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The more I research and read about depression, the more questions I have about this brain disease, and the more I realize I don’t know.
For example, it’s difficult to wrap my brain (no pun intended) around the “circuit-board” model of major depression–the connection between specific sets of nerve cells in different regions of the brain–explained by researchers like Helen S. Mayberg, M.D., professor of psychiatry and neurology at Emory School of Medicine.
I’m fascinated by research programs that use high tech brain-imaging to define what Mayberg calls “the critical neural pathways that mediate normal and abnormal mood states.”
I’m intrigued by this not-so-new notion that depression is not just a chemical imbalance in the brain. It’s much more complicated and involved than that–which is why neurology and psychiatry have to work in tandem to figure out how best to treat it.
In her exceptionally well-researched article, “Depression: Beyond Serotonin” (Psychology Today), journalist and editor Hara Estroff Marano clarifies so many confusing myths and concepts about depression that are simply out-dated based on the emerging field of neurobiology.
The article is too long and complex to throw at you in one post, so I’ll split it up into bite sizes over the next few days.
Here’s the beginning:
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New research is challenging the assumption that the world’s most common mental ailment is just a chemical imbalance in the brain.
Melancholy is a fertile muse. No sooner had William Styron become the poet laureate of depression after describing his bout with madness in “Darkness Visible” when all manner of confessions followed. Mike Wallace. Art Buchwald. Dick Cavett lined up to disclose their own struggles with the disabling disorder. It quickly became acceptable, even chic, to publicly confide vulnerability to depression.
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Therese J. Borchard writes the daily blog, Beyond Blue, on Beliefnet and is a regular contributor to the award-winning blog, World of Psychology, on Psych Central. Therese is the author of Beyond Blue: Surviving Depression & Anxiety and Making the Most of Bad Genes and The Pocket Therapist: An Emotional Survival Kit. Subscribe to Beyond Blue, visit her website, or follow her on Twitter @thereseborchard.
Meet others on the journey in
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Therese J. Borchard writes the daily blog, Beyond Blue, on Beliefnet and is a regular contributor to the award-winning blog, World of Psychology, on Psych Central. Therese is the author of Beyond Blue: Surviving Depression & Anxiety and Making the Most of Bad Genes and The Pocket Therapist: An Emotional Survival Kit. Subscribe to Beyond Blue, visit her website, or follow her on Twitter @thereseborchard.
posted May 4, 2007 at 10:58 am
Great stuff. Am looking forward to the rest!
posted May 8, 2007 at 8:07 pm
As a person who just completed my first graduate level class in Neurobiology, I can tell you that the molecular way a neuron works, and the depth and breadth of the interaction between our brains, nervous systems and our immune systems alone is enough to take your breath away. Complicate those relationships with what you inherited, what you get exposed to, what diseases you have, and what you purposely do to learn, change and grow and you have one of the most profound miracles of life, all in one tiny little model called the neuron. We are all, in this day and age, way too ignorant about the destiny of our neurobiology and too naive in our confidence that we can abolutely overcome it just by thinking. And yet, if we are well informed, so much can be accomplished.
posted March 27, 2008 at 8:16 pm
Thanks so much for this statement… I so wish everyone could ‘see’ the disease and not simply dismiss those of us who are coping/surviving… blessings ya’ll
posted December 3, 2008 at 10:40 am
Good stuff here…and great to know that there’s new frontiers of research being explored. Keep it coming!
posted December 3, 2008 at 1:07 pm
Great review !
You gotta check out a new book by Dr. Edward Shorter called “Before Prozac:The Troubled History of Mood Disorders in Psychiatry”. I just finished the interview 30 minutes ago. Fascinating stuff and controversial—but in a way you will like. A preview: biggest mistake modern psychiatry made was throwing out the distinction between depression with melancholia and other types…lumping them all under Major Depression……….leading to so much mistreatment. You are gonna love this one…..
posted December 4, 2008 at 4:59 pm
Thank you for this subject. So many times – especially in the New Age christianity – you’re told we’re only depressed because we want to be and all you have to do is change your thoughts/thinking and you’ll change your life.
Well what happens when your brain gets caught on a run-a-way train and can’t stop – the thoughts just keep coming and coming. It’s not that easy.
I know I’ve even been told and that’s why I’ve fought taking most of the meds is because I’ve heard so many ministers preach on the subject of mental illness and denounce people who take medications stating they either have a devil in them or they don’t have the love of Jesus or know Jesus and that’s why they’re depressed.
Since my son was murdered the only thing that has kept me going is my talking to the Lord – to tell me that I don’t have Him because I’m on medicine and that means I’m not trusting Him so He can’t relate to me is troubling to say the least. I love the Lord and I just pray somehow that I can live the 2nd half of my life in a way that’s pleasing to Him – because I know I didn’t do well the first part of my life.
Be Blessed.
posted December 5, 2008 at 10:43 am
that was amazing .I can really relate to that .Just yeaterday I got lost going to a friends house .ihad to call my daughter because i couldnot remember which road to take halfway to the house .yet there are times when my brain makes all of the connections and the entire solution to a problem just pops into my head.there are times when it helps to view problems in my unique perspective . thanks letting share.
posted February 3, 2009 at 3:00 am
This is great news. I have been told I have major depression. I agree it is recurring but I don’t like the idea that I have been marked for life, the psychiatrist says I will have it for life and I will be on the meds for life. O boy! Great News! I feel like I have been condemed to a prison of some sort. The labe just really bothers me. I will have to read the book mentioned earlier, about the different tyoes and them all being ,lumped into one category for convienience.
The news about the brain creating new pathways makes me feel glad that I am still taking classes at 53 years old I am in nursing school.
Thanks