Here’s the latest on scientific research and writing on the the medical condition of depression:
A) University of New England, via Medical X Press: “Biomarkers Could Improve Depression Diagnosis.”
Published in the journal NeuroSci, researchers showed kids who suffered childhood maltreatment and depression were more likely to have a disruption in the brain regions regulating emotional processing, an imbalance between left and right frontal brain regions, and altered brain activity.
That’s so sad, on so many levels, and how can anyone spiritualize this and add to the pain by calling these kids — “problem kids with bad attitudes who just need to obey” — which has been a traditional approach to approaching kids who struggle with emotional processing.
Now the biomarker part – the researchers are going to use EEG technology to record volunteers meeting said-criteria and then try to look for biomarkers that can be used to “create a more objective approach to depression diagnosis.“
This is why scientific research has so much practical importance, and thank the Lord for really smart people who care.
B) PsyPost on a new STUDY in BMC Psychiatry: “A smaller social network increases loneliness more drastically for those with depression.”
The Gist: Depressed people tend to have fewer social relationships, which increases feelings of depression.
That vicious cycle can often lead to a downward one, as well, which is why it’s so important to contact a doctor if you’re dealing with depression.
Now here’s what really surprised me about the study — the results showed that if you don’t have depression but have the same number of social contacts as someone with depression, the person with depression will report higher feelings of social loneliness.
PsyPost notes: “A patient’s subjective feelings of loneliness fluctuated wildly depending on their current state, spiking during an active depressive episode. However, their actual number of social relationships remained relatively stable across the different phases of the illness.”
In other words, if you experience an episode of increased depression, you’ll feel lonelier than when you’re not feeling as depressed – regardless of change in social isolation.
So: 1) People with depression were likely to have fewer social relationships, leading to greater baseline feelings of loneliness 2) Even when they did have as many relationships as non-depressed folks, they reported higher loneliness and 3) their sense of loneliness increased according to their depression levels.
This is important because feelings of loneliness can have all kinds of adverse effects on every part of your health. Not just your brain health.
Loneliness is a growing problem (social media is actually pretty unsocial), and influencers can talk all they want about maxxing-this or maxxing-that, but plain-old social connection is one of the healthiest things for your body and brain.
And it can make a life or death difference for someone with bad depression.
In fact, a brand new STUDY in JAMA Network Open suggests loneliness “is a critical step on the role to suicide” and that “by treating loneliness we might be able to buffer some of the impacts that anxiety and depression have on suicidal ideation,” according to the study’s first author.
C) The Independent on a new STUDY in The Lancet Psychiatry: A 13 year study of the GLP-1 Semaglutide found its use associated with a 42% lower risk of hospitalization for users while taking the medication than when they jumped off the medicine.
In other words, sticking with the medication seemed to be protective for the positive results.
Furthermore, the risk of worsening anxiety was 38% lower while on the medication and for depression, that number was 44%.
Researchers caution that it’s an observational study and we don’t know why the results were so impressive, but scientists point to a number of possibilities, including better glycemic control, body image, and changes to the brain’s reward system.
Now remember: GLP-1’s come with a HOST of potentially severe side effects.
I’m thrilled if they help people, medically, and if this report suggests that medical benefit extends to depression and anxiety, great.
But remember, these drugs are often being marketed to people who have no need to take them, can cause really dangerous side effects (far worse than antidepressants), and are massive money-makers from a profit margin perspective (far more than antidepressants). So there are potentials for conflicts of interest.
But I included the study to be thorough and because a) yeah, the potential mechanisms for these reductions make sense b) it will be interesting to see if these companies try to get insurance backing based on new indications (depression/anxiety) and c) I have to be honest about the encouraging results, while adding those big red disclaimers.
D) A new STUDY in Scientific Reports suggests that “Masculine Depression” (depression that’s associated with aggression, outbursts, self-destructive behaviors etc) also exists in women and is sex-independent.
Furthermore, this form of depression (again, associated with external behaviors rather than internal sadness, feelings of worthlessness etc) actually is reflective of a “significantly higher overall level of psychological distress” compared to those with low masculine depression scores.
In other words, when someone with depression externalizes rather than internalizes their depression, it’s indicative of higher distress.
Traditionally, that’s been called “Masculine Depression,” but the study suggests we shouldn’t call it that because women in the study were just as likely as men to exhibit the masculine profile.
That’s a genuinely interesting finding and has real clinical importance for diagnosis and understanding this disease.
E) Heart Health Discussions Should Include Evaluations of Depression.
That’s the take-home of this compelling read in the Irish Times, which shows depressed individuals are significantly more likely to develop coronary artery disease and that depressed coronary artery disease patients are 59% more likely to have a future cardiovascular event.
In other words, treat your mind medically (if your doctor agrees) for your heart’s sake! Your literal heart’s sake! Not just the metaphoric one.
