What Nurses Need to Know About Antidepressant Medications

Rising rates of major depression and suicide.

A recently published Health of America report from Blue Cross Blue Shield, Major Depression: The Impact on Overall Health, highlights a dramatic rise in major depression diagnoses—up 33%—from 2013 to 2016. According to the report, women were found to have major depression at twice the rate of men.

Perhaps most startlingly, rates of major depression have risen 47% among millennials, while among adolescents the increase has been 47% in boys and 65% in girls.

‘Sorrowing Old Man,’ by Vincent Van Gogh. Photo by Peter Horree/Alamy Stock Photo.

In an equally disturbing trend, the CDC has noted that the rate of suicide in the United States rose more than 25% from 1999 to 2016, with 45,000 people dying by suicide in 2016 alone. Suicide rates are higher among people who have mental illnesses, and suicide is of particular concern among those who have depression. Yet the CDC also points out that more than half of people who died by suicide had not been diagnosed with a mental health condition.

An antidepressants primer for nurses.

Given the rapidly rising rates of depression diagnoses, nurses are increasingly likely to encounter patients who […]

2018-09-14T10:19:30-04:00September 14th, 2018|mental illness, Nursing|0 Comments
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Why Do Children With Visible Disabilities Make Us Uncomfortable?

What do you do when you see a child who has obvious visible disabilities? Do you say hello? Do you turn away?

In this month’s Viewpoint, “Afraid to Notice: On Responding to Children with Visible Disabilities,” pediatric nurse Lindsey van Gennep talks about her experiences working with medically fragile children in the community. She has learned a lot about kids with various abilities and their capacity to simply be “kids,” and also a lot about how people react to children who are different.

“While taking them on field trips or to doctor’s appointments, I’ve noticed looks of sadness and pity. I’ve noticed the mothers who, assuming the child is mine, look at me as if I must have abused substances during pregnancy—looks of disgust.”

Pretending not to see.

But van Gennep found that the reactions of people who didn’t even acknowledge the child she was with could be even more upsetting.

“Four women with children walked by. They didn’t stare at her, or at me. Instead, they quickly looked away, as if they had just seen a stranger naked. They looked away—out of embarrassment that they had looked at all. The passing children followed their mothers’ cues and snapped curious eyes away from my patient.”

[…]

2018-09-12T11:28:10-04:00September 12th, 2018|Nursing|0 Comments
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Have A Seat—Or Maybe Not

Too much sitting is harmful.

Photo © blue jean images.

In this month’s AJN, author Linda Eanes sounds the alarm about the health risks associated with the way most of us spend much of our waking life: sitting down. Her article, “Too Much Sitting: A Newly Recognized Health Risk,” reviews research on the health effects of prolonged uninterrupted sitting (sitting for 30 minutes or more) and high-volume sitting (sitting for seven hours or more each day).

Studies show an association between high-volume and prolonged uninterrupted sitting and health risks, including cardiovascular disease, diabetes, and all-cause mortality. Sedentary time is also linked to obesity and an increased risk of certain cancers, including ovarian, endometrial, and colon cancer.

Eanes notes:

“Simply put, too much sitting, with its characteristic reduced energy expenditure and absence of whole body movement, may jeopardize health even in the presence of regular exercise.”

Exercise matters, but we’re still sitting too much.

Unfortunately, Eanes’s statement describes my life (see my September editorial) and that of most people I know: sitting at a desk, sitting while commuting, and doing some exercise a few hours a week. (Or what we like to think of as “exercise”—I […]

2018-09-10T10:06:16-04:00September 6th, 2018|Public health|0 Comments
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What Are We Breathing In?

Photo © Shutterstock.

For people who haven’t given much thought to “particulate matter” as a health hazard, the wildfires in the western United States remind us of how ambient smoke affects quality of life. Even communities not devastated by the fires—and often hundreds of miles away from them—have seen and experienced the effects of the smoke from these fires.

In this month’s AJN, authors Jessica Castner and Barbara Polivka explore particulate matter exposure and its effects on health in their article “Nursing Practice and Particulate Matter Exposure” (free until September 18). Using a detailed case history as an example, the authors offer guidance on nursing assessment and interventions to address particulate matter exposures. They also remind us how easy it is to encounter these pollutants.

“Common outdoor sources of particulate matter include industrial and traffic emissions, power plant emissions, wildfires, and wood stoves. Indoor sources include smoking, wood fires, cooking, and cooking fuels . . . mold; air fresheners and scented products; aerosolized cleaning and personal care products; and dust from carpeting, upholstery, and bedding.”

Air pollution: a host of associated ills.

While we often think of the respiratory problems that can result from this type of air pollution, Castner and Polivka point out literature that also implicates […]

2018-09-04T09:14:24-04:00September 4th, 2018|environmental health, Nursing|1 Comment
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The End of Summer Is Nearly Here: Use Those Vacations

Every July 4th at the end of the day, a friend used to say, “Well, summer is almost over.” And summer did seem to fly by in a blink after that day. Now here we are again, putting the summer of 2018 to bed as we face Labor Day weekend. This last chance at summer always seems a little sad. It’s the marker of so many things—the end of lifeguards at the beach, the last chance to get school supplies, the beginning of another school year. (That includes nursing school. Here’s some good advice for new nursing students that we collected a while back from our readers.)

Like many others, I recently spent a week on vacation with family. It took some doing to get things organized and some working ahead to meet deadlines, but it was worth it. As a manager, there’s no one to keep certain things moving while you’re gone. So the week leading up to vacation is a frenzied time, organizing and working ahead to cover deadlines, and getting ready to leave. Then, once back, there’s another frenzied time to try to catch up. My strategy is to check email once a day while on vacation. It keeps what I have to deal with on […]

2018-08-31T07:59:34-04:00August 31st, 2018|Nursing, nursing career, wellness|0 Comments
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Views expressed on the blog are solely those of the authors or persons quoted. They do not necessarily reflect AJN’s views or those of Wolters Kluwer Health/Lippincott Williams and Wilkins.
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