Category: Depression

Fight depression by thinking flexibly, watching what you eat and using your support network correctly.

Along with getting some exercise and perhaps a little meditation, here are seven ways to decrease depression.

1. Think flexibly

The key to healthy emotional control is to be flexible, new research finds.

People with lower levels of depression and anxiety tend to vary their emotional control strategy successfully depending on whether the situation can be explained.

When the situation can be changed, it is better to let your emotions — whatever they may be — motivate that change, rather than trying to change the emotions.

When the situation can’t be changed, however, it is better to try and change the emotion.

2. 30 minutes in the park

People who spend just 30 minutes a week in a park have much better mental health than those who don’t.

Visiting parks weekly is also linked to lower blood pressure, the Australian research has found.

Dr Danielle Shanahan, the study’s first author, said:

“If everyone visited their local parks for half an hour each week there would be seven per cent fewer cases of depression and nine percent fewer cases of high blood pressure.

Even staring at trees is enough to reduce people’s stress level, research finds.

3. Take care of your gut

Nutrition is one of the most overlooked factors in depression.

The Mediterranean diet in particular provides the vitamins and minerals the body and brain need.

Also consider omega-3 supplements, which have been found to help with major depression.

Probiotics may stop sadness turning into depression by helping people let go of the past, a recent study finds.

The reason is probably that bacteria in the intestine can play an important role in anxiety and depression.

Probiotics may work to help stabilise the bacteria in the gut.

4. Music therapy

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

Read on about the study —>

5. Fight depression with 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 study tested oral R. rosea extract against sertraline, an SSRI antidepressant and compared these with a placebo.

The big difference was in the side effects.

63% reported side effects from the SSRI antidepressant versus 30% on the herbs for depression.

So, herbs for depression could be worth a try.

6. Boost antidepressant effectiveness

If you are taking antidepressants, then consider these 4 natural supplements found to boost antidepressant effectiveness and fight depression.

1. Omega 3 fish oils,
2. S-adenosylmethionine (SAMe),
3. methylfolate (bioactive form of folate),
4. and vitamin D.

Dr Jerome Sarris, the study’s first author, said it was another vote of confidence for omega-3:

“The strongest finding from our review was that Omega 3 fish oil – in combination with antidepressants – had a statistically significant effect over a placebo.

Many studies have shown Omega 3s are very good for general brain health and improving mood, but this is the first analysis of studies that looks at using them in combination with antidepressant medication.

7. Call on your support network

This could be the most important factor of all.

Having social support quadruples the chance of depression recovery, new research finds.

Emotionally supportive relationships are one of the keys to successful recovery from major depression.

The researchers found that 39% of people who experienced major depression made a complete recovery.

Two of the best ways to fight depression in the long term were by using exercise and turning to spirituality.

Only 30% suffered side effects on herbs for depression, compared with 60% who were on antidepressants.

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.

Roseroot — a perennial flowing plant found in the world’s colder regions — has long been used in Russia and Scandinavia.

It has traditionally been used to help people deal with the stressful life and cold climate.

It is also used in traditional Chinese medicine.

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.

They were all suffering from typical depression symptoms including:

• fatigue,
• inability to concentrate,
• thoughts of death,
• weight gain or loss,
• and insomnia.

They were split into three groups and given either the herbs for depression, the SSRI antidepressant, or a placebo.

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

Herbs for depression have fewer side effects

But the big difference was in the side effects.

63% reported side effects from the SSRI antidepressant versus 30% on the herbs for depression.

Sexual dysfunction and nausea were twice as common among those taking the SSRI antidepressant.

Dr Jun J. Mao, who led the study, said:

“These results are a bit preliminary but suggest that herbal therapy may have the potential to help patients with depression who cannot tolerate conventional antidepressants due to side effects.

Larger studies will be needed to fully evaluate the benefit and harm of R. rosea as compared to conventional antidepressants.”

