Utah has the highest rate of antidepressant use in the nation, nearly twice the national average, with factors including limited mental health resources, cost barriers to treatment, and cultural pressures. Depression and suicide disproportionately impact women in Utah, where cultural expectations place pressure on women to always appear happy and perfect. Various substances including alcohol, amphetamines, and drugs like ecstasy are linked to both short and long-term impacts on depression.

1. -Bryan
Brunatti
DEPRESSION -Marissa
Waldon
-Stephanie
Super
-Ethan
Darling

2. Anti Depressant Use In Utah
B r ya n B r u n a t t i
 Antidepressant drugs are prescribed in Utah more
often than in any other state, at a rate nearly twice
the national average.
 Other states with high antidepressant use were
Maine and Oregon.
 Utah‟s rate of antidepressant use was twice the
rate of California and nearly three times the rates
in New York and New Jersey.

3. Contributing Factors
 A new state report says nearly 13 percent of Utah's
population is taking medicine for depression on the
recommendation of doctors.
 Factors:
 Limited mental health resources.
 Restricted access to treatment because of cost.
 Poor quality of resources.
 Underfunded educational system.
 Culture deeply rooted in the Mormon faith.

4. Contributing Factors
 “Availability to resources, a lack of professionals
and barriers to treatment, including the ability to
pay all drive up instances of depression” said Dr.
Curtis Canning, a Logan-based psychiatrist and
former president of the Utah Psychiatric
Association. “But there is also - - especially when it
comes to women and girls - - a cultural factor.”

5. Depression In Women Linked To Religion
 According to The Deseret News, the Utah
Department of Health says that in 2009, women
were prescribed more than twice as often as men.
 60% of Utah‟s residents are Mormon.
 When Express Scripts issued its first national survey of
prescription drug use in 2002, it sparked a heated debate
across Utah about what, if any role, the church played in the
state‟s high dependence on antidepressants such as Prozac
and Zoloft.

6. Depression In Women Linked To Religion
 "In Mormon cultures females are supposed accept
a calling. They are to be constantly smiling over
their family of five. They are supposed to take
supper across the street to an ill neighbor and then
put up with their husband when he comes home
from work and smile about it the whole time. There
is this sense that Mrs. Jones down street is doing
the same thing, and there is this undercurrent of
competition. To be a good mother and wife, women
have to put on this mask of perfection. They can't
show their tears, depression or agony," Canning
said.

7. Depression In Women

8. Depression And Suicide
M a r i s s a Wa l d o n
 Utah is continually on the rise for suicides with 500
deaths last year.
 Suicide is the 2 nd leading cause of death in Utah for
ages 10-25. The 4 th for ages 25 and older.
 Utah‟s suicide rate has bee consistently higher
than the national average for the last decade.

9. Depression And Suicide
 Men make up the highest percent of suicides.
 Women make up the highest percent of attempts.
 Utah‟s suicide rate has been consistently higher
than the national average for the last decade.

10. Information and Prevention
 National Alliance of Mental
Illness is the main and one of
the only prevention programs
for Utah.
 They have crisis lines for
each county.
 The Salt Lake Health
Department website has a list
of signs and symptoms as
well as what to do in case of
attempt or worry of suicidal
actions that may occur.

11. Utah Crisis Lines
 National Alliance on Mental Illness:
http://www.namiut.org/inform-yourself/suicide-prevention
 Utah Health
Department: http://www.health.utah.gov/vipp/suicide /
 Utah Behavioral Health Crisis Lines:
 Wasatch Front Crisis Lines
 Davis County 801-773-7060
 Salt Lake County 801-261-1442
 Utah County 801-373-7393
 Heber County 801-318-4016
 Weber County 801-625-3700

12. Depression And Alcohol/Drugs
S te p h a n i e S u p e r
 Studies showed that 67% of patients admitted into treatment
programs claimed to be depressed.
 After treatment only 13% of patients were diagnosed with
depression.
 30-50% of alcoholics are suffering from major depression at
any given time. It is a deadly mix.
 It directly reduces the levels of serotonin in the brain; this is
a neurotransmitter that anti-depressant medication like
Prozac (anSSRI increase your levels of.
 One of the biggest causes of people drinking too much
alcohol is as a way of coping with depression. Unfortunately
alcohol itself causes further depression.

13. Alcohol And Depression
 Alcoholics go through a period
of grieving when they give up
drinking. For those dually-
diagnosed with alcoholism and
depression, the grief over not
being able to drink is
intensified. That‟s usually
because once people with co-
occurring disorders stop
drinking, all the feelings that
have been medicated over the
years by alcohol start to
surface. This can cause them
to go though very
real, profound agony.

14. Prevention
 5 ways to help:
 1. Build a solid social sober support network.
 2. Avoid people places and things that trigger the urge
to drink.
 3. You are responsible for your own recovery.
 4. Start with friends from your support groups and go
from there.
 5. Report any unusual symptoms to your doctor
immediately.

15. Ketamine And Depression
 Currently being studied to instantaneously treat depression.
 “Ketamine (or „special K‟, as you might have heard it called)
works by increasing the number of connections in your
brain” says Ronald S. Dumban, Ph.D. professor of
psychiatry and pharmacology director at Yale University.
 “Picture a healthy neuron as a Christmas tree”, he says. “It
has plenty of branches to connect with other cells. In
depressed people, stess hormones attack these
connections…responsible for regulating mood.”
 “Ketamine blocks one of those damaging hormones, allowing
your brain to re-grow its broken branches” says Carlos A.
Zarate Jr., Chief M.D. at the National Institute of Mental
Health.

16. Amphetamines
 Short-term effects:
 Amphetamines increase attention and
alertness and reduce tiredness. They
make you feel energetic and confident
 Long-term effects:
 As the drug leaves the body, you may feel
drowsy, anxious, depressed, and
irritable, It can also cause a psychotic
reaction, with paranoia, especially if you
already have a diagnosis of mental health
problems.

17. Other Drugs Involved With Depression
 Ecstasy:
 Short-term: Causes release of serotonin, making you feel happy
and relaxed.
 Long-term: Reduces the amount of serotonin stored in the brain in
turn causing depression. Difficult to treat because it doesn‟t
respond to antidepressants.
 Heroine:
 Very addictive. If a person is addicted and does not take it on a
regular basis it can lead to severe depression.
 LSD (Lysergic Acid Diethylamide):
 Short-term: feelings of detachment from your surroundings and
strong hallucinations.
 Long-term: some people who were prescribed LSD in the 1960s
and ‟70s to help recover repressed thoughts and feelings reported
that their mental health had been permanently damaged though
there is no evidence of long term damage.