Depression - Page 22 of 42

Team Sports Lower Depression Risk

The finding was particularly strong for those who took part in structured school teams.

Taking part in team sports is linked to a lower risk of depression in boys, research finds.

The study of children aged 9-11 found that both boys and girls who took part in team sports also had greater hippocampal volume.

The hippocampus is an area of the brain critical for memory and other important functions.

The finding was particularly strong for those who took part in structured school teams as opposed to informal games.

Ms Lisa Gorham, the study’s first author, said:

“Our findings are important because they help illuminate the relationships between involvement in sports, volume of a particular brain region and depressive symptoms in kids as young as nine.

We found that involvement in sports, but not non-sport activities such as music or art, is related to greater hippocampal volume in both boys and girls, and is related to reduced depression in boys.”

The study included 4,191 from across the US.

Brain scans revealed the link between team sports and larger hippocampal volume.

Many studies have proven the antidepressant effects of exercise on adults, but this is the first in children.

Ms Gorham said:

“The fact that these relationships were strongest for team or structured sports suggests that there might be something about the combination of exercise and the social support or structure that comes from being on a team that can be useful at preventing or treating depression in young people.

The findings raise intriguing possibilities for new work on preventing and treating depression in children.”

The study was published in the journal Biological Psychiatry: Cognitive Neuroscience and Neuroimaging (Gorham et al., 2019).

A Blood Test For Depression And Bipolar Disorder (M)

The blood test, which is still at the experimental stage, may also help to match patients with treatments.

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Brain Stimulation Helps 70% Fight Major Depression

Some depressed patients even experienced dramatic improvements in just a couple of weeks.

Electrical brain stimulation produced a marked improvement in depression symptoms in 70 percent of people who took part in a recent study.

Some depressed patients even experienced dramatic improvements in just a couple of weeks.

The painless, non-invasive treatment targets a natural pattern of electrical activity in a specific part of the brain.

Most people in the study reported that their depression symptoms were reduced by at least half after two weeks.

The newer type of brain stimulation used in the study is called ‘transcranial alternating current stimulation’ (tACS).

Dr Flavio Frohlich, study co-author, explained:

“We conducted a small study of 32 people because this sort of approach had never been done before.

Now that we’ve documented how this kind of tACS can reduce depression symptoms, we can fine tune our approach to help many people in a relatively inexpensive, noninvasive way.”

All the people in the study had been diagnosed with major depression.

They were randomly divided into three groups with two of them getting a sham version of the treatment to provide controls.

The electrical brain stimulation lasted 40 minutes and was done on five consecutive days.

It targeted natural electrical oscillations in the brain called ‘alpha waves’.

Alpha waves are more predominant when people close their eyes and dream, or meditate.

Studies have suggested that depression is linked to an imbalance of alpha waves in the right frontal cortex.

Stabilising these waves, the scientists found, caused many people’s depression to lift after two weeks.

However, after four weeks, the effect of the brain stimulation appeared to have worn off.

Dr Frohlich said:

“It’s important to note that this is a first-of-its kind study.

It was unclear what would happen if we treated people several days in a row or what effect we might see weeks later.

So, the fact that we’ve seen such positive results from this study gives me confidence our approach could help many people with depression.”

The study was published in the journal Translational Psychiatry (Alexander et al., 2019).

The Depressed See This Visual Illusion Differently (M)

A new study reveals one of the more subtle changes depression makes to how sufferers see the world.

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These Emotions Increase Alzheimer’s Risk

People with these conditions experience Alzheimer’s symptoms up to 7 years earlier.

Both depression and anxiety increase the risk of developing Alzheimer’s disease.

People who are depressed develop the symptoms of Alzheimer’s, the most common form of dementia, two years earlier, the latest research finds.

Those with anxiety develop symptoms of Alzheimer’s three years earlier.

Having multiple mental health problems is linked to developing symptoms of the disease even sooner.

Dr Zachary A. Miller, the study’s first author, said:

“More research is needed to understand the impact of psychiatric disorders such as depression and anxiety on the development of Alzheimer’s disease and whether treatment and management of depression and anxiety could help prevent or delay the onset of dementia for people who are susceptible to it.

Certainly this isn’t to say that people with depression and anxiety will necessarily develop Alzheimer’s disease, but people with these conditions might consider discussing ways to promote long-term brain health with their health care providers.”

The study included 1,500 people with Alzheimer’s disease who were asked about their mental health.

The results revealed that the more mental health problems people had, the sooner they began experiencing dementia symptoms.

Three or more psychiatric disorders together was linked to developing symptoms more than 7 years earlier them.

Both depression and anxiety were linked to a history of autoimmune disorders.

Dr Miller said:

“While this association between depression and autoimmune disease, and seizures and anxiety is quite preliminary, we hypothesize that the presentation of depression in some people could possibly reflect a greater burden of neuroinflammation.

The presence of anxiety might indicate a greater degree of neuronal hyperexcitability, where the networks in the brain are overstimulated, potentially opening up new therapeutic targets for dementia prevention.”

The study will be presented at the American Academy of Neurology’s 73rd Annual Meeting (Miller et al., 2021).

How Screen Time Affects Depression Risk (M)

The study’s results show that screen time has a complex relationship with mental health.

The study's results show that screen time has a complex relationship with mental health.

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The Type Of Breathing That Fights Depression And Anxiety

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

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

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.”

The Everyday Plant That Reduces Depression Risk (M)

Nature needs to be brought as close to people’s daily lives as possible, even in the city.

Nature needs to be brought as close to people's daily lives as possible, even in the city.

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8 Everyday Tools For Fighting Depression

Eight exercise for developing serenity and calm.

Teaching people to focus on positive emotions helps them deal with stress, new research finds.

People were taught classic positive psychology exercises such as keeping a gratitude journal, recognising positive events each day and doing small acts of kindness.

Together, the training helped reduce people’s anxiety and depression over the six weeks of the study.

The researchers focused on 170 caregivers for people with dementia.

Half were put in a control group, while the rest were encouraged to focus on their positive emotions.

People were taught eight skills:

Practice a small act of kindness each day and recognise the power it has to increase positive emotions.
Set a simple and attainable goal for each day and note down progress.
Savour a positive event through journalling or discussing it with someone.
Spot at least one positive event each day.
List a personal strength and how you have used it recently.
Use mindfulness to pay attention to daily experiences.
Identify a daily stressor and reframe it as a positive event.
Keep a gratitude journal.

Professor Judith Moskowitz, the study’s first author, said:

“The caregivers who learned the skills had less depression, better self-reported physical health, more feelings of happiness and other positive emotions than the control group.”

The results showed that those who learned the positive psychology exercises experienced a 7 percent drop in depression scores and 9 percent drop in anxiety.

This was enough to move people from being moderately depressed to being within the ‘normal’ range.

Professor Moskowitz chose dementia caregivers as the disease is on the rise:

“Nationally we are having a huge increase in informal caregivers.

People are living longer with dementias like Alzheimer’s disease, and their long-term care is falling to family members and friends.

This intervention is one way we can help reduce the stress and burden and enable them to provide better care.”

One participant in the study commented:

“Doing this study helped me look at my life, not as a big neon sign that says, ‘DEMENTIA’ in front of me, but little bitty things like, ‘We’re having a meal with L’s sister, and we’ll have a great visit.’

I’m seeing the trees are green, the wind is blowing.

Yeah, dementia is out there, but I’ve kind of unplugged the neon sign and scaled down the size of the letters.”

The study was published in the journal Health Psychology (Moskowitz et al., 2019).