James Tew, M.D., a psychiatrist at the University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine, will speak with Sound Medicine co-host Kathy Miller, M.D., about the successful use of electroconvulsive therapy (ECT) or electroshock therapy for treatment of depression in seniors and changes in how the therapy is now administered.
Co-host Stephen Bogdewic, Ph.D., will talk with Evelyn Whitlock, M.D., MPH, a senior investigator at Kaiser Permanente Center for Health Research. Dr. Whitlock directed a study which shows that more than one in seven women are depressed at some time during the nine months before becoming pregnant, during pregnancy, or in the nine months after childbirth. The study also revealed that more than half of the women who experienced postpartum depression had also been depressed before becoming pregnant or during pregnancy.
Two recent studies on the connection of memory loss and the use of statins for treatment of cholesterol lead to contradictory conclusions. Beatrice Golumb, M.D., Ph.D., research associate professor for the Department of Psychology at the University of California at San Diego, found an increase in memory loss after the use of statins, and Kathleen Hall, Ph.D., a psychiatric epidemiologist at IU School of Medicine and the Regenstrief Institute, found that statins may actually help delay cognitive decline. They will discuss their findings.
Also, Rebecca Shier, a reporter for Alaska Public Radio, visits Care Cottage Prematernal Home in Anchorage, a temporary home in rural Alaska for women experiencing high-risk pregnancies. More than 4,000 women have stayed at Care Cottage since it opened 1982.
Archived editions of Sound Medicine as well as other helpful information can be found at http://www.soundmedicine.iu.edu.
Sound Medicine is underwritten by the Lilly Center for Medical Science, Clarian Health, and IU Medical Group; Jeremy Shere’s “Check-Up” is underwritten by IUPUI.