Category: Depression

The Type Of Breathing That Fights Depression And Anxiety

Changing patterns of breathing improves mental health, concentration and memory.

Changing patterns of breathing improves mental health, concentration and memory.

Deep breathing can help reduce the symptoms of depression and anxiety.

It also has the power to increase concentration and memory.

Controlled yogic breathing has even been shown to help with severe depression.

But, it has to be done right.

Diaphragmatic breathing — colloquially known as deep breathing — involves contracting the muscles underneath the lungs.

Sometimes it is called ‘belly breathing’ because it feels like breathing from the belly.

In contrast, ‘chest breathing’ — using the muscles around the upper body — is less efficient.

Dr Melanis Rivera, a clinical psychologist who works at a student counselling centre, said:

“When you breathe with your upper chest, upper lungs, upper body, what happens is you are taking in less oxygen which is vital to your body and organs.”

This sort of shallow breathing is linked to anxiety, fatigue and muscle tension.

It can also lead to headaches and panic attacks.

Belly breathing is best done by breathing in steadily for four seconds from the diaphragm, then exhaling for six seconds.

Dr Nathaly Shoua-Desmarais, a clinical psychologist and biofeedback specialist, said:

“The misconception is the longer you suck in air the better, but it’s the longer exhalation that provides the most benefit.”

While it might seem odd that we need to train ourselves to breathe properly, Dr Shoua-Desmarais said:

“Babies use diaphragmatic breathing.

Somewhere along the way we develop bad habits that develop into thoracic breathing.”

Retraining ourselves to do something so natural, though, can prove difficult.

It is best to start with a 5-minute routine at first, said Dr Rivera:

“If you’ve been chest breathing for a good portion of your life and you suddenly tell your body, hey, let’s stretch out these lungs, you could feel dizzy or get a headache, even hyperventilate.”

A Common Vitamin Deficiency Linked to Depression

Very common vitamin deficiency linked to higher levels of depression.

Very common vitamin deficiency linked to higher levels of depression.

Almost half of young women have insufficient vitamin D levels, which is linked to depression.

The study also found that over one-third of young women had signs of clinical depression.

Dr David Kerr, the psychologist who led the study, said:

“Depression has multiple, powerful causes and if vitamin D is part of the picture, it is just a small part.

But given how many people are affected by depression, any little inroad we can find could have an important impact on public health.”

While many suspect a link between the vitamin deficiency and depression, studies have not often confirmed it.

Dr Kerr continued:

“The new study was prompted in part because there is a widely held belief that vitamin D and depression are connected, but there is not actually much scientific research out there to support the belief.

I think people hear that vitamin D and depression can change with the seasons, so it is natural for them to assume the two are connected.”

Vitamin deficiency

To test the link researchers recruited 185 female college students between the ages of 18-25.

The study focused on women because they are almost twice as likely to suffer from depression.

Their vitamin D levels were measured from their blood.

Depression symptoms were checked every week for five weeks.

The results showed that women of colour had particularly high vitamin deficiency for vitamin D, with 61% being deficient.

This compared to low vitamin D levels in 35% of other women.

Vitamin D is important for both mental and physical health.

Physically, it has been linked to better bone health, muscle function, and cardiovascular health.

Vitamin D is created in the body with exposure to sunlight.

It is also found in some foods, like milk, which is fortified with it.

Dr Kerr concluded:

“Vitamin D supplements are inexpensive and readily available.

They certainly shouldn’t be considered as alternatives to the treatments known to be effective for depression, but they are good for overall health.”

The vitamin deficiency study is published in the journal Psychiatry Research (Kerr et al., 2015)

The Breakfast Timing Linked To Depression And Anxiety (M)

Breakfast timing also predicts how long older adults live.

Breakfast timing also predicts how long older adults live.

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This Authentic Personality Trait Reduces Depression

The trait is linked to feeling pure and in touch with yourself.

The trait is linked to feeling pure and in touch with yourself.

Believing in free will makes you feel more authentic and pure.

Free will is the belief that we have the power to make our own choices and we are not ruled by fate.

Feeling closer to your true self has a number of benefits, including lower depression and anxiety.

A sense of free will also helps boost people’s self-esteem and increases their sense of meaning in life.

Dr Elizabeth Seto, the study’s first author, said:

“Whether you agree that we have free will or that we are overpowered by social influence or other forms of determinism, the belief in free will has truly important consequences.”

For the study, almost 300 people were split into two groups.

One group wrote about experiences that reflected free will, while the other wrote about experiences that lacked it.

The results showed that a lack of free will was linked to less self-awareness and even self-alienation.

People who wrote about free will, though, felt more in touch with themselves.

Dr Seto said:

“Our findings suggest that part of being who you are is experiencing a sense of agency and feeling like you are in control over the actions and outcomes in your life.

If people are able to experience these feelings, they can become closer to their true or core self.”

In a subsequence study, people whose sense of free will was boosted, reported feeling more authentic about making a donation to charity.