F) This article will hit home for a lot of people, in every occupation and practically every state of adult life: “Psychology says people who haven’t felt genuinely excited in years aren’t depressed or ungrateful – they’ve usually spent so long managing other people’s emotional needs that they lost access to their own.“
Long title…. great article. Here’s a bit of it.
Anyone who’s taken on the role of emotional manager — in their family, their partnership, their workplace — faces a version of the same challenge. What happens is that your nervous system stays in a constant state of vigilance. You’re always scanning, always adjusting, always responding to others’ emotional states. The scanning becomes automatic; it doesn’t feel like effort anymore, which is partly why it’s so hard to recognize. There’s simply no energy left to tune into your own desires, dreams, or sources of excitement. The system that was supposed to help you navigate the world has been entirely repurposed to navigate other people. And somewhere in that repurposing, the signal from your own wants got quieter and quieter until it stopped registering at all.
G) STUDY from The Lancet Regional Health – Europe, as written up on Clinical Trials Arena: “German study shows promising results for online depression counselling.“
The practical importance of the study — the viability and success of digital can expand access to treatment for those in areas with fewer available counselors for depression. Which is a big issue for a lot of people across the globe.
H) PsyPost: “New research links meaning in life to lower depression rates.”
A huge new review in the Journal of Affective Disorders suggests that “finding a sense of meaning in life is consistently linked to lower levels of depression across hundreds of independent samples.“
I’d recommend reading the whole thing, because while the title sounds straightforward, the review highlights a few fascinating things as researchers tried to pin down exactly what part of meaning in life mattered.
One interesting thing is that struggling with the ability to make logical sense of experience and fit it into a worldview (“coherence”) had the “strongest negative correlation with depression.”
Alternatively, those who integrated the positive and negative events into a sense of their life story showed the lowest depression levels.
I think this is where being a Christian has genuinely helped me on the depression front.
I’m more able to put this confounding, maddening disease into perspective and sometimes that alleviates symptoms, sometimes it doesn’t, but if I were a straight up nihilist (my natural disposition), I probably wouldn’t be around to type these sentences.
But I also know (from experience) that if I didn’t take antidepressants I wouldn’t be alive to type these sentences either.
So my worldview and medical treatment both make a difference. It might be the same for you too, or might not.
So please, if you’re a Christian and — even if you have the worldview that acts as a buffer but still experience depression — remember to give your doctor a call because you very well might have a medical component that absolutely needs treatment.
Now here’s something fascinating.
Merely looking for life’s meaning didn’t universally help or harm a person’s mental health.
Cultural context was the deciding factor here, w/ individualistic societies struggling on this score vs. collectivist cultures.
“In highly individualistic environments, such as those in the United States or Great Britain, the active search for meaning was linked to higher levels of depression. Individualistic cultures expect people to discover their own solitary paths to success. When an independent person struggles to find a purpose, the resulting isolation can worsen their emotional burden.”
In collectivistic cultures, such as those in China or South Korea, searching for meaning was correlated with lower depression levels. Collectivistic societies embed personal identity within a network of family obligations and community expectations. In these environments, searching for a life path is a communal effort supported by group values, which helps temper emotional distress.
Finally, having a purpose or sense of meaning in life made a bigger difference for those with illnesses like diabetes or cancer, which makes sense.
If you don’t have physical health problems, having that purpose or sense of meaning just doesn’t matter as much to your depression.
Oh, and finally, age mattered. As you might expect, a sense of purpose and meaning helped middle-aged adults more than it did adolescents.
In fact, there was no protective correlation with adolescents.
I) STUDY in Molecular Psychiatry shows “chronic stress can trigger major depressive disorder through peripheral immune factors.”
Authors:
….we found that liver-derived C3 critically contributes to stress susceptibility and blood-brain barrier (BBB) impairment in the nucleus accumbens (NAc) by inhibiting endothelial cell claudin-5, a pivotal tight junction protein for BBB integrity. In three mouse models of depression, hepatic C3 expression was notably increased in mice, with no comparable changes in other peripheral organs.
Me: I don’t understand that, but thank the Lord for researchers who do and are looking into every aspect of this disease.
PASSAGE FOR THE DAY, Romans 5:1-4.
“Therefore, since we have been justified through faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we have gained access by faith into this grace in which we now stand.
And we boast in the hope of the glory of God.
Not only so, but we also glory in our sufferings, because we know that suffering produces perseverance; perseverance, character; and character, hope.
And hope does not put us to shame, because God’s love has been poured out into our hearts through the Holy Spirit, who has been given to us.”
SONG OF DAY: My favorite transition between two U2 songs (or really any two songs) ever.
You gotta listen to both together and, also, put it into this context: Bono’s dad had just passed away and no one was sure whether the concert would happen that night.
Bono’s prayer/bellow/cry between the two songs is his deep expression of grief, longing, and everything you might imagine associated with that dynamic. The result is total musical and spiritual transcendence.
One of my favorite concerts, too, by the way.
[Photo: Free, via Pexels]
