Depression

Women who suffer from migraines or who have had them in the past are at an increased risk for developing depression, according to new research.

The study, conducted by Brigham and Women's Hospital in Boston, found that women with any history of migraine were about 40 percent more likely to develop depression than women without a history of migraine. The results were the same regardless of whether the women had a migraine with aura.

You've had another one of those terrible, horrible, no good, very bad days.

You know the sort -- nothing goes right and everything goes wrong. All you want is to retreat to your bedroom with pajamas and a teddy bear, scarf down a pint of Ben & Jerry's, and not emerge for days.

Before you take the lid off that ice cream, though, stop and consider. Will consuming 60 grams of fat and becoming a social recluse really make you feel better? Most likely not. There are alternatives, however, to help you shake off those bad-day blues.

EMINENCE, Mo. -- From his pickup on a rise above the Current River, Bill Smith scanned the wild horses grazing below to see if all were members in good standing.

That's not always the case these days with Missouri's only wild horse herd, which descends from animals set free in the Great Depression by farmers who couldn't afford to feed them.

Because it's happening again in the Great Recession. Strapped owners are dumping horses in what is now the Ozark National Scenic Riverways, apparently thinking they will be warmly received by the wild bunch that runs the thousands of public acres along the Current and Jacks Fork rivers.

OGDEN -- A free seminar will be presented at 3 p.m. Sunday at 2185 Taylor Ave. in Ogden.

Fred King, a licensed clinical social worker, and June Lee Hernandez, a licensed alcohol and drug counselor, will offer information about how to identify the symptoms of depression and will present treatment options.

The woman leaning against a pillar didn't know more Americans -- twice as many -- take antidepressants than go to movie theaters weekly. She hadn't heard that a federal study found the meds are used by 23 percent of middle-aged women -- almost one in four.

But she knows Prozac.

"Good stuff," she said, remembering how it helped her deal with a splintering marriage.

Data released by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in November showed that 11 percent of Americans ages 12 and older used Prozac, Zoloft, Paxil or other antidepressants.

WASHINGTON -- Compared with uncaffeinated women, those who drank the equivalent of four or more cups of coffee a day are more likely to drink alcohol and smoke cigarettes and less likely to volunteer their time in church or community groups. But a new study finds that well-caffeinated women have a key health advantage over their more abstemious sisters: They're less likely to become depressed.

LOS ANGELES — The long-used -- and abused -- sedative ketamine appears to lift depression’s dark veil almost instantaneously by boosting the production of a protein that helps protect and maintain brain cells and regenerate them after injury, a new study says.