Insights on Depression, Recovery and Living Well
Welcome to the Storied Mind Newsletter. Each week I describe a few outstanding posts, sites and resources that have helped me understand more about depression and how to deal with it. Please let me know of other resources you would like to see mentioned here. Write to: john@storiedmind.com.
|
|
Social: Why We're Wired to Connect
Matthew Lieberman's book, Social: Why Our Brains Are Wired to Connect, explores the neuroscience of our need to connect with people. He sees it as basic to healthy functioning in life and describes research showing that parts of the brain closely associated with self-concept also are responsive to opinions and judgments of others. Rather than maintaining a clear split between our own identity and what people think of us, the brain actively links these things. That is why the pain of rejection in relationships can be as severe as physical pain and lead to a breakdown of emotional and physical well-being. Lieberman sees the drive for social connection as central to our ability to think about what others are thinking and to adjust behavior to avoid rejection.
|
|
|
Exposure Therapy and Fear Neurons
Exposure therapy is one of the most effective ways of helping people overcome the fears driving obsessive compulsive disorder, PTSD and anxiety disorders of many types. New research shows that it helps silence the fear neurons in the amygdala that are so easily aroused by these conditions. This Tufts University study has identified more precisely than in the past the particular synapses that change during exposure therapy. The hope is to explore ways to make exposure therapy more effective and long-lasting in its effects than it now is.
|
|
|
Dwelling on Negative Events Causes Stress
Depression is often described as a set of conditions arising from a combination of biological, psychological and social factors - a catch-all way of saying we don't really know what the cause is. But a British study (full text at Plos One) of over 32,000 people, aged 18-85, has produced results that bring out the most important factors. They found that, while traumatic life events were the biggest contributors to depression and anxiety, it was the way people thought about these events that most commonly led to high stress and then depression. While not ruling out other influences, the finding reinforces the importance of therapy that can help control self-blame and rumination.
|
|
|
New Book by Author of Silver Linings Playbook
Matthew Quick, author of Silver Linings Playbook, has a new novel that further explores themes of depression and anxiety. Forgive Me, Leonard Peacock is about a high school boy who has become suicidally depressed. As he describes in this The Age interview, he didn't set out to write about mental health, but the subject came naturally out of his own life and his experience of working with teens when he was a teacher, when he became the go-to guy for troubled teens. I find his writing about depression so honest and effective because it does grow out of his characters' immediate experience of trying to find a way to understand what they are going through.
|
|
|
Interactive Brain Map
Open Colleges, an online learning site, has an interactive brain map that is one of the best resources I have found to help visualize the major areas of brain activity and to understand what each one does. There are three levels of the map: the cerebral cortex, the limbic system and a diagram of a typical neuron. Clicking on the colored circles highlights an area and brings up explanatory material with several levels of text. It's a little tricky to find all clickable buttons under each major heading, but it's worth spending some time getting familiar with the navigation. There is a lot of clear information. Highly useful.
|
|
|
Choosing Online Therapies for Depression
Cognitive behavioral therapy has been available in online format for some time, but I was surprised to find that psychodynamic psychotherapy is also provided through the internet as guided self-help. In this pilot study involving 44 people, the effectiveness of the two approaches was compared. Not surprisingly, the strength of preference for one or the other form of therapy predicted how well people did. Overall, both helped about equally well during the acute phase of depression, but cognitive therapy did better in improving quality of life over a 7month follow-up period.
|
|
|
Gut Bacteria and Depression
When I was taking the MAOI antidepressant, Emsam, I learned a little about the connection between the digestive tract and depression since this class of drug requires care in eating certain foods. Now it appears that depression can be worsened if the gut leaks certain bacteria into the bloodstream. Some of these can cause inflammation, which is closely linked to depression, and there is a growing list of disorders and drugs that can cause this sort of leakage. This Scientific American article gives a good overview but also shows how much is yet to be learned. This research gives yet another sign of how closely integrated mind and body really are.
|
|
|
Potential New Fast-Acting Anti-Depressant
I've mentioned before the testing of ketamine and similar drugs previously used as anesthetics for the treatment of depression. Their advantage is that they act quickly, but they also can have dangerous side effects. Research at the University of Chicago is looking at a different class of drugs without these problems. This class acts on the proteins that help make serotonin useful in the brain but also enhances the availability of dopamine. At least in animal studies, the drugs worked in a few days instead of several weeks. This is another step beyond the current generation of antidepressants which are not only slow to take effect but which simply don't work for many people.
|
|
|
|
Storied Mind Ebooks Now Available
|
|
|
