Questions tagged [depression]
For questions regarding depressed mood, whether in healthy individuals or those for which the condition manifests as a disorder.
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Is serotonin conclusively linked to depression?
Some highlights from the article "The Depressing News about Anti-Depressants":
ever since a seminal study in 1998, whose findings were reinforced by landmark research in The Journal of the ...
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What causes people to feel depressed without there being a problem?
I have noticed that some people have lives that appear perfectly fine, yet they feel depressed. In my specific case the feeling typically lasts for a few days and then magically disappears, only to ...
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Can SSRI make things worse in the long term or cause delayed depression?
I found two articles that mention that taking SSRI for depression can actually make the depression worse.
"Now Antidepressant-Induced Chronic Depression Has a Name: Tardive Dysphoria" on Psychology ...
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Why do people commit suicide?
I don't understand why people commit suicide.
If I imagine myself in a really bad situation and make a list of what kind of things I would do in that situation, I don't have suicide even in my top-...
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Can the brain be trained into a state of persistent happiness?
Happiness is a state of mind. Can we retain this state even in the case of sadness, depression, or a dire situation through training? What methods could one use in order to train the brain to retain ...
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Are psychologists more immune to psychological problems?
Does knowledge of a psychological problem prevent (or enable one to better defend) the development of psychological issues? For example, if a person has studied about depression and is familiar with ...
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The effects of pain on cognitive function and incidence of depression
There have been studies about the link between depression and cognitive function..
There have been studies between pain and cognitive function. This has, also, been discussed in this question here.
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user10932
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Can cats get depressed in a way similar to humans?
Most of the research on depression seems quite human focused. Can cats also get depressed in the same way there's depression for humans?
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Is depression caused by life events?
If we look at physical illnesses we could put them on a spectrum of 'Happened spontaneously/no choice in the matter' to 'Was clearly created by something that happened in their life'.
From less ...
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For depression diagnoses, does one make a clear distinction between endogenous and exogenous causes of depression?
Roughly speaking, we might imagine that people have depression predominantly for one of two reasons:
Endogenously induced: The person has some inherent inballance between different neurotransmittors; ...
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Can the effectiveness of antidepressants be explained by a placebo effect?
A friend of mine showed me a paper (Kirsch, 2014) where the author claims that antidepressants work mostly through a placebo effect (backed up with relevant citations). Antidepressants are generally ...
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How does recalling a specific memory decrease depression?
Research by Serrano et al (2004) indicated that
older adults with depressive symptoms showed that with increased
specificity of memories, individuals show decreased depression and
hopelessness ...
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How do we know bipolar is one illness rather than two comorbid illnesses?
Based on my previous question about ADHD and OCD.
Essentially, ADHD and OCD are kind of opposites in the sense that ADHD people (always? sometimes?) have dopamine deficiency and OCD people (always? ...
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Is depression an inflammatory disease?
In the paper:
Michael Berk et al, So depression is an inflammatory disease, but where does the inflammation come from?, BMC Medicine 2013, 11:200, doi:10.1186/1741-7015-11-200
it is presented as an ...
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Why could too much BDNF be detrimental in terms of depression and memory?
I am interested in looking at the effects of too much BDNF and other proteins such as repressor element one silencing transcription factor (REST). Most research suggest that elevated levels are ...
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Is the logic of self-reported thoughts related to psychological disorders?
Depression seems to be a disruption in thought patterns. In particular, it is characterized by repetitive thoughts. Is it possible to characterize psychological diseases by looking at the logical ...
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Effects of treatment versus psychotherapy on mental health of transgender people
Has any reliable study been done to compare mental health (e.g. depression or suicide rate) of transgender people before and after procedures (hormone or surgery) intended to change their bodies to ...
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Can hallucinogens treat depressive states?
Given the serotonin hypothesis of depression, increasing synaptic serotonin level may cause anti-depressive effects.
Hallucinogens seems to have such advantages:
They improve mood at once, but not ...
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Which is the most valid/validated scale for diagnosis of Major depression for an Indian population?
I am planning a study of an online intervention for depression in India. We were planning to use Patient Health Questionnaire-9 (PHQ-9) for assessing the depression symptom severity. One of our ...
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Probiotics and Mental Health
While trying to find research articles within the realm of Psychosynthesis, I have been looking at the "collective unconscious"
Image Source: Wikipedia Commons - (CC BY-SA 3.0)
Lower Unconscious
...
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Understanding ketamine, the role of synatptic placitity in Major Depression
I am having a bit of an issue with my intuitive understanding of Ketamine's newfound role in treating depression. It is my understanding that Ketamine works by allowing synaptogenesis. The evidence ...
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Using Vagus Nerve Stimulation to treat Depression
I came across an article written recently concerning the use of Vagus Nerve Stimulation (VNS) to treat difficult-to-treat depression (DTD) and other mood disorders (Sackeim, et al. 2020). However, ...
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Can changing attitude cure depression?
There's a proverb: "everything's decided in mind" - changing attitude of thing may help going through things.
Does it also mean that if someone is depressed then there'd be enough to change how he ...
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Negative thoughts as cause or consequence of depression
Simplypsychology.org page on Cognitive Behavioral Therapy mentions that
Lewinsohn (1981) studied a group of participants before any of them became depressed, and found that those who later became ...
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Is there a less colloquial term for the phenomenon known as "brain zaps"?
There is an unpleasant phenomenon, colloquially known as "brain zaps". It is generally associated with withdrawal from antidepressants, but this isn't always the trigger - I sometimes have it even ...
