A new study identifies brain area 46 in the marmoset dorsolateral prefrontal cortex as a key regulator of mood-related behavior.
Category: neuroscience – Page 133
Man With 31-Year History Of Depression Feels “Overwhelming Joy” After Experimental Brain Stimulation
After living with psychiatric illnesses, including depression and PTSD, for many years and experiencing his first panic attacks when he was just a kindergartner, the patient in this study had been hospitalized numerous times. The authors write that he had endured “one protracted depressive episode without distinct periods of remission for 31 years.”
They describe his medical history as “remarkable” – he has tried at least 19 different medications and undergone electroconvulsive therapy (ECT) three times. While this treatment can be effective in some cases, in this patient it unfortunately left him with cognitive impairment.
Ultimately, the patient had experienced suicidal ideation and made attempts to take his own life. It’s thought that around a third of patients with major depressive disorder will progress to TRD, as in this case, and that is a strong risk factor for suicidality.
Psychedelic therapy may trigger visual imagery in people with aphantasia
UNSW Sydney and Macquarie University psychology researchers have written an article warning that psychedelic therapies may switch on visual mental imagery in people with aphantasia and could raise the risk of intrusive thoughts, while calling for more detailed informed consent.
Known as a blind mind’s eye, people with aphantasia recall personal memories with fewer details and vividness. Visual mental imagery is absent. People with aphantasia cannot visualize objects, people, places, or memories, and they also recall personal memories with fewer details and vividness.
Recent reports, including one published case study and one pre-print along with anecdotal accounts, describe individuals with aphantasia gaining a new capacity to visualize after a single dose of ayahuasca or psilocybin, with positive self-reported outcomes during and after the experience, including within a year post-experience.
Depression shown to be both cause and consequence of poor health
A large international study led by researchers at the Department of Medical Epidemiology and Biostatistics, Karolinska Institutet, shows that major depressive disorder (MDD) not only increases risk for a wide range of diseases and social problems, but is also partly driven by factors such as loneliness, obesity, smoking, and chronic pain.
The study, published in Nature Mental Health, applied genetic methods to systematically test which traits are causes, and which are consequences, of depression. The findings highlight the double burden of MDD: it both arises from and contributes to poor health, making prevention and treatment particularly urgent.
“We show that depression sits at the center of a web of health problems,” says Joëlle Pasman, research associate at Amsterdam UMC and Karolinska Institutet, who led the study. “It is not only a debilitating condition in itself but also increases the risk of many diseases, while at the same time being triggered by social, behavioral, and medical factors.”
