Category: Depression

Caffeinated coffee may reduce depression risk by up to 20 percent.

Drinking caffeinated coffee reduces depression risk, research finds.

The more caffeine women in the study drank, the lower their chances of becoming depressed.

Drinking two to three cups of coffee a day was linked to a 15 percent reduction in depression risk.

Those drinking four or more cups per day had a 20 percent reduced risk.

Other studies in men have also suggested that caffeine intake is linked to lower depression.

Coffee reduces depression study

The conclusions come from a study that followed 50,739 US nurses.

They were tracked for 10 years and none were depressed at the start of the study.

Over the study’s duration, their intake of caffeinated drinks was tracked.

This included caffeinated soft drinks as well as non-herbal tea and coffee.

The study’s authors explain the results:

“In this large prospective cohort of older women free of clinical depression or severe depressive symptoms at baseline, risk of depression decreased in a dose-dependent manner with increasing consumption of caffeinated coffee.”

However, due to the nature of the study it:

“…cannot prove that caffeine or caffeinated coffee reduces the risk of depression but only suggests the possibility of such a protective effect.”

Decaffeinated coffee was not linked to any reduction in risk.

The study was published in the journal Archives of Internal Medicine (Lucas et al., 2011).

After taking psilocybin, depressed people experienced feelings of unity, transcendence of space and time and a loss of boundaries.

Psilocybin – the active part of magic mushrooms — can help reduce depression symptoms and reawaken the emotions, research finds.

The stronger the ‘mystical experience’, the more the hallucinogenic drug helped.

People whose depression was most improved reported a more mystical experience, including feelings of unity and transcendence.

Although antidepressants like Prozac can often help those who are depressed, they reduce both positive and negative emotions.

Psilocybin therapy, though, may revive brain activity and help people reconnect with their emotions.

Dr Leor Roseman, the study’s first author, said:

“Our findings are important as they reveal biological changes after psilocybin therapy and, more specifically, they suggest that increased emotional processing is crucial for the treatment to work.”

Psilocybin and positive emotions study

The conclusions come from a small trial on 20 depressed people.

All stopped taking their antidepressants for two weeks and were given two doses of psilocybin under controlled conditions in the lab.

Afterwards, patients reported feeling emotionally re-connected.

Brain scans revealed that their response to emotional faces after taking psilocybin was increased.

Dr Roseman said:

“Having a healthy control group in future studies should be helpful in answering some of these questions.

We also want to investigate how the amygdala responds a longer time after treatment, which will inform us about longer term effects – compared to the current study, which was only looked at one day after the therapy.”

Feelings of unity

The researchers also looked at patients’ feelings about taking the hallucinogen.

Those who found it helped most reported a more ‘mystical experience’.

They were more likely to experience feelings of unity, transcending space and time, and a loss of boundaries.

The next stage for the researchers is to directly compare psilocybin with antidepressants.

The studies were published in the journals Neuropharmacology   and Frontiers in Pharmacology (Roseman et al., 2017; Roseman et al., 2018).

Neuroticism and depression are linked but a study finds beneficial effects of two other personality traits together.

Being extraverted and conscientious helps to reduce the risk of depression in neurotic people, new research finds.

People who are highly neurotic typically look at the world in a negative way.

They also find it hard to deal with stress and can experience a lot of negative emotions.

However, it seems being social and organised helps to ameliorate the effect.

Dr Kristin Naragon-Gainey, the study’s first author, explained:

“If someone has high levels of extraversion they might be very good at gathering social support or increasing their positive affectivity through social means.

Similarly, conscientiousness has a lot to do with striving toward goals and putting plans in action, which can combat the withdrawal and avoidance that can go along with neuroticism.”

Typically, in the past psychologists have focused on how individual aspects of personality affect depression risk.

Dr Naragon-Gainey explained that the key to this new study was looking beyond one single personality trait, like neuroticism:

“We know individually how these traits relate to symptoms, but now we are beginning to understand how the traits might impact one another.

