Category: Depression

Could there be a ‘dimmer switch’ for depression?

People who are depressed may have hyperactivity in a part of the brain known as ‘the disappointment circuit’, a study finds.

Scientists led by Professor Roberto Malinow of the University of California, San Diego, found what could amount to an antidote to feeling let-down.

The study focused on a part of the brain called the lateral habenula, which has been linked to the feeling of disappointment which follows from the absence of an expected reward.

Professor Roberto Malinow, who led the study, said:

“The idea that some people see the world as a glass half empty has a chemical basis in the brain.

What we have found is a process that may dampen the brain’s sensitivity to negative life events.”

The neuroscientists found that this area, unlike almost any other in the brain, produces neurotransmitters which both ramp up and damp down brain activity.

Dr Steven Shabel, the study’s first author, said:

“Our study is one of the first to rigorously document that inhibition can co-exist with excitation in a brain pathway.

In our case, that pathway is believed to signal disappointment.”

The study may help to explain why people experiencing depression tend to concentrate so much on negative events.

Depression has already been linked to hyperactivity in the lateral habenula in previous studies.

Until now, though, scientists have not understood how the brains of healthy individuals damp down activity in the so-called disappointment circuit.

Dr Shabel said:

“The take-home of this study is that inhibition in this pathway is coming from an unusual co-release of neurotransmitters into the habenula.

Our study suggests that one of the ways in which serotonin alleviates depression is by rebalancing the brain’s processing of negative life events vis-à-vis the balance of glutamate and GABA in the habenula.

We may now have a precise neurochemical explanation for why antidepressants make some people more resilient to negative experiences.”

The study was published in the journal Science (Shabel et al., 2014).

The parts of the brain linked to this trait were shrunken in people with depression vulnerability.

Displaying a lack of trust in others is an early sign of depression.

People who find it hard to trust — which is, after all, at the heart of social relations — are at a higher risk of developing major depressive disorder.

And neuroscientists have found that the part of the brain that processes trust-based information is shrunken in people with depression vulnerability.

Indeed, this change in the brain can predict the onset of depression one year in advance.

Trust requires a leap of faith

The conclusions come from a neuroimaging study that examined the gray matter volume of over 500 people in Japan.

Dr Alan S. R. Fermin, the study’s first author, explained the motivation:

“Our question was: Can we use social personality information to predict the development of mental disorders, such as depression?

Having tools that help identify early signs of mental disorders could accelerate medical or other therapeutical interventions.”

Being able to trust others is crucial, but it requires an expectation that others comply with social norms.

Unfortunately, the world is full of evidence that people are not trustworthy: there is gossip, bullying, harassment and violence in many places.

So, trust requires a leap of faith.

People who find it difficult to take this leap can become isolated and develop depression.

Dr Fermin said:

“In our study, we not only replicated the association between low trust and depression but also demonstrated that brain regions associated with trust were also associated with the degree of depressive symptoms one year in advance.

Overall, we found that the brains of lower trusters showed reduced gray matter volume in brain regions involved in social cognition.

Also, we found that this gray matter volume reduction among low trusters was similar to the brain of actual depressive patients.

Thus, even though our participants hadn’t received any diagnosis of depression, their brains were already showing signs of depression.”

Reduced gray matter volume

The brain scans revealed that people with high levels of depression symptoms and low levels of trust had reduced gray matter volume in a whole series of regions.

These regions are involved in how we control our emotions and predict other people’s mental states.

It is not yet known what causes these brain regions to shrink.

Dr Fermin said:

“We hope that our findings could support the development of institutional and social policies to increase social trust—for example, at work, school, or public space—and prevent the development of mental disorders.”

The study was published in the journal Scientific Reports (Fermin et al., 2022).

A question that can help control negative emotions.

Understanding how you feel — and being able to describe it — can protect against depression, research finds.

Young people who could describe their emotions in more precise ways were better at fighting off depression caused by stressful life events.

Differentiating emotions helps people to regulate them more effectively.

For example, identifying a feeling as frustration, rather than just ‘feeling bad’, can better help a person deal with it.

So, the simple question that may help protect against depression is: how do I really feel?

The study included 193 adolescents who reported their emotions four times a day over a week.

When they were were followed up 18 months later, young people better at differentiating their emotions were less susceptible to depression.

Dr Lisa Starr, the study’s first author, explained:

“Adolescents who use more granular terms such as ‘I feel annoyed,’ or ‘I feel frustrated,’ or ‘I feel ashamed’ — instead of simply saying ‘I feel bad’ — are better protected against developing increased depressive symptoms after experiencing a stressful life event.”

On the other hand, those who did not distinguish between being ashamed or annoyed, for example, were more likely to let stressful life events get them down.

Dr Starr said:

“Emotions convey a lot of information.

They communicate information about the person’s motivational state, level of arousal, emotional valence, and appraisals of the threatening experience

A person has to integrate all that information to figure out — “am I feeling irritated,” or “am I feeling angry, embarrassed, or some other emotion?”

It’s going to help me predict how my emotional experience will unfold, and how I can best regulate these emotions to make myself feel better.”

It may be possible to increase people’s sensitivity to their emotional states, Dr Starr said:

“Basically you need to know the way you feel, in order to change the way you feel.

I believe that NED could be modifiable, and I think it’s something that could be directly addressed with treatment protocols that target NED.

