There are even more dangers than previously known for people that suffer from hearing impairment. While everyone is familiar with the inconveniences and dangers of this ailment on its own, it now turns out that a very sinister disease is also connected to it: depression. Depression can cause people to become forlorn and isolated, resulting in many fatalities each year. That is why it is important that we look at the study, ways to prevent hearing loss, and how to treat depression related to hearing once it has set in the person.
Treatment Is Available
Since it is a very difficult illness to treat due to all of the moving parts, depression caused by hearing loss is best treated as two separate problems. You can focus on the hearing loss and try to help people thorough surgery and hearing aids. This can lead them to be able to reclaim parts of their lives that had made them happy before, making it easier for them to get out of their depression. When it comes to treating depression, it is important to recognize its uses as a short term plan in the sense that medicine and therapy can help hold someone over until their hearing can be improved.
Preventing This Disease
There are many ways that you can go about preventing depression caused by hearing loss. The first thing that you have to do is to become committed to not going into as many areas that have high levels of noise. This means not going to clubs all night and not standing too close to the racetrack when you to see a race. While it may not be as fun, it can save your hearing and prevent some forms of depression. You can also dedicate yourself to wearing hearing protection on jobsites and at noisy venues.
Research Projects
The research that revealed this problem with the people around the United States used some 18,000 people from all around the nation. They had each person have their hearing tested, or test their own, and send them the results. Once this was done, each person was then able to take a test to tell if they had any thoughts or feelings that were related to depression.
The results of the study were very interesting. The people above the ages of 70 confounded the results because they showed lower incidences of hearing loss and also depression. However, the people that was younger than 70 showed extremely high rates of hearing loss at younger ages, and also had almost eleven percent of them having depression. While it may have been confusing in the lab, one thing is for sure: there is a positive correlation between hearing loss and depression.