We have to consider the whole person in order to understand the likelihood of developing negative symptoms down the road.”

Neuroticism and depression study

For the study, 463 people who had had psychiatric treatment in the last year were interviewed and surveyed.

Many were had both high levels of neuroticism and depression.

Statistical analysis showed that high conscientiousness and high extraversion together had a protective effect on people who were highly neurotic.

Dr Naragon-Gainey said:

“I think there’s a tendency in treatment and clinical psychology to concentrate on the problems and the negatives.

If you utilize the pre-existing strengths that clients bring with them, it can positively affect treatment and the level of symptoms going forward, as well as reinforcing what the person is already doing well.”

The study was published in the Journal of Research in Personality (Naragon-Gainey & Simms, 2018).

Eating fast food is linked to a huge increase in depression risk.

Depression is linked to eating fast food, like hamburgers and pizzas as well as commercially produced cakes, research finds.

People who eat fast food — when compared to those that eat none — have a 51% higher depression risk, the scientists found.

More fast food = higher depression risk

There is also a so-called ‘dose-response effect’ for fast food.

Dr Almudena Sánchez-Villegas, the lead author of the study, explained:

“…the more fast food you consume, the greater the risk of depression.”

The research showed that those eating the most fast food and commercial baked food were more likely to be:

• less active,
• single,
• smokers,
• working over 45 hours per week.

Fairy cakes, doughnuts and croissants also showed a strong link to depression, said Dr Sánchez-Villegas:

“Even eating small quantities is linked to a significantly higher chance of developing depression.”

Fast food and depression study

The study involved 8,964 people who were followed for an average of 6 months.

Of these, 493 started taking antidepressants during the study or were diagnosed with depression.

The results are in line with a previous study which found that eating fast food was linked to a 42% increase in depression risk.

Dr Sánchez-Villegas said:

“…although more studies are necessary, the intake of this type of food should be controlled because of its implications on both health (obesity, cardiovascular diseases) and mental well-being.”

Diets that prevent depression

Certain nutrients are thought to have a preventative effect on depression.

These include B vitamins, omega-3 fatty acids and olive oil.

The Mediterranean diet has also been repeatedly linked to lower levels of depression.

It is more difficult to get these vital nutrients from fast food.

The study was published in the journal Public Health Nutrition (Sánchez-Villegas et al., 2012).

Thirty years worth of research reveals that 50 percent of people benefit from sleep deprivation treatment for depression.

Sleep deprivation treatment 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

‘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.

There is evidence that staying awake for half the night, instead of the whole night, can be effective.

The problem, however, is that the therapy is not a long-term solution.

People typically feel depressed again after one full night’s sleep.

Sometimes taking a nap is enough for the depression to return.

However, the technique can help bridge the gap until antidepressants start working.

Wake therapy is sometimes referred to as a ‘response inducer’ or accelerator.

In other words, it is used when the patient needs a very quick release.

Sleep deprivation treatment for depression research

The conclusions come from a new review of 66 studies carried out over 36 years.

Dr Philip Gehrman, a study author, said:

“More than 30 years since the discovery of the antidepressant effects of sleep deprivation, we still do not have an effective grasp on precisely how effective the treatment is and how to achieve the best clinical results.

Our analysis precisely reports how effective sleep deprivation is and in which populations it should be administered.”

They found that around half of people who were depressed responded to sleep deprivation.

It didn’t matter whether or not they were taking medication, what age or gender they were, or even the method of sleep deprivation used.

Dr Elaine Boland, the study’s first author, said:

“These studies in our analysis show that sleep deprivation is effective for many populations.

Regardless of how the response was quantified, how the sleep deprivation was delivered, or the type of depression the subject was experiencing, we found a nearly equivalent response rate.”

The study was published in the The Journal of Clinical Psychiatry (Boland et al., 2017).