The study’s authors write:

“Furthermore, many individuals with more mild depressive symptoms weigh concerns over side effects alongside the limited benefits and costs of conventional antidepressant therapy.

Thus, it is not surprising that depressive symptoms are among the most common reasons cited by consumers to choose alternative therapy.”

The study was published in the journal Phytomedicine (Mao et al., 2016).

Image credit: Dolina Tomanowa (CC BY 2.5)

Back pain treatment could also help treat depression, fatigue and common digestive disorders.

Taking a placebo — a fake pill — reduces back pain 30% even when people know it is fake.

Professor Ted Kaptchuk, one of the study’s authors, explained:

“These findings turn our understanding of the placebo effect on its head.

This new research demonstrates that the placebo effect is not necessarily elicited by patients’ conscious expectation that they are getting an active medicine, as long thought.

Taking a pill in the context of a patient-clinician relationship — even if you know it’s a placebo — is a ritual that changes symptoms and probably activates regions of the brain that modulate symptoms.”

It had been thought that the so-called ‘placebo effect’ relies on patient’s beliefs about what the fake pill will do for them.

Belief being so powerful, it can change the experience of pain dramatically.

But this study questions all that.

Treat depression and fatigue?

In the research, patients with lower back pain either had traditional treatment or a placebo pill in addition to the traditional treatment.

The traditional treatment was usually ibuprofen.

Patients taking the pills labelled ‘placebo pills’ saw 30% reductions in usual and maximum pain, as well as a 29% reduction in pain-related disability.

Equivalent figures for those taking ibuprofen, or similar, was 9% reduction in usual pain, 16% reduction in maximum pain and no improvement for pain-related disability.

Professor Kaptchuk said:

“It’s the benefit of being immersed in treatment: interacting with a physician or nurse, taking pills, all the rituals and symbols of our healthcare system.

The body responds to that.”

Dr Claudia Carvalho, the study’s first author, said:

“Our findings demonstrate the placebo effect can be elicited without deception.

Patients were interested in what would happen and enjoyed this novel approach to their pain.

They felt empowered.”

Placebos could also be used to treat some other ailments such as depression, fatigue and common digestive disorders.

Dr Carvalho said:

“You’re never going to shrink a tumor or unclog an artery with placebo intervention.

It’s not a cure-all, but it makes people feel better, for sure.

Our lab is saying you can’t throw the placebo into the trash can.

It has clinical meaning, it’s statically significant, and it relieves patients. It’s essential to what medicine means.

Taking placebo pills to relieve symptoms without a warm and empathic relationship with a health-care provider relationship probably would not work.”

The study was published in the journal Pain (Carvalho et al., 2016).

The cause of depression is related to how we deal with disappointment and what happy memories we can recall.

A part of the brain linked to disappointment at not receiving a reward has been linked to depression by a new study.

The area, called the lateral orbitofrontal cortex, normally becomes active when people fail to get a reward they were expecting.

In people who were depressed, this area was more strongly linked to other areas involved in our sense of self and personal loss.

In other words: depressed people are more likely to suffer self-esteem issues and a feeling of loss if they don’t get the rewards they are expecting.

Professor Edmund Rolls, a study co-author, said:

“The new findings on how depression is related to different functional connectivities of the orbitofrontal cortex have implications for treatments in the light of a recent non-reward attractor theory of depression.”

Cause of depression

The research compared brain scans of depressed and non-depressed people.

The study was interested in how certain critical areas of the brain communicate with each other.

Typically, depressed people had stronger connections between ‘disappointment’ circuits in the brain and those related to the sense of self.

In addition, depressed people had weaker connections between areas of the brain that register when we do get rewards (the medial orbitofrontal cortex) and those important for memory.

Together these might help explain why depressed people tend to:

• Feel worse about not getting a reward they expect,
• and fail to recall happy memories.

