Lion Candy Sales
The Lions Club of Raeford is now selling Halloween Candy. Sales will
be going on thru October 31. The candy is an assortment and sells for
$ 2 a bag. AU profits go to the blind and visually handicapped. Here
Lion Ash well Harwood sells candy to Steve Maxwell.
Depression wide spread
By Charles Blackburn
Duke Univ. Medical Center
Preliminary results from nation
wide surveys indicate that more
than IS million Americans may be
suffering from depression without
realizing it, according to a Duke
University Medical Center
psychiatrist.
Dr. William Zung said the data
tends to support an earlier studyat
T5u1?Tirv^S^inu3d^or*lnanced "
depression was diagnosed in 143 of
1,000 patients seen at the medical
center's Family Medicine Clinic.
"Clinical depression is more
than a case of the blues," Zung
said. "Other symptoms may in
clude forgetfulness, a persistent
loss of appetite, the inability to
sleep and constant fatigue or
restlessness."
The problem is, many people
fail to make the connection be
tween these symptoms and clinical
depression, Zung said.
"That's why we speak of it as
being hidden or masked. The pa
tient senses that something is
wrong, but he doesn't know what.
"Most of us occasionally have
insomnia or feel tired, but we
don't have these and other symp
toms of depression over a long
period of time, and they don't oc
cur in clusters," he said.
According to Zung, the condi
tion is found in children as well as
adults, with the highest incidence
in people ages 25 to 44. Twice as
many women as men are diagnosed
as having the disorder.
"In certain cases, depression
may be associated with a chemical
irr.oalance in the brain or a change
in body chemistry," Zung said.
"Researsh indicates that there are
different kinds of depression, each
requiring its own specialized type
of treatment."
Antidepressant drugs are often
used successfully to treat depres
sion, according to Zung, "but
you've got to identify it before you
can treat it."
Zung has been participating in
three nationwide projects from
which he is assembling data about
depression. All three are aimed at
alerting physicians as well as lay
people to a common medical pro
blem.
Many older Americans among
the more than 1 million who par
ticipated in this year's National
Health Fair Program took a ver
sion of the Zung Self-rating
Depression Scale, the scale has
been used as a diagnostic aid by
general practitioners and
psychiatrists for more than 20
Health Hints
years. It has been translated into
30 languages.
"We know that clinical depres
sion is under-recognized and
therefore under-treated among
older^ Americans," Zung said.
"This was an effort to identify the
they can change the way they feel
about themselves and life." ?
He described the Self-rating
Depression Scale as a diagnostic
tool for montitoring "the emo
tional vital signs" of a patient. It
consists of 20 statements, each of
which relates lo a specific
characteristic of clinical depression
in four basic areas: physical,
psychological, psychomotor and
mood.
The patient rates them according
to how applicable they are to his or
her life during the preceding two
weeks. He can check one of four
boxes with headings ranging from
"None or a little of the time" to
"Most or all the time." Examples
include: I get tired for no reason; I
have crying spells or feel like it; I
am restless and can't keep still.
By using a simple scoring
method, the physician can use the
scale in conjunction with his own
clinical observations to gauge the
patient's emotional state.
The scale was given to television
viewers last May through a
Lifetime Cable Network special on
psychological problems called
"\our Mental Health." Some 18
million homes nationwide
subscribe to the network, and
viewers were asked to complete the
scale and send it to Zung.
He is also compiling data from
hundreds of physicians par
ticipating in the National Depres
sion Evaluation Program, which is
seeking to evaluate the usefulness
of the Self-rating Depression Scale
in the everyday management of
depression.
"The scale is proving useful in
evaluating therapy as well as
screening for depression," Zung
said, noting that those who are
successfully treated tend to score
better when given the scale again.
Materials in the program include
a taped interview with Dr. Zung by
well-known comedian Buddy
Hackett about recognizing masked
depression in general medical prac
tice. During the interview, Hackett
talks about his own battle with
depression and how Dr. Zunj
helped him overcome it.
County farms eroding 9 tons per acre
By Donate Harris
District Coaacnratioabt
Hoke County was the 99th coun
ty established in North Carolina
with a total of 243,840 acres.
Of these acres, 92,000 belong to
the Fort Bragg Military Reserva
tion, 72,459 farmland, 48,762
cropland, 1.0S7 pastureland,
21,046 woodland and the remain
ing are urban and land in other
uses.
Each acre in the county is
vulnerable to soil erosion if ade
quate protection is not applied.
Soil erosion occurs mostly on
agriculture land, especially
cropland. Hoke County farmers
are losing an average of nine tons
of soil per acre per year off
cropland fields from wind and
water erosion.
Most of our soils can stand to
loose five tons per acre per year
and still be productive.
Once we begin to loose more
than five tons the process of ero
sion is removing valuable topsoil
from the fields year after year and
causing a reduction in available
plant nutrients for crop develop
ment.
The most valuable layer of
growing material is being lost
through the process of erosion.
Most of our cropland suffers
from wind and water erosion.
Large fields in the southern part
of the county may have large dust
clouds blowing across the fields
during the months of March and
early April.
The dust storms cause damage in
a number of ways: Soil Erosion,
plant nutrient reduction, crop
damage, soil moisture reduction
and sediment deposit in field dit
ches and next to wood edges.
With most of Hoke County be
ing a sandy type of soil, some
farmers are beginning to plant
deep sandy cropland fields to
coastal bermuda grass for pasture
or hayland use. These deep sands
cause field crops to suffer from
drought conditions during hot dry
summer months if no artificial ir
rigation is available.
This condition will directly ef
fect crop yield as well as farm pro
fit.
Fanners that have studied the
market on beef and hay produc
tion may realize that their potential
farm profit is greater when utiliz
ing deep sandy fields as grassland
and not as cropland.
Many of these fields are planted
to soybeans which may only pro
duce 10-15 bushels per acre. With
the cost of seedbed preparation,
planting, fertilizing, liming,
cultivating and harvesting the
crop, farmers may not be making
any profit from their efforts.
Today's farmers are going to
have to recognize the need for
changes in their operation to in
crease production and decrease
waste.
High interest rates may continue
to increase in the future causing
farm operation expenses to in
crease.
With this, there is a decrease in
farm profit.
Farmers today are going to have
to be better managers of their
operation in order to increase their
farm profit.
It is important that they
recognize the need to reduce soil
loss and make those management
changes in operations as needed
for a possible increase in farm pro
fit.
For more information on soil
erosion contact the Hoke Soil and
Water Conservation District Of
fice.
Guin receives
promotion
Neil R. Guin Jr., son of Martha
A. Guin of Raeford, has been pro
moted in the U.S. Army to the
rank of specialist four.
Guin is a medical specialist at '
Fort Bragg with the 82nd Airborne
Division.
He is a 1982 graduate of Hoke
High School.