Not too .. "surprising" .. when one looks at the link between oxidation
/ rust / iron / hemosiderin / ferritin ..

http://tinyurl.com/73xmu

Source: American Neurological Association (ANA)     Released: Mon
10-Oct-2005, 08:45 ET

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Surprising Links Between Depression, Suicide, and Epilepsy
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EPILPSY SUICIDE DEPRESSION
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Researchers have found provocative evidence that the brain dysfunction
that underlies epilepsy may also determine whether people are at risk
for suicide.

Newswise - Researchers have found provocative evidence that the brain
dysfunction that underlies epilepsy may also determine whether people
are at risk for suicide. The study, published online October 10, 2005
in the Annals of Neurology
(http://www.interscience.wiley.com/journal/ana), also suggests that
depression and suicide may have different brain mechanisms.

"For reasons that are not understood, depression both increases the
risk for developing epilepsy and is also common among people with
epilepsy who experience many seizures," said lead author Dale C.
Hesdorffer, Ph.D., of the Gertrude Sergievsky Center at Columbia
University.

It has commonly been assumed that the difficulties associated with
living with epilepsy could provoke depression, and in some cases, an
increased risk of suicide, the authors write. But is harder to explain
the opposite findings, that people who develop depression have a higher
risk of later experiencing a first seizure.

While neuroscientists have postulated overlapping brain systems for
depression and epilepsy, this evidence is still preliminary. In the
present study, the researchers attempted to define more clearly the
relationship between depression, suicide, and epilepsy.

"One question we had was whether some symptoms of depression were more
important than others for increasing the risk for developing epilepsy,"
said Hesdorffer. "Suicidal thoughts and suicide attempt were
possibilities, because people with epilepsy seem to be more likely to
commit suicide than the general population. But we looked at all
symptoms of depression."

Hesdorffer and colleagues compared data for both epilepsy and
depression in 324 people with epilepsy and 647 control subjects.

A history of depression increased the risk of epilepsy, but the
startling finding was that people with epilepsy were 4 times more
likely to have attempted suicide before ever having a seizure, even
after other factors were taken into account like drinking alcohol,
having depression, age, and gender.

The individual presence of other symptoms of depression, whether common
(e.g., depressed mood) or more rare (e.g., weight change) did not
predict a greater likelihood of later seizures.

While this finding clearly suggests common underlying brain mechanisms
for suicidal behavior and epilepsy, the results also suggest that
depression and suicidal behavior may be related to different
mechanisms.

"Increasingly, clinicians treating people with epilepsy ask about
current depression, but they may not ask about past suicide attempt or
suicidal thoughts," said Hesdorffer. "Our results may alert clinicians
to the need to ask this question and offer any needed counseling to
prevent the occurrence of later completed suicide."

"We plan to follow up with studies designed to see whether the
co-occurrence of these disorders is explained by shared genetic
susceptibility, and with studies that examine possible common
underlying neurotransmitter abnormalities," said Hesdorffer.

Article: "Depression and Suicide Attempt as Risk Factors for Incident
Unprovoked Seizures," Dale C. Hesdorffer, W. Allen Hauser, Elias
Olafsson, Petur Ludvigsson, and Olafur Kjartansson, Annals of
Neurology; Published Online: October 10, 2005 (DOI: 10.1002/ana.20685).

The Annals of Neurology, the preeminent neurological journal worldwide,
is published by the American Neurological Association, the world's
oldest and most prestigious neurological association. The 1,500 members
of the ANA--selected from among the most respected academic
neurologists and neuroscientists in North America and other
countries--are devoted to furthering the understanding and treatment of
nervous system disorders. For more information, visit
http://www.aneuroa.org.

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© 2005 Newswise.  All Rights Reserved.

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