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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 Parkinson´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
(Score: 2) by MichaelDavidCrawford on Friday March 02 2018, @08:36AM (1 child)
Ive been experiencing that for three years now.
As depression approaches one gradually loses interest in all the things that make life pleasurable.
If there is absolutely nothing you want to do for fun it's no surprise that you get depressed.
I used to be heavily into studying piano. I have a really top-quality electric keyboard six feet away from me as I write this.
I cannot even remember the last time I played it.
The Elavil antidepressant I'm presently taking mostly makes me feel normal but it doesn't restore my interests in any of the things I used to be interested in. Were I to stop taking it, without those lost interests I would just get depressed again.
Ironically my Elavil is cheap as dirt. It's been generic for decades. The patented and brand-name Latuda I took for a few months set Medicaid back five grand each of those months, but did nothing for me.
Imipramine worked real well back in the day but oddly doesn't work anymore.
My most-common symptom is just garden variety depression. It's uncommon that I experience any of the more intriguing symptoms, such as hallucinating police [warplife.com] all over everywhere. Really that's quite rare for me.
Yes I Have No Bananas. [gofundme.com]
(Score: 3, Insightful) by acid andy on Friday March 02 2018, @01:21PM
Anhedonia's a really tough one. You can even get to the point where you're doing something pleasurable and feeling the body's pleasure and happiness chemicals on a physiological level but it just feels ultimately unfulfilling and empty on a higher level. It's very, very odd.
If a cat has kittens, does a rat have rittens, a bat bittens and a mat mittens?