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posted by mrpg on Friday March 02 2018, @01:33AM   Printer-friendly
from the get-help-now dept.

Research shows that longstanding depression alters the brain -- treatment may require different approaches depending on not just the severity of the depression but also on its longevity:

Is clinical depression always the same illness, or does it change over time?

New brain imaging research from the Centre for Addiction and Mental Health (CAMH) shows that the brain alters after years of persistent depression, suggesting the need to change how we think about depression as it progresses.

The study, led by senior author Dr. Jeff Meyer of CAMH's Campbell Family Mental Health Research Institute, is published in The Lancet Psychiatry.

The research shows that people with longer periods of untreated depression, lasting more than a decade, had significantly more brain inflammation compared to those who had less than 10 years of untreated depression. In an earlier study, Dr. Meyer's team discovered the first definitive evidence of inflammation in the brain in clinical depression.

This study provides the first biological evidence for large brain changes in long-lasting depression, suggesting that it is a different stage of illness that needs different therapeutics - the same perspective taken for early and later stages of Alzheimer's disease, he says.

"Greater inflammation in the brain is a common response with degenerative brain diseases as they progress, such as with Alzheimer's disease and ParkinsonĀ“s disease," says Dr. Meyer, who also holds Canada Research Chair in the Neurochemistry of Major Depression. While depression is not considered a degenerative brain disease, the change in inflammation shows that, for those in whom depression persists, it may be progressive and not a static condition.

Over years, depression changes the brain, new study shows
Depression Can Actually Leave Long-Term Changes in Your Brain, Study Shows

More information: Elaine Setiawan et al, Association of translocator protein total distribution volume with duration of untreated major depressive disorder: a cross-sectional study, The Lancet Psychiatry (2018). DOI: 10.1016/S2215-0366(18)30048-8


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  • (Score: 2) by JoeMerchant on Friday March 02 2018, @04:27PM (3 children)

    by JoeMerchant (3937) on Friday March 02 2018, @04:27PM (#646456)

    I think there's something to the supplements/diets and finding what works for you is a very good thing. Chronic excessive inflammation is bad juju for life, and if you've got it - getting it reduced is important. The most beneficial thing is getting to a state where you're not actively suffering - once there, you can "have a life" that allows you to get past feelings of being stuck in a bad place and that starts a positive feedback loop that can reduce your sensitivity to negative influences in the first place.

    I've tried a bunch of things over the years, and they either didn't have a noticeable impact after using them for a while, or even more often they didn't have a noticeable impact after discontinuing them for awhile - so I don't bother with those anymore. There's a more insidious variety like dandruff shampoo which actually does reduce dandruff when you start and increase it when you stop short term, but I liken that one to hand sanitizer - broad spectrum antimicrobial that wipes out the good with the bad, and I've decided that those things aren't in the "good for me" category.

    Some things that do appear to make a difference for me: reducing gluten intake to near zero - correlation with reduction in joint inflammation is very clear and noticeable (for 10+ years now) and there are other harder to pin down effects in the gut and brain. Foods high in ginger content seem to reduce inflammation also. Vitamin C and fiber from orange juice, blueberries or other sources clearly hits the positive column. High sensory input activities like bike riding or driving a convertible with the top down (or at least windows open on the highway in a fixed roof car), all seem to be clear mood lifters. I think my negative response to fluorescent lighting is a mental conditioning thing, but those can have real effects too.

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  • (Score: 2) by Azuma Hazuki on Friday March 02 2018, @10:13PM (2 children)

    by Azuma Hazuki (5086) on Friday March 02 2018, @10:13PM (#646660) Journal

    Ooh, yeah, ginger is good stuff :) I have some powder in hot water every day. It's great for aches and pains, and it thins the blood slightly.

    --
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    • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday March 03 2018, @01:41AM (1 child)

      by Anonymous Coward on Saturday March 03 2018, @01:41AM (#646761)

      "thins the blood slightly"

      And how exactly do you know that?

      • (Score: 2) by Azuma Hazuki on Saturday March 03 2018, @05:10AM

        by Azuma Hazuki (5086) on Saturday March 03 2018, @05:10AM (#646856) Journal

        ...seriously? 10 seconds and a well-formed query in the search engine of your choice will show both professional and amateur observations that ginger affects the clotting process in this manner. Try searching for something like "ginger drug interactions" and you'll get a long list of warnings about not combining it/using it with extreme caution in conjunction with Warfarin or the -xaban family, the activated clotting factor X inhibitors.

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        I am "that girl" your mother warned you about...