Depression Sickness

Coran · 02-23-2006, 11:35 AM

What is depression sickness? Will it kill me? or is it some kind of disease when we get when we are diving?

sharky · 03-24-2006, 02:03 PM

are you referring to decompression sickness?
If yes here is what it exactly is:

Quote:

"The danger does not lie in entering the shaft containing compressed air; nor in remaining there a longer or shorter time; decompression alone is dangerous: pay only when leaving." (Source: Paul Bert ' s translated quote from Pol and Watelle (19th Century))

The general principle of decompression sickness (DCS) is fairly well understood: nitrogen bubbles form in the body tissues of divers breathing compressed air who move too quickly from high pressure (deep water) to a lower pressure (shallow water). These bubbles can cause great pain in the bones and joints, and too many bubbles in the lungs, brain and spinal cord can even lead to death.

In order to prevent DCS, divers need to limit their time at depth. They also need to return to the surface slowly enough to allow their bodies to decompress at a rate that allows elimination of the problem-causing nitrogen without forming too many bubbles. Decompression tables and dive computers tell divers how long they can stay at depths and at what rate they should return to the surface to avoid problems. However, these tables and computer algorithms are based mostly on test trials of fairly straightforward dives, where a diver descends to a particular depth and stays there for a particular period of time before surfacing.

A University of Wisconsin team led by researchers R. Tass Dueland and Charles Lehner is concerned that dive tables and computers might not adequately account for a fairly common diving pattern called "bounce" diving, whereby recreational scuba or commercial divers make many dives to different depths and of different durations in a day's diving. Studies of recreational divers who practice "bounce" diving have found that these divers can incur damage to bone tissue, a condition called dysbaric osteonecrosis (DON). In turn, DON can later lead to painful and permanently disabling arthritis. In addition, studies of recreational divers, especially among those engaged in deep diving, also have shown evidence of brain lesions.

In their current study, the University of Wisconsin researchers will collect the "dive profiles" from high-risk, repetitive divers such as commercial seafood divers in Maine and Puerto Rico. This critical information can be used to more accurately determine the level of risk faced by recreational scuba divers. This risk can then be reduced through education, new medical treatments, and better diving guidelines and equipment.