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Neuroplasticity and Treatment of Depression
After reading 'The Brain That Changes Itself' by Norman Doidge, 'The Mind and The Brain' by Jeffrey Schwartz and a few other books, I've become curious about the science of neuroplasticity, which, as ...
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How does a person know if he should seek treatment for depression since feeling moody is unavoidable?
Life is not a bed of roses. All of us feel moody sometimes due to failures in life. This is perfectly normal. However, depression is abnormal.
How does a person know if he needs to seek treatment for ...
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How, other than pharmacotherapy, can those diagnosed with thought disorders be treated?
In general, major depressive disorder is treated with pharmacotherapy, and talk therapy, as well as other little things written below:
People know what the little things you can do if you're ...
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What maladaptive behaviours or cognitive distortions develop as a result of chronic childhood illness?
It's fairly well documented that childhood trauma (such as chronic illness) can lay the neurochemical groundwork for conditions like depression later in life. A paper, "The link between childhood ...
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Can people fake mental illness to gain sympathy?
In the last decade, a lot of famous personalities and celebrities have opened up about suffering from mental disorders, largely depression. This has caused the younger generation to accept and seek ...
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Perfectionism, and approval addiction: how are these two generated from a trauma?
Depression and anxiety most of the time stem from a past trauma, but it is actually not the events, but the thoughts that create the symptoms of depression and anxiety.
Out of those thoughts, ...
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How can depression and fear be effectively managed in people who know they will die soon?
Are there any efficient ways to overcome the fear and depression before death (supposing you know you are going to die soon) ?
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Does medication to treat Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder reduce associated cognitive deficits?
Some studies point to existence of cognitive deficits in OCD (it seems that these deficits are not comorbid but have the same neurological roots as OCD). Unfortunately I found no studies with positive ...
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How do serotonin antagonist and reuptake inhibitors work as an antidepressant?
The monoamine hypothesis postulates that the deficit of certain neurotransmitters is responsible for depression, and even that certain neurotransmitters are linked to specific symptoms.
If suppose ...
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Is a person who believe that their depression is curable more likely to overcome it?
According to the idea of the growth mindset a person is more likely to successfully change, when they believe that change is possible.
To what extend does that apply to depression? Is a person who ...
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Is movement/activity level related to serotonin availability or reuptake rates in the brain?
I'm aware of this research article that explores the relationship between motion and serotonin systems: 5-HT and motor control: a hypothesis.
Based on the article above, it seems to me that a "very ...
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Influence of antidepressant drugs upon personality
How do antidepressant drugs influence someone's personality? Do they induce a major change in an individual's personality, or do they just negate the influence of depression?
Basically, is the ...
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Do depressed people think that they always thought in such a negative way?
I feel like I may have read or heard a finding that depressed people may get the delusion that they always used to think in such a negative way as has begun since getting depression. Is it so?
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What effect can depression have on memory?
While a link has been shown that when a person is in a depressed episode there can be a negative effect on the individuals memory.
(Hubbard et al, 2016). This shows that when a person is experiencing ...
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What happens to your body when overcoming side effects of SSRIs?
When you start taking SSRIs your body experiences side effects like vomiting, headaches, diarrhea etc.
Apparently these side effects go away after regular consumption.
What happens inside your body to ...
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Severe depression/anxiety can't be treated with CBT
Is there any evidence that supports the idea that a severe depression/anxiety can't be treated with CBT?
Since, it's in severe state, and one has to use anti-depressants to lower the level, and then ...
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Can adhd and ocd coexist? Is it in the same way mania and depression can coexist (in bipolar disorder)?
Is it really possible for someone to have both ADHD and OCD?
I was thinking that ADHD is the opposite of OCD: 1 2
from 1:
alexThePotato:
With ADHD you may be forgetful, distracted, make careless ...
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What is, formally speaking, major depressive disorder?
DSM and ICD define a mental disorder called major depressive disorder (MDD), and I suppose the notion of MDD defines quite rigorous criteria and methods to diagnose it in people. I don't know, how MDD ...
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Depression Causing Body Dysmorphic Disorder (BDD)
Whilst trying to think of non-chemical/hormonal causes of low self-esteem when reading Is low self-esteem, a brain chemical imbalance problem, rather than a personality defect, and can't be fixed ...
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Why do hallucinations appear in depression?
We all know the stories of people who saw a miracle in the deepist troubles like gangsters who turned to faith - or an older example could be the miracles in jail in the Bible (Acts: Peter and Paul).
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What is the difference between feeling sad and feeling unhappy?
The first two questions on the Burns Depression Checklist ask about (1) Feeling Sad and (2) Feeling Unhappy. Specifically, they ask how much you have experienced:
Feeling sad or down in the dumps
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How to offer support to an American acquaintance with depression?
So, an online acquaintance of mine has mentioned that they're suffering from severe depression recently, and my natural response is to want to offer them support and encouragement - maybe suggest that ...
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Why does suicide risk increase just after starting an antidepressant?
There are many ways of treating depression, one of which is administering antidepressants. From this site, and several others, I read that risk of suicide increases after starting an antidepressant.
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What are the neurobiological factors related to depression?
While it is agreed that neurotransmitters aren't the primary "cause" of depression, what other factors are a part of this mental illness that focus on the neurobiological aspects of it?
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Use of Botulinum toxin A (botox) to treat depression and its effect on fight/flight repsonse
Over in Health.SE, @faustus provided a couple of references to papers which suggest the use of Botulinum toxin A (BTA) - otherwise known as botox - to treat depression — Magid, et al. (2015a) and ...
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