Two recent articles that I reviewed highlight the accumulating evidence that something as simple as sunlight has profound impacts on brain biology. When I suggest to people that they pay attention to daily light exposure and, particularly, to getting bright light for 45 minutes every morning, I am often looked at with skepticism. “Sure doc,” I hear the other person …
Golden Gate Barrier Debate Highlights Misconceptions about Depression
Several of the readers of this blog sent me a link to an article that appeared in The New York Times this past week that indicated that it was possible or even likely that at the end of May the Golden Gate Bridge district would approve installing a barrier to prevent suicides. In case you don’t live near here, the …
Evolutionary Psychology and Understanding Depression
We are glad to finally have a summary of a fascinating conversation with Dr. Julio Ozores up on this site in our “Conversations” series. Dr. Ozores challenges us to think about depression in a new way. Although many of us struggle with the negative effects of depression in our lives, are (or were) there benefits to depression that have led …
Social Media Makes Moods Go Viral
Previously we reviewed evidence that the people we live with (family, neighbors, even the larger community of people in a metropolitan area) have an effect on our mood, so it is not surprising to learn of a recent study conducted by researchers from the University of California, Yale, and Facebook that found that moods can go viral, just like ideas and …
Yoga for Mood and Health
Many of our patients with chronic mood disorders report that beginning yoga and doing it consistently has been associated with periods of remarkable stability. There are studies supporting yoga as an evidence based approach to the treatment of depression. But it is hard to figure out where to begin. At the end of this page are some additional resources. One …
Smoking Cessation Is an Antidepressant
Smoking Cessation Linked With Multiple Mental Health Benefits, Study Finds This article is reposted from the American Psychiatric Association News by permission Stopping smoking is associated with significant improvements in anxiety, depression, stress, positive affect, and psychological quality of life. And the strength of the association appears to be similar for both the general population and clinical populations, including those …
Mood Effects of Diet
One of our readers wrote to ask – Have you observed an impact of diet on mood? I feel that less carbs for example make me feel better. I’ve been experimenting with Paleo months ago. Any tips how I could explore this best? We have a fair amount of clinical experience related to this question, but we have been surprised that …
Saliva Test Identifies Teens at Risk for Major Depression
The Associated Press (2/18, Cheng) reported that according to a study published online Feb. 17 in the Proceedings of the National Academies of Science, “a saliva test for teens, specifically boys with mild symptoms of depression could help identify those who will later develop major depression.” The study involved more than 1,800 teenagers aged 12 to 19. Researchers used a …
My Motivation Is Gone
Several of the people that I saw this week have been struggling with a loss of motivation. A lack of motivation can be one of the most prominent symptoms of a major depression, but there were other aspects of their loss of motivation that I found fascinating. I asked one of these patients, a man in his 40s who is …
Extreme Moods and Memory
I can think of no better example of the phenomenon of state-dependent learning than the mother of two who came into my office one early Fall morning experiencing extremely intense emotions (racing thoughts, and panic attacks) who had had a very similar mood experience 10 years ago when she gave birth to her first child. As the result of the …
What about Marijuana for Depression or Bipolar Moods?
Since we practice in San Francisco, which was at the forefront of the move to decriminalize marijuana, we find that many of the people with depression or bipolar have smoked, or are smoking, marijuana as a way of treating their depression. Over the years we have developed a general impression of marijuana as a psychotropic (mood affecting) agent.It has been …
Maternal Warmth Protects Against the Negative Effects of Maternal Depression
I recently spent time with a friend who is a mother-to-be and struggles with depression. She was worried about how her depression might affect her relationship with her child as well as how it might affect the child’s own mental health. These are common concerns for many mothers and thankfully research is being done to address these concerns. A recent …
The Evils of the Snooze Button – Why Sleeping In Makes You Feel Tired
Winter is the time of year that the snooze button on your alarm clock can wreck havoc with your mood. Just as waking up early and getting light and exercise is the fastest way to improve depression, trying to sleep in, or lying in bed thinking about why you don’t want to get up, is the best way to make …
Mood and Menopause
What is the relationship between the hormone changes that take place around the time of menopause and depression. It seems as though there are many women who report that their depression gets worse in the peri-menopausal period, but is this a pattern? And if so what does that mean in terms of the interaction between mood and hormones? A recent …
The Trap of Stress Disability
The other day I was asked to evaluate a fellow physician by his disability insurance company. When I do disability assessments I take particular care, because what I say has big implications for the person I am evaluating, and I try very hard to do an extremely careful and thorough job of assessing the person’s situation. Three quarters of the …
Transcranial Direct Current Stimulation for Depression
Can direct stimulation of the brain with an inexpensive device help treat depression? Someone I have been working with for several months asked me about this product – “foc.us” – and the science behind TDCS. And, as it happened, a colleague had asked the same question a couple of weeks earlier. We were intrigued. Especially since this particular device was …
The Irony of Suicide: Book and Other Resources
One of our favorite readers sent us a link to an article entitled “The Irony of Suicide” that recently appeared in the New York Times. We liked the article and thought it might we worth reposting it here. Especially since, irony of ironies, this holiday season is for many people a time when thoughts of suicide can become very difficult …
Mediterranean Diet and Depression
Boost your brain power naturally! Try this simple intervention to reduce depression, stroke, heart disease and improve cognition. Does that statement make you a bit wary? A recent meta-analysis of 22 studies spanning two decades finds that the Mediterranean diet is associated with significant reductions in the risk of depression and stroke, and significant improvements in cognition. Across the studies, …
Sleep Therapy and Depression
What would you do if you could double the effectiveness of your antidepressants? Let’s say that this new treatment also had no known side effects, and was completely safe. That is what four studies have suggested could happen if people who were started on antidepressants received cognitive behavioral therapy for insomnia (CBTi). However, this treatment is not widely available. We …
Endurance of Pain and Suffering
He knew how to handle pain. You had to lie down with pain, not draw back away from it. You let yourself sort of move around the outside edge of pain like with cold water until you finally got up your nerve to take yourself in hand. Then you took a deep breath and dove in and let yourself sink …