Many people I see with chronic depression carry around with them a tormentor who says the most terrible things imaginable about them, their abilities, their worth, their very right to live. That tormentor is their own inner critic (hardly a strong enough term for the cruelty that can be unleashed by these inner voices). Often it is clear where this …
Winter Leads to Spring
Someone shared with us a wonderful video about John O’Donohue, a Celtic poet, philosopher and writer. In it we found this quote that resonated very much with our experience. It is about winter. And depression. And how life blossoms from the seeming dreariness of a period of fallowness. We think you might appreciate it. If you like this clip we …
Acupuncture Works for Depression
A recent large study showed that accupuncture was helpful for depression when it was added on to usual care (which mostly involved antidepressants). 755 patients being treated in 27 primary-care clinics were randomly referred for accupuncture, humanistic counseling, or neither add-on treatment. The participants typically had moderately severe depression that was chronic (many of them had had depression since childhood). Both …
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Depression is Something We Don’t Talk About
Here is a very thought provoking piece in the TED series about depression and stigma. Share it with others and tell me what you think. “If there is one thing that we need to do it is to accept that it is OK.” “We live in a world where if you break your arm everyone runs over to sign your …
Depression in Pregnancy Affects the Child
A new study reported in the latest issue of JAMA Psychiatry, suggests that a child “born to a woman who suffers depression during pregnancy stands a higher likelihood of becoming a depressed adolescent ….” The report used information from the Avon Longitudinal Study of Parents and Children, which has collected data from nearly 9,000 women and more than 4,500 adolescent children in …
Oxytocin and Maternal Depression
There is lots of interest these days in how maternal depression affects kids, and also in how to prevent those effects. Recent research has suggested that the hormone oxytocin may play an important role in what happens. A nice review of this literature appeared in the most recent issue of the American Journal of Psychiatry. The authors note that the …
Depression and Inflammation
Recently there has been increasing interest in the relationship between depression and chronic overactivity of the body’s biological defense system – inflammation. When we have an infection, or an injury, or almost any other kind of illness, the body activates a series of processes designed to respond to the threat. Unfortunately, the inflammation system, especially if it is turned on …
My Brain Isn’t Working
Difficulties with cognition and focus are almost universal in folks with moods. In the scientific literature there have been attempts to distinguish between mood related problems and problems that tend to persist regardless of mood state. There is probably nothing that can more profoundly affect our brain’s ability to focus than an episode of depression or mania. These functional brain …
Antidepressants Help You Focus on the Positive
I am always interested in articles that help us understand how medications work, and perhaps how the brain functions in different mood states. Today I got a copy of a pre-publication article from the American Journal of Psychiatry that confirms other research about antidepressants – antidepressants work, at least in part, by helping us to shift from negative information to positive …
Coffee for Depression?
Feeling down? An article in Psychiatric Times suggests that drinking a couple of cups of coffee in the morning might help your mood. The study they cite found that those people who drank two or three servings of coffee per day (8 ounce cups of drip coffee – or shots of espresso) had a 50% lower rate of suicide compared …
Take Action… Why Do I Have to Pick Up My Room?
Sometimes wrestling with depression can seem an awful lot like having to deal with a truculent eight year old. It is 7:00 in the morning, and the alarm goes off. When you aren’t feeling depressed, that means that you get up without thinking about it too much, and take a shower or make some coffee to start the morning. But when you …
Dual Treatment: Medications and Therapy Work Together to Treat Depression
A review in the prestigious journal JAMA Psychiatry suggests that there may be a clear biological explanation of how medications and psychotherapy work together to treat depression. The authors note that recent, unexpected, research findings suggest that antidepressant medications reactivate the brain’s ability to relearn old lessons. The medications allow the brain to modify old neuron connections in a way …
Therapy or Medications for Depression?
A new study published in the most prestigious psychiatric journal (JAMA Psychiatry – see reference below) strongly suggests that a brain scan might be able to help people decide whether therapy or medications are more likely to treat their depression. As background, although some people feel that for more severe depression medications are more effective, the fact is that most …
I Need New Friends
“I thought I needed to replace my friends.” This is how one of our patients described her experience of a several week period of mania last summer. Her friends insisted that she needed to get help and that something had to be done about her energized state. But she had just emerged from a many year depression and felt that …
Men Get Mad Not Sad
There are hundreds of papers written about why it is that women have a much higher rate of depression than men. A new article published in the journal JAMA Psychiatry (August 28, 2013) suggests that some if not all of that difference may have to do with the fact that men express and experience depression differently. The authors of the …
Brain Scan Diagnosis?
A newly developed brain scanning method that measures blood flow to different parts of the brain may help to distinguish between bipolar and unipolar depression, according to a study that got a fair amount of media attention. The study of 54 adult women used a novel way of measuring brain function called arterial spin labeling (ASL). This approach allowed much …
Late Night TV Blues
Studies have tended to find that watching more TV is correlated with higher levels of depression, but is that just because TV is so boring? A recent review published in the New England Journal’s Journal Watch for Psychiatry suggests that the link might in part involve the fact that watching TV at night exposes you to blue and white light, …
Cluelessness: Getting Stupid
Late on a Friday afternoon, I found myself with two patients (back to back) who were yawning and seemingly drifting off during the course of our conversation. Now, that could have meant that I was being particularly boring. But, in this case, it was the manifestation in the office of something that had been going on at home and causing …
Get Ready for Fall
As August winds itself up, it is time to start thinking about the fall and then winter coming up. A little bit like the squirrels, who are already putting away food for the winter, it may make sense to make sure that you have what you need to have a happy and energetic fall and winter. The first thing is …
The Hunt for New Medications for Depression and Bipolar Disorder
Dr. Gerald Sanacora, Professor of Psychiatry and Director of Yale Depression Research at Yale School of Medicine, explains that when it comes to depression and bipolar medications, there are some serious limitations. Although in the short term, it seems like many people are doing better with current medications, as time goes on, these same people start showing signs of relapse. …