Category: Depression

Depression is more than just the experience of negative emotions, like sadness and anxiety.

People who have difficulty experiencing positive emotions are at greater risk of depression, research finds.

A lack of ‘positive affectivity’ is one aspect of the personality trait of introversion.

People with low levels of positive affectivity tend to lack cheerfulness and optimism and they can be lethargic and distressed.

Their brains also typically have lower levels of the neurotransmitter dopamine, leading to a ‘flatter’ emotional state.

Introvert vulnerability

The conclusions come from a study of 2,942 adults who were followed over four years.

All were given tests of depression and aspects of the personality trait of extraversion: sociability, activity and positive affectivity.

People who are high in positive affectivity tend to be more confident, energetic, alert and enthusiastic.

Positive affectivity is an aspect of extraversion — so a lack of it is linked to being an introvert.

The authors explain the results:

“…trait depression had a large association with lack of positive affectivity, while trait social anxiety showed moderately strong associations with both low sociability and lack of positive affectivity.”

Social anxiety was also linked to the personality trait of low positive affectivity, the authors write:

“…socially anxious individuals reported fewer everyday positive emotions and positive events than did non-anxious individuals.

In contrast to other anxiety conditions, excessive social anxiety seems to be associated with diminished positive subjective experiences.”

Work on positive emotions

One way to combat depression and anxiety may be by working on positive emotions, along with targeting negative emotions.

The authors write:

“…boosting positive emotionality may be a treatment goal not only in the treatment of depression but also in the treatment of social anxiety.

It has recently been shown that mindfulness-based cognitive therapy is associated with increased experience of momentary positive emotions as well as greater appreciation of, and enhanced responsiveness to, pleasant daily-life activities in persons vulnerable to depression.

Moreover, engaging in kind acts has been found to increase positive affect in socially anxious individuals.”

The study was published in the journal Personality and Individual Differences (Spinhoven et al., 2014).

Hundreds of studies have linked a better diet with improved mental health.

Adding more fibre to the diet is linked to a lower risk of depression.

Dietary fibre is mostly found in legumes, fruits, vegetables and whole grains.

Fibre is commonly recommended for a healthy diet as it reduces the risk of heart disease, diabetes and some types of cancer.

But it has also repeatedly been linked to a lower risk of depression.

The latest findings come from a study of almost 6,000 pre- and post-menopausal women.

The results showed that in pre-menopausal women higher fibre intake was linked to a lower risk of depression.

The link was not, however, seen in post-menopausal women.

Higher fibre intake improves the diversity and richness of the gut’s microbiota.

Dr. Stephanie Faubion, director of the The North American Menopause Society, said:

“This study highlights an important link between dietary fiber intake and depression, but the direction of the association is unclear in this observational study, such that women with better mental health may have had a healthier diet and consumed more fiber, or a higher dietary fiber intake may have contributed to improved brain health by modulating the gut microbiome or some combination.

Nonetheless, it has never been more true that ‘you are what you eat,’ given that what we eat has a profound effect on the gut microbiome which appears to play a key role in health and disease.”

Diet and mental health

Hundreds of studies have linked a better diet with improved mental health.

For example, studies have shown a link between a diet rich in vegetables, nuts, fruits and fish and a lower risk of depression.

Raw fruits and vegetables in particular have been linked to better mental health.

Avoiding a high-fat diet can reduce depressive behaviour in mice.

Reducing the intake of common inflammatory foods including fast food, cake and processed meats reduces the risk of depression.

Similarly, cutting down on refined carbohydrates, such as white bread, white rice and soda, may lower depression risk.

All sorts of positive dietary changes, including weight loss, fat reduction and nutrient boosting diets, have been shown to improve mental health.

The study was published in the journal Menopause (Kim et al., 2020).

People eating this way are less likely to suffer from depression and other mental health problems.

People who eat intuitively have a lower chance of developing mental health problems, research finds.

Eating intuitively means eating based on hunger and fullness.

Dieting or restricting food intake is the opposite of intuitive eating.

Everyone is probably an intuitive eater when they are born.

But, over the years, the effects of social conditioning change how some people view food.

People learn that wasting food is bad, that certain tasty foods should be avoided, along with a host of other rules.

Unfortunately, these rules can paradoxically make people desire the banned foods more.

Some end up eating to excess because of the restrictions they have placed on themselves.

The conclusions come from a study of 1,491 adolescents who were tracked over 8 years, between the ages of around 14 to 22.

They were all asked questions like:

• do you stop eating when you are full?
• do you trust your body to tell you how much to eat?
• do you eat everything on your plate, even when no longer hungry?

The idea was to see whether the young people were trusting their own internal bodily states or following some external guidelines.

The results showed that intuitive eaters tend to trust their own body so they stop when they are full, rather than when the plate is empty.

Intuitive eaters, it emerged, experienced fewer depressive symptoms, more satisfaction with their body, higher self-esteem, less binge eating and fewer extreme or unhealthy weight control behaviours.

People with the intuitive food behaviours were 74 percent less likely to binge eat.

Dr Vivienne Hazzard, the study’s first author, said:

“The fact that these results came from such a diverse sample suggests that the benefits of intuitive eating seem to cut across racial, ethnic, and socioeconomic lines.”

The study was published in the Eating and Weight Disorders – Studies on Anorexia, Bulimia and Obesity (Hazzard et al., 2020).

Is a common ingredient in your meals leading to depression?

A high-fat diet can cause depression, research reveals.

The fatty acids enter the brain through the bloodstream and accumulate in the hypothalamus.

There they affect critical brain signals that are linked to depression.

It helps to explain why scientists have found that depression and obesity are often seen together.

For the study, mice were fed a high-fat diet, made up of 60 percent saturated and unsaturated fats.

The results showed that the mice began to demonstrate depressive behaviour after three weeks.

Professor George Baillie, who led the study, said:

“This is the first time anyone has observed the direct effects a high fat diet can have on the signaling areas of the brain related to depression.

This research may begin to explain how and why obesity is linked with depression and how we can potentially better treat patients with these conditions.

We often use fatty food to comfort ourselves as it tastes really good, however in the long term, this is likely to affect one’s mood in a negative way.”

Examination of their brains revealed that the fats had built up in the hypothalamus.

The hypothalamus is an area of the brain that causes levels of cortisol — the ‘stress hormone’ — to rise in the body.

Normally the hormone reduces once a threat passes, but in people with depression, their cortisol levels can remain high.

Higher levels of cortisol are linked to depression.

This may help to explain why people who are obese do not respond as well to antidepressant medication.

Professor Baillie continued:

“We all know that a reduction in fatty food intake can lead to many health benefits, but our research suggests that it also promotes a happier disposition.

Further to that, understanding the types of fats, such as palmitic acid, which are likely to enter the brain and affect key regions and signaling will give people more information about how their diet can potentially affect their mental health.”

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