New forensic technique for estimating time of death by checking internal clock of the human brain - Science - News. People with severe depression have a disrupted “biological clock” that makes it seem as if they are living in a different time zone to the rest of the healthy population living alongside them, a study has found. It is the first time that depression has been linked unequivocally to the internal circadian clock of the human brain, which regulates the body's day-and-night cycle over a 24 hour period, scientists said. The researchers found that they could estimate a healthy person's time of death to within a few hours by analysing the activity levels of a set of genes - whether they are switched on 'high' or 'low' - within certain regions of the deceased brain.
However, this correlation broke down when they analysed the autopsied brains of people who had suffered from depression. Their gene activity bore little relationship to the hour of death, which indicated they suffered a severely disrupted sleeping pattern, the scientists found. "There really was a moment of discovery. Further reading: Science/AAAS | Special Issue: Depression. In Praise Of Depression. Not long ago, I had a conversation with a woman fifteen or twenty years older than myself, who told me that she thinks of Prozac as “the penicillin of my generation.” She was interviewing me about my book about growing up on antidepressants, and she didn’t try to hide the fact that she found my semi-critical stance toward medication bewildering. “Wait,” she said near the end of our conversation.
“I need ask again to make sure I’m clear on your answer. You mean you really don’t think that depression is a disease like diabetes?” I told her I don’t, and though I can’t be certain, I think her trailing silence conveyed a touch of the disgust we reserve for wrong ideas. Depression has had a tough thirty years of it. But it wasn’t always like this. Viewed from the distance of history, it’s our current understanding of depression that looks odd. At first, the ancient Greek take on depression sounds suspiciously like our own ideas about serotonin. The English Romantics continued the tradition. Magic mushrooms may help with depression, say leading scientists | Society. A drug derived from magic mushrooms could help people with depression by enabling them to relive positive and happy moments of their lives, according to scientists including the former government drug adviser, Professor David Nutt. Two studies, for which scientists struggled to find funding because of public suspicion and political sensitivity around psychedelic drugs, have shed light on how magic mushrooms affect the brain.
Nutt, from Imperial College London, was sacked as a government drug adviser after claiming tobacco and alcohol were more dangerous than cannabis and psychedelic drugs such as ecstasy and LSD. He believes prejudice and fear have prevented important scientific work on psychedelic drugs. Research began in the 1950s and 60s but was stopped by the criminalisation of drugs and stringent regulations which made the work costly.
The drugs had been used for millennia, he said, since psychedelic mushrooms grew in the Elysian fields of Greece. Psychologists discover oxytocin receptor gene's link to optimism, self-esteem. UCLA life scientists have identified for the first time a particular gene's link to optimism, self-esteem and "mastery," the belief that one has control over one's own life -- three critical psychological resources for coping well with stress and depression. "I have been looking for this gene for a few years, and it is not the gene I expected," said Shelley E.
Taylor, a distinguished professor of psychology at UCLA and senior author of the new research. "I knew there had to be a gene for these psychological resources. " The research is currently available in the online edition of the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS) and will appear in a forthcoming print edition. The gene Taylor and her colleagues identified is the oxytocin receptor gene (OXTR). Oxytocin is a hormone that increases in response to stress and is associated with good social skills such as empathy and enjoying the company of others.
The findings are "very strong, highly significant," Taylor said. Mental Illness and Leadership. The Neurotic Artist: Romanticizing Depression - The Chronicle Review. BluePages Depression Information - Home Page. The MoodGYM Training Program.