall Street? Nothing new there. Masters of the Universe admitting they have an alcohol problem? Not so common.

Experts say more and more people in finance are seeking treatment for addiction as the global economic crisis sinks its teeth into a high-stakes industry where confidence is the name of the game and nobody wants to admit to a weakness.

"We absolutely do see more people coming in naming either a job loss or huge financial reversals or big investments with Bernie Madoff," said Sigurd Ackerman, medical director at Silver Hill Hospital rehabilitation facility in New Canaan, Connecticut.

"They're being admitted with depression or increases in substance abuse, or both."

Ackerman said there was a high concentration of financial professionals in the town, 40 miles from New York, whose main streets are lined with high-end boutiques catering to the well-heeled wives of hedge fund managers and bankers.

"You're supposed to be a master of the universe, you're supposed to be on top of everything," said one financial services executive who began alcohol rehab in August.

"There's not a lot of sensitivity training or meetings where you sit around and ask how everyone is feeling," said the Connecticut executive, who spoke on condition of anonymity. "No one walks around saying 'I feel your pain.'"

Alcohol has long oiled the wheels of commerce on Wall Street, where bankers working long hours will entertain clients over dinner and drinks, or let off steam at late-night clubs with hard liquor and drugs.

Robert Curry, founder of Turning Point for Leaders, a coaching and consulting firm in New Canaan that creates treatment programs for senior executives, said the financial crisis was a factor in more drink and drug use.

"We've got more than 50 homes in foreclosure in this town and that's unheard of," Curry said. "Domestic violence incidents have spiked, and that is very closely tied to substance abuse."

Struggling with a divorce, the Connecticut executive sought help at Turning Point. A residential rehab program will be just the first step in a program that would last at least a year and include follow-up counseling, therapy and support groups.

Curry is a former financial executive who started working with substance abusers two decades ago, around the time his alcoholic father died and he realized he had a drinking problem of his own. Despite the recession, demand is growing.

"Companies are downsizing," he said. "Budgets are being trimmed, and yet we're seeing an increase in our business."

Clients include bankers, businessmen and doctors and are overwhelmingly male.

ADRENALIN JUNKIES

Harris Stratyner, a psychologist with Caron Treatment Centers, a leading non-profit addiction treatment foundation with offices in Manhattan, said stars of the financial world were by nature more prone to risky and extreme behavior.

"There's an adrenalin rush that's connected to economics," he said. "Why are so many people attracted to that world? Not all, but many, already are adrenalin junkies, and are looking for the high highs and the low lows."

Stratyner said economic anxiety can push people over the edge, but also allows addicts to rationalize their behavior, blaming stress or claiming they can't afford treatment.

"There's a lot of people out there who are unconsciously ... grateful that there's a problem going on, so that someone really and truly has an excuse to get high," he said.

Stratyner said mental illness and addiction, which often occur together, cost the United States $171 billion a year in lost workplace productivity.

Joseph Califano, a former U.S. secretary of health who founded the National Center on Addiction and Substance Abuse in 1992, said anxiety clearly raised the risk of substance abuse in all socio-economic groups.

People drink more in hard economic times, Califano said, but banks and other financial firms have traditionally not done enough to help employees cope.

"There's still tremendous stigma and shame," he said. "This is not a moral failing, it's a disease."

Another recovering alcoholic, aged 64, who works on Wall Street also requested anonymity because of the stigma.

"It's not so easy to get somebody to recognize their problems," he said. "If you have a series of occasions where you don't remember parts of the evening, that is a bit of a warning sign that maybe you should be seeking some help. The other is if embarrassing things happen to you."

A month in rehab costs from $25,000 at Caron up to around $60,000 at high-end private facilities. Curry said most of his clients pay out of pocket for privacy reasons.

The Connecticut-based executive was paying his own way.

"It's more than I'd like," he said. But "it's less expensive than losing your job ... less expensive than losing a client or losing your family, or losing your home or getting in trouble with the law."

(Editing by Doina Chiacu)