Mood Disorder – Depression

I always wanted to know more about brain illness- mental disorders. When I took Psychology100, I learned the basic mechanisms and symptoms of various mental disorders including anxiety disorders, mood disorders, personality disorders, schizophrenia, and so forth. I decided to start off with mood disorder, which is well-known to people. If possible, I wanted an article that deals mostly with treatments and causes of mental illness. As we all know, establishing the standard of calling a person “sane,” or “insane” is so hard. There are cultural differences, and unique mental disorders in different cultures. Therefore, the categorization made by scientists is not definite, but can be a great guide for doctors or psychiatrists. “Depression: Studies Bring New Drugs and Insights” by Harold M. Schmeck Jr. from New York Times health section was not that organized and kind of jumped back and forth, but covered a lot of past and recent issues related to severe depression.

This article contained four main points; the discovery of the first antidepressants and their basic mechanisms, their side effects and general problems, an introduction to some new antidepressants and how they can be effective in our brain, and other studies related to antidepressants.

The importance of studying mood disorder (especially depression) is presented at the very end of the article. This should have been presented at the beginning.
Depression is by far the number one cause of suicide among patients suffering from mental illness. Now, when we talk about depression, we should know that it’s not just a mere depression people experience once in a while. Depression here means people who suffer from bipolar disorder or chronic depression. Usually, people get so hopeless and sad that it would not let the person live a normal life in the society. Also, as shown in the chart provided by Dr. Joseph J. Schildkraut of Harvard Medical School, depression is by far the number one cause (40%) of suicide among patients suffering from numerous mental disorders. Fast treatment is the key in dealing with severe depression.
The first idea for an antidepressant occurred by chance in the early 1950s. MAO (monoamine oxidase) inhibitors were developed and then tricyclic antidepressants were invented. Tricyclic antidepressants are the popular “standard drugs” doctors usually use as treatments. The antidepressants either prevent the re-uptaking of excess neurotransmitters, keeping the level of neurotransmitters high enough, or inhibit the neurotransmitters from naturally breaking down.

Other studies argue that depression, especially maniac-depressive illness (also called as bipolar disorder), runs in the family. This might also have to do with the nature versus nurture issue. Scientists are trying to look at every aspect of depression and other mental disorders, hoping to find some clues for better treatment.

I found another interesting article talking about the possibilities of diagnosing various mental disorders by brain scanning in New York Times health section ( “Can Brain Scans See Depression?” by Benedict Carey).

Actually, I was hoping for some cool, clear conclusion about diagnosing depression by studying brain scanning. However, there are still many problems in matching certain states of the brain to a particular disorder. Some scientists or psychiatrists argue that a mental disorder has its own pattern but since the brain is one of the most sophisticated structures on earth, it just takes time to see that pattern.

Scanning technologies are still very useful in finding signs of seizure, tumors, and trauma. However, the “hot spot” of activity detected as “abnormal” can be a very normal activity in another person. The brain is like a person’s personality; it is multidirectional and multidimensional. Furthermore, some apparent findings according to certain mental disorders from brain scanning might not be seen in another observational experiment. The article gives an example of the evident shrinkage of the hippocampus (part of the temporal lobe) found in patients with severe depression in one study, but fails to find those results in another study.

The end of the article was quite interesting and pointed out an important fact. The writer said:

“Which comes first, the disease or the apparent difference in brain
structure or function that is being observed?”

Of course, taking control over the functioning of the brain would bring us a lot of advantages in terms of health. However, I think there is a reason why brain is not revealing its secret too easily. Think about how the world would be like when we can manipulate a brain’s functioning. Maybe we are not supposed to fully understand its secret to maintain the order of life. Anyway, I know we might be able to diagnose certain mental disorders by taking pictures of the brain, or by taking time observing its activity one day. However, I am sure it’s going to be tough; it doesn’t mean a person is actually happy when one is smiling in the picture.

Posted by clearsky83