Comments on: It’s just something inside my head http://mindhacks.com/2011/02/12/it%e2%80%99s-just-something-inside-my-head/ Neuroscience and psychology news and views. Fri, 24 May 2013 00:56:19 +0000 hourly 1 http://wordpress.com/ By: Johannes Bathelt http://mindhacks.com/2011/02/12/it%e2%80%99s-just-something-inside-my-head/#comment-17616 Tue, 15 Feb 2011 13:54:05 +0000 http://mindhacks.com/?p=17044#comment-17616 There is a really good personal account, which describes the subjective feeling and the complexity of depression very well in my view. It is by Andrew Solomon and is called “The Noonday Demon”.
Here is the Amazon link:

]]> By: D http://mindhacks.com/2011/02/12/it%e2%80%99s-just-something-inside-my-head/#comment-17604 Tue, 15 Feb 2011 04:14:27 +0000 http://mindhacks.com/?p=17044#comment-17604 I recognise certain traits in myself that mentioned above, but both the continued disscusion and the wikipedia page leave me totally confused.
Are there any decent resorces that can be pointed to that are not technically baffling?

]]> By: Johannes Bathelt http://mindhacks.com/2011/02/12/it%e2%80%99s-just-something-inside-my-head/#comment-17550 Sun, 13 Feb 2011 19:38:58 +0000 http://mindhacks.com/?p=17044#comment-17550 They are social to some degree, but their social system is not as elaborate as the hierarchies found in non-human primates. If depression is product of those complex social interaction, which also reflects in how their brain processes certain information, then the validity of the rodent models is questionable. That is of course a general concern in animal models, but especially for human disorders in the affective system.

]]> By: Nancy Lebovitz http://mindhacks.com/2011/02/12/it%e2%80%99s-just-something-inside-my-head/#comment-17540 Sun, 13 Feb 2011 12:53:47 +0000 http://mindhacks.com/?p=17044#comment-17540 Rats are social animals. I don’t know what would be a sufficiently intelligent but non-social animal to study.

]]> By: Johannes Bathelt http://mindhacks.com/2011/02/12/it%e2%80%99s-just-something-inside-my-head/#comment-17538 Sun, 13 Feb 2011 12:32:26 +0000 http://mindhacks.com/?p=17044#comment-17538 There is an evolutionary account for depression that states that depression arises, because the individual can’t hold its place in the social hierarchy, is isolated or is constantly stressed, because it struggles to keep the keep the place.
That has interesting implications for the animal models, because from that point one would assume that only very social animals could develop something like human depression. That would shed doubt on the validity of rodent models.
see Nesse (2000):”Is depression adaptive?” Archives of General Psychiatry 57(14)

]]> By: cavall de quer http://mindhacks.com/2011/02/12/it%e2%80%99s-just-something-inside-my-head/#comment-17537 Sun, 13 Feb 2011 12:18:06 +0000 http://mindhacks.com/?p=17044#comment-17537 Anyone who has read Peterson, Maier and Seligman on “Learned Helplessness” will probably be depressed by the hideous cruelty of the experiments and the ruthlessness of the humans involved: surely the two concepts are intimately related; but, on the anecdotal front, has anyone else noticed that, in humans, humiliation is often involved in depression?

]]> By: Richmonde http://mindhacks.com/2011/02/12/it%e2%80%99s-just-something-inside-my-head/#comment-17502 Sat, 12 Feb 2011 17:44:28 +0000 http://mindhacks.com/?p=17044#comment-17502 Is it depression? Or unhappiness about things you lack, or that afflict you?

]]> By: Nancy Lebovitz http://mindhacks.com/2011/02/12/it%e2%80%99s-just-something-inside-my-head/#comment-17501 Sat, 12 Feb 2011 17:35:46 +0000 http://mindhacks.com/?p=17044#comment-17501 Richmonde, that’s an interesting point– I wonder if it takes self-denigration (I’m a bad person for not doing the things I’m feeling helpless about) in addition to learned helplessness to create depression.

]]> By: Johannes Bathelt http://mindhacks.com/2011/02/12/it%e2%80%99s-just-something-inside-my-head/#comment-17500 Sat, 12 Feb 2011 17:35:16 +0000 http://mindhacks.com/?p=17044#comment-17500 @ Richmonde: That is not the point of learned helplessness. It is actually derived from animal models of depression. Depression-like symptoms can be induced in rats by stressing them randomly, e.g. delivering foot shocks at random intervals. It is sometimes interpreted that learned helplessness derives from the feeling of absence of control over the situation.
That links to neurophysiological explanations that see the cause of depression as an adaptation to prolonged stress (HPA axis shows alterations in noradrenaline that could be mediated by serotonin + additional changes in the dopaminergic mesocorticolimbic “reward” system).
Together, these changes would make it very difficult to just start and do something about it. It would require a massive relearning and restructuring process. This is in my view and according to the literature best guided by cognitive therapy and can be aided by antidepressant that increase plasticity (like SSRIs).
See
Castrén (2005): “Is mood chemistry?” Nat.Rev.Neurosc.6(3)
DeRubeis (2008): “Cognitive therapy vs. medications for depression: Treatment outcomes and neural mechanisms” Nat.Rev.Neurosc.9(10)

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