Professor Jianfeng Feng, one of the study’s authors, said:

“More than one in ten people in their life time suffer from depression, a disease which is so common in modern society and we can even find the remains of Prozac (a depression drug) in the tap water in London.

Our finding, with the combination of big data we collected around the world and our novel methods, enables us to locate the roots of depression which should open up new avenues for better therapeutic treatments in the near future for this horrible disease.”

The study was published in the journal Brain (Cheng et al., 2016).

The first antidepressants prescribed do not work for around half of all patients who are depressed.

Unfortunately, for around half of depressed patients, the first antidepressants prescribed do not work.

On top of that, around one-third of patients do not respond to any types of drugs (although psychological therapies may be useful).

At the moment, the only way to know is to try them and see what happens.

This means that many depressed people have to wait around three months to see if the drugs will work.

Then, if they don’t, it is another wait while a different form of medication is tried.

Now, though, scientists have found that some people with particular markers in their blood will not respond to antidepressants.

Professor Carmine Pariante, who led the study, said:

“This is the first time a blood test has been used to precisely predict, in two independent clinical groups of depressed patients, the response to a range of commonly prescribed antidepressants.

These results also confirm and extend the mounting evidence that high levels of inflammation induce a more severe form of depression, which is less likely to respond to common antidepressants.

This study moves us a step closer to providing personalised antidepressant treatment at the earliest signs of depression.”

The blood test focuses on two different types of biomarkers that measure blood inflammation.

Patients whose blood biomarkers were above a certain level had a 100% chance of not responding to the most common type of antidepressant medication.

Those below that level mostly responded positively.

Professor Pariante said:

“This study provides a clinically-suitable approach for personalising antidepressant therapy — patients who have blood inflammation above a certain threshold could be directed toward earlier access to more assertive antidepressant strategies, including the addition of other antidepressants or anti-inflammatory drugs.

It is really crucial now to carry out a clinical study comparing the current clinical practice in antidepressant prescription, based on trial-and-error, with our novel approach of ‘personalised psychiatry’, where the antidepressant treatment plan is guided by the blood test.”

The study was published in the journal Neuropsychopharmacology (Catteneo et al., 2016).

Image credit: kygp

Psilocybin, a hallucinogen in magic mushrooms, was found to be well-tolerated and safe to use.

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.

Dr Robin Carhart-Harris, the study’s first author, said:

“This is the first time that psilocybin has been investigated as a potential treatment for major depression.

Treatment-resistant depression is common, disabling and extremely difficult to treat.

New treatments are urgently needed, and our study shows that psilocybin is a promising area of future research.

The results are encouraging and we now need larger trials to understand whether the effects we saw in this study translate into long-term benefits, and to study how psilocybin compares to other current treatments.”

Participants in the study had been ill with depression for an average of 17 years.

All had tried antidepressants  twice and most had already had psychotherapy.

They were given a therapeutic dose of 25mg while being monitored by two psychiatrists.

Professor David Nutt, one of the study’s co-authors, said:

“Previous animal and human brain imaging studies have suggested that psilocybin may have effects similar to other antidepressant treatments.

Psilocybin targets the serotonin receptors in the brain, just as most antidepressants do, but it has a very different chemical structure to currently available antidepressants and acts faster than traditional antidepressants.”

Professor Philip Cowen, writing in a linked commentary, said:

“The key observation that might eventually justify the use of a drug like psilocybin in treatment-resistant depression is demonstration of sustained benefit in patients who previously have experienced years of symptoms despite conventional treatments, which makes longer-term outcomes particularly important.

The data at 3 month follow-up (a comparatively short time in patients with extensive illness duration) are promising but not completely compelling, with about half the group showing significant depressive symptoms.

Further follow-ups using detailed qualitative interviews with patients and family could be very helpful in enriching the assessment.”

The study was published in the journal The Lancet Psychiatry (Mithoefer et al., 2016).

Image credit: Valeria P.