Our data suggests that if you are able to increase people’s NED then you should be able to buffer them against stressful experiences and the depressogenic effect of stress.”

The study was published in the journal Emotion (Starr et al., 2019).

Psychological studies support these six fascinating ways of fighting depressive symptoms.

1. Change how you see the future

It’s often assumed that it’s depression that causes a pessimistic view of the future.

But it could be the other way around, a study finds.

Being pessimistic about the future may actually cause depression.

There are three ways in which thinking about the future may cause depression:

• Poor generation of possible futures.
• Poor evaluation of possible future.
• Negative beliefs about the future.

Depression also likely feeds back into more negative views of the future, creating a vicious circle.

Try to address the way you think about the future — is there a way to be a little more optimistic about it?

2. Eat a Mediterranean diet

A Mediterranean diet including fruits, vegetables and legumes can prevent depression, a large study finds.

People only had to make relatively small changes to see the benefits.

Depression could be partly down to a lack of essential nutrients.

The benefits of the diet are likely related to higher levels of omega 3 and other essential nutrients.

3. Socialise face-to-face

Regular face-to-face communication reduces the risk of depression in older adults by half, a study finds.

In comparison, socialising by phone or email does not have the same beneficial effect.

Dr Alan Teo, who led the study, said:

“Research has long-supported the idea that strong social bonds strengthen people’s mental health.

But this is the first look at the role that the type of communication with loved ones and friends plays in safeguarding people from depression.

We found that all forms of socialization aren’t equal.

Phone calls and digital communication, with friends or family members, do not have the same power as face-to-face social interactions in helping to stave off depression.”

4. Identify with a group

It has long been known that social connections are vital for a person who is experiencing depression.

Research finds that it’s not just social groups which help those with depression, crucially it’s identifying with that group which helps alleviate depression.

The conclusions come from an Australian study of patients both at risk and diagnosed with depression who had joined a number of local groups.

These patients who strongly identified with the groups they’d joined — whether at the hospital for group therapy or in their hobbies — said they felt supported because they were ‘in it together’.

5. Give up Facebook for a week…or longer

Comparing yourself to other people on Facebook has been linked to depressive symptoms, a study finds.

While the social network can be a useful way of connecting with others, there may be psychological dangers.

Mai-Ly Steers, the study’s first author, said:

“One danger is that Facebook often gives us information about our friends that we are not normally privy to, which gives us even more opportunities to socially compare.

You can’t really control the impulse to compare because you never know what your friends are going to post.

In addition, most of our Facebook friends tend to post about the good things that occur in their lives, while leaving out the bad.

If we’re comparing ourselves to our friends’ ‘highlight reels,’ this may lead us to think their lives are better than they actually are and conversely, make us feel worse about our own lives.”

6. Ask Socratic questions

A technique called ‘Socratic questioning’ can help depressed people recover, a study finds.

Socratic questioning is used by many therapists to help patients explore new perspectives on themselves and the world.

Socratic questioning differs from ‘normal’ questioning by focusing on fundamental issues and concerns.

For example, if a patient feels their life is a failure because of a divorce, the therapist might ask:

• Is everyone who experienced divorce a failure?
• Can you think of anyone for whom that is not true?
• How does being divorced seem to translate into being a failure as a person for you?
• What evidence is there that you have succeeded, and thus not been a “total failure?”

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How both happiness and depression spread through social networks.

Depression does not spread between friends, a study finds.

Indeed, friends can provide a protective effect against depression.

Professor Frances Griffiths, one of the study’s authors, said:

“Depression is a major public health concern worldwide.

But the good news is we’ve found that a healthy mood amongst friends is linked with a significantly reduced risk of developing and increased chance of recovering from depression.

Our results offer implications for improving adolescent mood.

In particular they suggest the hypothesis that encouraging friendship networks between adolescents could reduce both the incidence and prevalence of depression among teenagers.”

Strong social network

The study followed over 2,000 adolescents attending high school in the US.

Researchers looked at how their moods changed in comparison to other students who were in their social network.

They found that when someone’s friends were in a healthy mood, it provided a protective effect against depression.

In fact, it halved the probability of someone developing depression.

Or if they became depressed, being in a happy group doubled the chance of recovery.

Mr Edward Hill, the study’s first author, said:

“In the context of depression, this is a very large effect size.

Changing risk by a factor of two is unusual.

Our results suggest that promotion of any friendship between adolescents can reduce depression since having depressed friends does not put them at risk, but having healthy friends is both protective and curative.”

Dr Thomas House, another of the study’s authors, said:

“It could be that having a stronger social network is an effective way to treat depression.

More work needs to be done but it may be that we could significantly reduce the burden of depression through cheap, low-risk social interventions.

As a society, if we enable friendships to develop among adolescents (for example providing youth clubs) each adolescent is more likely to have enough friends with healthy mood to have a protective effect.

This would reduce the prevalence of depression.”

Parent and child

In contrast with friends, though, depression is contagious between children and parents, perhaps because the relationship is that much closer.

Depressed children can make their parents depressed and treating the child helps the parents recover.

Similarly, depressed parents can make their children depressed.

Clearly there is a genetic component to this, but one study has found that depression is passed down from father to child even when the child is adopted.

The research was published in the journal Proceedings of the Royal Society B (Hill et al., 2015).