Hey all,

 

     I was chatting with a friend about being depressed (My friend is Yvonne, LOL) I told her how I seem to be more depressed when my Lupus is flaring.  She asked me if Lupus caused depression, and I told her I thought that my depression came from the helpless, hopeless feeling of being sick and unable to live the way you want to live.  I have been to therapy for depression and have tried many anti-depressants none of which helped me, the Phsychiatrist and the Psychologist both felt my depression is not chemical, but due to my situation and health concerns or as they said "Enviromental not Chemical".  When my health is good I'm happy for the most part, but stressful situations or physical exertion brings about flare-ups which causes extreme depression.  I must admit meeting all of you on this site has really helped me to not be as depressed.  Shortly before I found this site the only thing that made me feel happy was dreams of dying, I know it sounds terrible.  It was.  I could never commit suicide I found making a list of reasons I couldn't commit suicide helped, number 1 on the list was my family, I couldn't devistate tham in that way, suicide is selfish.  I guess it doesn't matter what your reason for not doing it is, as long as you don't do it.  Ok sorry I'm rambling.

 

     I did some digging on Lupus (or any chronic illness would fit this) and depression on the Nation Lupus Foundation website and this is what I found on the subject.

 

How common is depression in people with chronic illness?

 

Some psychiatric and medical studies state that 15 percent of those with a chronic illness suffer from clinical depression; others place this figure as high as 60 percent. Although clinical depression is certainly more common in people with chronic medical illness, (e.g., lupus) than in the general population, not every patient with a chronic illness suffers from clinical depression.

Episodes of clinical depression usually last for only a few months in patients with a chronic illness. However, a flare of the disease can also trigger depression because a person may feel he/she is never going to be free of the illness.

 

Depression

 

Isn't having chronic illness a good reason to be depressed?

 

Unfortunately, all too common is a distorted notion that those with a chronic illness have "reason to feel depressed because they are sick." This belief interferes with early recognition, early treatment, and early relief of suffering from clinical depression. This belief also ignores the facts that clinical depression in people who are physically ill generally responds well to standard psychiatric treatments and that patients treated only for their physical illness can suffer needlessly from clinical depression.

 

 

Depression and Lupus

 

 

Is it lupus or is it depression?

 

Depressive illness often goes unrecognized in those who have other medical illnesses because it presents symptoms so similar to those of the underlying medical condition. 

 

For patients with systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE), symptoms of depressive illness that quite naturally can be attributed to the lupus condition include:

 

inactivity

loss of energy and interest

insomnia

pain intensification

diminished sexual interest and/or performance.

 

 

What causes depression in lupus?

 

There is no one cause of clinical depression in lupus; rather, there are various and different factors contributing to depression in chronic illnesses such as lupus.

 

The most common cause is the emotional drain from the continuous series of stresses and strains associated with coping with the chronic illness and medical condition.

Other causes may be the many sacrifices and losses required by the continuous life adjustments that a patient with a chronic illness must make.

Various medications used to treat lupus, such as steroids (e.g., prednisone), may bring about depression.

Lupus involvement of certain organs (e.g., the brain, heart, or kidneys) can lead to clinical depression.

There also are many unrecognized or unknown factors (which may or may not be related to lupus) which may cause depressive illness.

Of course, there are people who would develop clinical depression whether or not they had lupus. In fact, it is the most common psychiatric condition seen in the general population-20 percent of women and 10 percent of men-as well as in medical practice. 

However, depression is very stressful and anxiety-producing, which may aggravate the lupus activity. Depressive reactions should be treated with the same aggressiveness and persistence that one would use to treat a lupus flare, or any other medical complaint. Naturally, any underlying medical condition that could contribute to the depression must be identified and controlled.

 

 

"Lupus fog"

 

Changes in cognition often occur in people with lupus, including subtle changes in:

 

>memory

concentration

other cognitive functions such as:

diminished attention

lapses in awareness

impairment in recall, problem-solving, calculations, planning, and/or visual-spatial functioning).

 

 

These are quite a nuisance and can have a profound impact upon the person's self-image, daily life and planning, and in their relationships with friends, co-workers, and loved ones. 

Such changes often do not come to the physician's attention unless formal mental status testing is done. The true incidence of cognitive impairment is unknown, other than that it is common.

 

 

There is no specific or characteristic cognitive deficit found in people with SLE; rather, there is a wide spectrum, variety, and combination. These deficits, though, do not appear to be related to emotional stress or use of medication such as corticosteroids. 

Occasionally in SLE patients with no overt central nervous system pathology, cognitive functioning improves with anti-malarial drugs or low doses of corticosteroids.

When they speak of Anti-Malarial drugs one of them is Plaquenil the drug I took for my Lupus that seemed to help a lot until I though may have affected my eyes, but as I found out today it didn't.  I hope this info is useful for someone.

 

Michele

• depression
• lupus
• Chronic
• illness