Depression on the job can show the way to missed meetings, unanswered phone calls, blankly staring at the computer screen, indecision, late arrival, leaving early and neglect deadlines. A working woman suffering from depression might not get along with colleges anymore or she may withdraw from social participation.

These are all symptoms of depression. 21 percent of the women in the workplace are affected depression through to their work performance and their everyday lives. Depression is a very human illness. Before the dealing with problem, it is important to understand the signs of depression that may affect working women.

Depression may be kicked off by satisfying a home life and be a superior working person. When the brain chemicals become uneven it will take some time to get them balanced. The depression may completely change your personality and behavior. Your colleagues and friends will notice it first. The working women may find herself becoming a wild women, spending money like crazy, hyper, drinking more, or having affairs. It is not strange to find depressed women living out of their cars or a small hotel room.

The depressed woman may notice herself alone on her birthday as her friends and family slowly discard her. Depression will also make you feel unloved. 30% of working women suffering from depression either quit or lose a job.

For a working woman, when depression goes too far she may find herself unable to function. Few women admit they have a mental problem, so they will keep struggling along danger of their careers and family relationships. Just 47% of women identify help in right away.

Depression in the workplace is the number one blockade to success. A depressed woman at work will find herself feeling constantly unsatisfied. Depression is a sickness and should be treated properly. No matter how successful the working woman is in work, the depression will cause her to feel distressing and disgruntled.

A new study published on June 16 in the Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA) now threatens to send researchers back to the drawing board. The meta-analysis of 14 prior studies concludes that the so-called depression gene — a variant of a serotonin-transporter gene called 5-HTTLPR — may not be associated with an elevated risk for depression, as many researchers had believed.

“Knowing whether or not you have this gene is irrelevant,” says the study’s co-author Kathleen Merikangas, a genetic epidemiologist at the National Institute of Mental Health, who adds that future studies of genetic risk factors for depression should broaden their scope and consider the interactions of many genes rather than the actions of just one.

The discovery by Duke psychologist Avshalom Caspi of a “depression gene,” which was among the first to be associated with mental illness — a notably difficult class of diseases to pin down, genetically speaking — inspired dozens of similar studies.

While many researchers had suspected that 5-HTTLPR played a significant role in depression risk, Caspi was the first to establish an association by studying depressed people who had also experienced a stressful life event, such as the death of a child or sudden unemployment.

What Caspi’s 2003 epidemiological study, published in Science, found was that people with one or two copies of the short allele of the gene appeared to be more vulnerable to depression after a stressful event than people without the gene. Subsequent studies have looked at 5-HTTLPR’s role in related conditions such as posttraumatic stress disorder, anxiety and neuroticism — with mixed results.

But the new JAMA study, which reviewed 14 studies involving 14,250 participants on the interaction between the serotonin-transporter gene and stressful life events, found no such association with depression risk. The study goes on to caution that any potential use of 5-HTTLPR as a screening tool for depression risk would be invalid. Currently, no such test exists, although several genetic-testing companies, including 23andME and Navigenics, do use genetic markers to tell customers which antidepressant drugs they are more likely to respond to.

“My concern is that [these tests] are being marketed to the public as if there is no question about it,” says Merikangas, speaking generally about direct-to-consumer genomic tests that purport to offer people any truly predictive health advice. “Some people might understand that it is not a death sentence to them, but to others who are struggling, it could lead them not to have children or get married.”

Merikangas’ meta-analysis has plenty of its own detractors, particularly among the scientists whose work it refutes. “This article ignores the complete body of scientific evidence,” says psychologist Caspi, who sent TIME.com an e-mail appended with 22 citations of studies that support his findings. “In the past six years, extensive research in experimental neuroscience using both animals and humans has validated the original report by showing that the 5-HTTLPR short allele-carriers are excessively vulnerable to stress,” he says.