Dr Seto said:

“When we experience or have low belief in free will and feel ‘out of touch’ with who we are, we may behave without a sense of morality.

This is particularly important if we have a goal to improve the quality of life for individuals and the society at large.”

The study was published in the journal Social Psychological and Personality Science (Seto & Hicks, 2016).

This Major Depression Treatment Works Where Other Therapies Fail (M)

The therapy reduces symptoms of depression in those that have not responded to antidepressants, talking therapies or other interventions.

The therapy reduces symptoms of depression in those that have not responded to antidepressants, talking therapies or other interventions.

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How Depression Affects The Brain Long-Term

Long-term depression needs a new type of treatment.

Long-term depression needs a new type of treatment.

Persistent depression changes the brain over the years.

The longer people are depressed without receiving treatment, the more their brains become inflamed.

The study suggests that people who have been depressed for a  long time need a different type of treatment — one that unfortunately doesn’t yet exist.

Despite this, people with depression are usually treated in the same way, no matter how long they have been suffering.

The findings come from the same team that was the first to confirm that the brain does indeed become inflamed in clinical depression.

Dr Jeff Meyer, who led the study, explained that inflammation has also been linked to neurodegenerative diseases:

“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.”

The study found that people who have experienced depression for over 10 years without treatment have higher levels of a translocator protein that is a marker of depression.

Unfortunately, current treatments do not target brain inflammation, although they are being developed.

Depression also follows different courses.

Some people’s depression comes and goes over the years, while others have more continuous, persistent periods of depression.

There is relatively little evidence about how to treat people who have been depressed for long periods of time or what happens in their brains.

The study was published in the journal The Lancet Psychiatry (Setiawan et al., 2018).

The Creative Therapy That Helps Reduce Depression

Higher self-esteem from a common creative therapy that also helps reduce depression.

Higher self-esteem from a common creative therapy that also helps reduce depression.

Music therapy can reduce depression in young people with behaviour problems, research finds.

Music therapy also increased self-esteem compared to those who received the usual treatment without the therapy.

The conclusions come from the largest every study of its kind.

It involved 251 children, only half of whom were given music therapy.

The music therapy itself included things like the therapist asking children to describe how they felt by playing a tune.

All the children in the study were being treated for behavioural, emotional or developmental problems.

The results showed that those who received the music therapy had higher self-esteem and reduced depression in comparison to those that had care as usual.

Professor Sam Porter, who led the study, said:

“This study is hugely significant in terms of determining effective treatments for children and young people with behavioural problems and mental health needs.

The findings contained in our report should be considered by healthcare providers and commissioners when making decisions about the sort of care for young people that they wish to support.”

Ciara Reilly, Chief Executive of Every Day Harmony, a music therapy charity, said:

“Music therapy has often been used with children and young people with particular mental health needs, but this is the first time its effectiveness has been shown by a definitive randomised controlled trail in a clinical setting.

The findings are dramatic and underscore the need for music therapy to be made available as a mainstream treatment option.

For a long time we have relied on anecdotal evidence and small-scale research findings about how well music therapy works.

Now we have robust clinical evidence to show its beneficial effects.”

Related

The study was published in the Journal of Child Psychology and Psychiatry, (Porter et al., 2016).

A Worrying Mental Sign Of Vitamin D Deficiency

Vitamin D may be linked to critical neurotransmitters and inflammatory markers.

Vitamin D may be linked to critical neurotransmitters and inflammatory markers.

Feeling low can be a sign of vitamin D deficiency, research suggests.

Vitamin D may be linked to critical neurotransmitters and inflammatory markers that can cause depression.

Along with low mood, the most important symptoms of depression are:

  1. Decreased interest in life or pleasure.
  2. Energy loss.
  3. Concentration problems.

The conclusions come from a study of 12,600 people whose symptoms of depression and vitamin D levels were examined.

It emerged that people with low vitamin D levels were more likely to be depressed.

The study cannot tell us if low vitamin D is a cause of depression or the result.

The study’s authors explain:

“We found that low vitamin D levels are associated with depressive symptoms, especially in persons with a history of depression.

These findings suggest that primary care patients with a history of depression may be an important target for assessment of vitamin D levels.”

Foods that are rich in vitamin D include oily fish and eggs, but most people get their vitamin D from the action of sunlight on the skin.

That is why levels are typically lower in the body through the winter months in more Northern climes.

Up to 50% of young women may be deficient in this vitamin, other research has shown.

Professor E. Sherwood Brown, study co-author, said:

“Our findings suggest that screening for vitamin D levels in depressed patients — and perhaps screening for depression in people with low vitamin D levels — might be useful.

But we don’t have enough information yet to recommend going out and taking supplements.”

Vitamin D levels are now routinely tested during physical exams as deficiencies are linked to other health problems, such as obesity, diabetes and general cognitive decline.

The study was published in the journal Mayo Clinic Proceedings (Hoang et al., 2011).

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