Category: Depression

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).

Rather than being an abnormal condition, aspects of depression are actually highly adaptive.

Depression can be a perfectly normal reaction to facing a complex problem, research suggests.

Rather than being an abnormal condition, aspects of depression are actually highly adaptive.

Being depressed involves devoting time and energy to thinking about the problem, trying to understand its causes and generating possible solutions.

Dr Paul Andrews, an expert on depression, says:

“Depression has long been seen as nothing but a problem.

We are asking whether it may actually be a natural adaptation that the brain uses to tackle certain problems.

We are seeing more evidence that depression can be a necessary and beneficial adaptation to dealing with major, complex issues that defy easy understanding.”

Psychologists label the state of focusing on problems to the exclusion of all else ‘rumination’.

Marriage breakups, chronic illnesses and other difficulties can lead to highly ruminative states.

Depressed people lose their interest in anything apart from their problems.

This can lead to the classic signs of depression, including disrupted sleeping, eating and cutting oneself off from social interaction.

To explore this problem-solving reaction to life’s difficulties, researchers have developed a way of measuring analytical rumination.

After giving the test to 579 people, they found it was related to depression.

Thinking of depression as a natural response to a difficult situation could be beneficial, said Dr Skye Barbic, the study’s first author:

“Instead of discussing the disease as a ‘bad thing’, clinicians may be able to help patients have insight about the potential adaptive purposes of their thinking and how this may be used as a strength to move forward in their lives.”

Dr Zachary Durisko, study co-author, said:

“When working with many people who experience chronic health conditions, depression is often the limiting factor to recovery and goal attainment.

The test can potentially quickly tell us when people are struggling to identify their problems, trying to set goals, or trying to move forward in their lives.

We hypothesize that very different levels of support and care are required throughout these different stages of thinking.”

The study was published in the journal PLoS ONE (Barbic et al., 2014).

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).

Virtual reality, sleep deprivation, hallucinogens and more radical ways to treat depression.

Depression treatments usually involve talking therapies and SSRI antidepressants.

However, research has pointed to some radical new treatments.

Click the links for more on each study:

1. Virtual reality

Immersive virtual reality therapy could soon be helping people with depression, a study suggests.

The virtual reality therapy helped people to be less critical and more compassionate towards themselves.

This helped reduce their depression symptoms.

While wearing virtual reality headsets, people in the study comforted a virtual child who was crying.

As they did so, it appeared to respond positively to the compassion.

Then the virtual reality system gave them the impression they were in the position of the child.

2. Magic mushrooms

Psilocybin — a hallucinogen from ‘magic’ mushrooms — can help reduce the symptoms of severe depression, a new study finds.

Psilocybin is also currently being tested for alcoholism, smoking cessation, and in people with advanced cancer.

The small study gave psilocybin to 12 people with treatment-resistant depression.

The hallucinogen was found to be well-tolerated and safe to use.

Along with supportive therapy, the psilocybin helped half the participants to feel better up to three months later.

3. Sleep deprivation

Sleep deprivation can rapidly reduce the symptoms of depression, 30 years of research suggests.

Around half of people with depression who are sleep deprived under controlled, inpatient conditions feel better quickly.

Many see improvements in just 24 hours, in comparison to the weeks it can take for antidepressants to start working.

‘Wake therapy’, as it is sometimes called, involves staying awake all night and the next day.

Around 50% of people find their depression improves — until they sleep again.

4. Brain training

Learning to control your own brain waves could be an effective treatment for severe depression, research finds.

The small pilot study found that a technique called neurofeedback helped severely depressed people whose depression had proved very hard to treat.

Neurofeedback involves patients concentrating on a readout of their own brain waves.

Over time, people can learn to control and change them.

5. Ayahuasca

Ayahuasca — a psychedelic drug traditionally used in South America — may help treat depression and alcoholism, new research suggests.

The survey of over 96,000 people around the world found that ayahuasca users reported higher well-being and lower problems with alcohol abuse.

Ayahuasca contains dimethyltryptamine (DMT), which is a powerful psychedelic that acts over a short period.

In the 60s it was known as the ‘businessman’s trip’ because its effects last between 5 and 15 minutes, instead of the hours resulting from LSD or magic mushrooms.

6. Herbs

The herb roseroot could be an effective alternative to antidepressants, a recent study finds.

Compared with a modern SSRI, roseroot has fewer side effects and similar antidepressant effects, finds a clinical trial.

The recent study tested oral R. rosea extract against sertraline, an SSRI antidepressant and compared these with a placebo.

57 people with mild to moderate depression were included in the trial.

The results showed that the roseroot extract had a similar effect on the symptoms to the antidepressant.

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