“Meta-analyses can be a steamroller,” says Alexandre Todorov, a genetic epidemiologist at Washington University in St. Louis, Mo., whose 2007 peer-reviewed study was included in the JAMA piece. (While Todorov’s study found an association between the gene and depression, it was based on a different variant — the long allele as opposed to the short one.) “If you have three studies and two find nothing and the third finds something significant, that does not mean that the third study is not real.”

Where most genetics researchers do agree, however, is on the fact that uncovering the genetic roots of depression — and most diseases, for that matter — is a complex task. “We have about 30,000 genes, and it is hard to pick just one and analyze it,” says Dr. Hans Joergen Grabe of Ernst-Moritz-Arndt-University of Greifswald in Stralsund, Germany.

Although his 2005 study also found a correlation between the 5-HTTLPR gene and depression among the unemployed, “the magnitude of the effect is very small — if the effect does really exist, it will only produce depression in very rare cases, about 5 or 10 out of 1,000.” Grabe is now studying genes involved in the function of the “stress axis” of the body (the hypothalamus, pituitary and adrenal glands), since those are known to go haywire during major depression.

So what does this mean for anyone who is struggling with depression? The science of linking specific genes to the disorder is still in its infancy, so no one should worry that their genes alone doom them to a life of sorrow. And while no single treatment works for every patient, there are many — including simple physical exercise or strengthening social relationships — that can help to lift the blues.

More information on Depression

This latest news, in a depression study just out in the Journal of the American Medical Association, is yet another bit of evidence that cognitive behavioral therapy is a valid treatment for depression
. Half of the 316 teenagers in the study, led by Vanderbilt University psychology professor Judy Garber, took part in eight weekly, 90-minute group sessions, in which they were taught problem-solving skills and practiced them.

Cognitive behavioral therapy isn’t traditional, long-term “talk therapy”; it’s a short-term treatment, usually lasting no more than 20 sessions, based on the idea that people’s thoughts cause their feelings and behaviors. Thus if people change how they think about a situation and how they respond to it, they can feel better, even if the situation hasn’t changed.

The teenagers had all been clinically depressed before or had mild symptoms of depression. The children were chosen because their parents also had had an episode of depression at least once in the child’s life. Having a parent with depression increases the odds that the child will have problems, too.

After six months, the teens who had been in the therapy groups were less likely to have become depressed (21.4 percent vs. 32.7 percent). The therapy was most effective in preventing depression in children whose parent wasn’t depressed at the time (11.7 percent vs. 40.5 percent); its benefit disappeared if a parent of the child was depressed. Proof, if any is needed, that parents’ behavior has a huge influence on their children’s health and behavior, even when they’re teenagers.

“Most therapists do traditional therapy,” says Mary Alvord, a psychologist in Rockville, Md., who uses CBT to help children change behaviors that are causing difficulties at school and home. “All good therapies have similarities—forging a relationship, trust. But with CBT, you work with what the person wants to change in a very direct manner. You’re collaborating in a more direct way than with traditional therapy.” That includes homework assignments that involve parents, with the goal of parents taking over.

Finding cognitive behavioral therapy can be tricky, because it’s advertised more than it’s actually delivered. Here’s a description of what CBT actually is, from the Association for Behavioral and Cognitive Therapies. (The association also has a decent online therapist finder.) In cognitive therapy, a person learns to:

* Distinguish between thoughts and feelings.
* Become aware of how thoughts can influence feelings in ways that sometimes are not helpful.
* Learn about thoughts that seem to occur automatically and how they can affect emotions.
* Evaluate critically whether these “automatic” thoughts and assumptions are accurate or perhaps biased.
* Develop the skills to notice, interrupt, and correct these biased thoughts.

We humans tend to let our thoughts run our emotions more than we realize, which can be a real problem if those thoughts are off base. It’s easy to imagine how a teenager already prone to depression could let thoughts like “I’m a terrible person” or “my life is hopeless” take over. CBT can help rewrite that script.

Do you have advice on how parents can find good therapy for a child? Or have you had experiences with cognitive behavioral therapy, positive or negative? Please let me know; I’d love to learn from your experience.

Source: US News – Health