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Depression & Anxiety

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Brain zaps

Busting the myth that depression doesn't affect people in poor countries. When Vikram Patel first began to study mental health, he believed depression only existed in rich nations. The Danish have designed a simple way to cope with loneliness. Toad, a 20-year-old Danish woman living in Copenhagen, has been lonely her whole life.

The Danish have designed a simple way to cope with loneliness

She is autistic, and as a child, did not have any friends. When she moved from the country to the city, not much changed. “They says it’s a phase, but a phase becomes a life,” she says, surrounded by six other young adults in a cozy apartment in Copenhagen—all of whom are working on becoming less lonely. Toad is among the attendees of Ventilen, or “friend to one” in Danish, a 20-year-old organization set up to bring 15-to-25-year-olds together twice a week with two or three volunteers. Behind the Buzz: How Ketamine Changes the Depressed Patient's Brain. The Food and Drug Administration's approval last month of a depression treatment based on ketamine generated headlines, in part, because the drug represents a completely new approach for dealing with a condition the World Health Organisation has labelled the leading cause of disability worldwide.

Behind the Buzz: How Ketamine Changes the Depressed Patient's Brain

The FDA's approval marks the first genuinely new type of psychiatric drug—for any condition—to be brought to market in more than 30 years. Although better known as a party drug, the anesthetic ketamine has spurred excitement in psychiatry for almost 20 years, since researchers first showed that it alleviated depression in a matter of hours.

The rapid reversal of symptoms contrasted sharply with the existing set of antidepressants, which take weeks to begin working. Subsequent studies have shown ketamine works for patients who have failed to respond to multiple other treatments, and so are deemed "treatment-resistant. " Sign up for Scientific American’s free newsletters. The Challenge of Going Off Psychiatric Drugs. Laura Delano recognized that she was “excellent at everything, but it didn’t mean anything,” her doctor wrote.

The Challenge of Going Off Psychiatric Drugs

She grew up in Greenwich, Connecticut, one of the wealthiest communities in the country. Her father is related to Franklin Delano Roosevelt, and her mother was introduced to society at a débutante ball at the Waldorf-Astoria. In eighth grade, in 1996, Laura was the class president—she ran on a platform of planting daffodils on the school’s grounds—and among the best squash players in the country.

She was one of those rare proportional adolescents with a thriving social life. But she doubted whether she had a “real self underneath.” A Vaccine for Depression? - Nautilus - Pocket. One sunny day this fall, I caught a glimpse of the new psychiatry.

A Vaccine for Depression? - Nautilus - Pocket

At a mental hospital near Yale University, a depressed patient was being injected with ketamine. For 40 minutes, the drug flowed into her arm, bound for cells in her brain. If it acts as expected, ketamine will become the first drug to quickly stop suicidal drive, with the potential to save many lives. Other studies of ketamine are evaluating its effect as a vaccination against depression and post-traumatic stress.

Between them, the goal is nothing less than to redefine our understanding of mental illness itself. Depression is the most common mental illness in the United States, affecting 30 percent of Americans at some point in their lives. But the correspondence between these chemicals (like serotonin) and depression is relatively weak. The theory describes stress grinding down individual neurons gradually, as storms do roof shingles. At the same time, treatment can be woefully ineffective. References 1. 2. 3. We Need New Ways of Treating Depression - Vox - Pocket.

As the 21st century was beginning, a South African psychiatrist named Derek Summerfield happened to be in Cambodia conducting some research on the psychological effects of unexploded land mines — at a time when chemical antidepressants were first being marketed in the country. The local doctors didn’t know much about these drugs, so they asked Summerfield to explain them. When he finished, they explained that they didn’t need these new chemicals — because they already had antidepressants.

Puzzled, Summerfield asked them to explain, expecting that they were going to tell him about some local herbal remedy. Instead, they told him about something quite different. The doctors told Summerfield a story about a farmer they had treated. So the doctors and his neighbors sat with this man and talked through his life and his troubles. They suggested that he work as a dairy farmer, a job that would place less painful stress on his false leg and produce fewer disturbing memories.

A Vaccine for Depression? - Nautilus - Pocket. One sunny day this fall, I caught a glimpse of the new psychiatry.

A Vaccine for Depression? - Nautilus - Pocket

At a mental hospital near Yale University, a depressed patient was being injected with ketamine. For 40 minutes, the drug flowed into her arm, bound for cells in her brain. If it acts as expected, ketamine will become the first drug to quickly stop suicidal drive, with the potential to save many lives. Other studies of ketamine are evaluating its effect as a vaccination against depression and post-traumatic stress. Between them, the goal is nothing less than to redefine our understanding of mental illness itself. Depression is the most common mental illness in the United States, affecting 30 percent of Americans at some point in their lives. But the correspondence between these chemicals (like serotonin) and depression is relatively weak. Choice page. Dysthymia. How to Fight Depression Naturally: 20 Strategies, Treatments, and More.

Anxiety

Rumination. Drug information. To be sorted. Toxic mold mental impact.