Depression - All Time Low

Depression is something that has become all too familiar and most common. Only recently has it been really taken seriously to be studied. Especially with students in colleges and Universities, you hear of the pressure needed to maintain a certain level expectation, which if it isn’t met, then they are deemed incapable. On another note, there is the most commonly media and peer pressure of the fear of being left out or not appreciated. People start losing themselves and end up in this cyclic destruction. Once you are in this cycle it is very hard to get out and outside influences can do a lot to a person with depression.

In  a recent study done by Dr. Rebecca Stilton, a professor and researcher at Loyola University of Chicago looks at how positive affect is related to depression. Dr. Stilton starts off by defining depression as having anhedonia; which is the reduction in ability to experience pleasure in daily life experiences. Anhedonia is specifically correlated to have low positive affect and high negative affect. Dr. Stilton makes sure to emphasize how having low positive affect is what really matters because of it direct relation with depression. It cannot be negative affect since it could be related to both depression and anxiety. According Dr. Stilton, one is considered to have depression if they have at least five out of nine possible symptoms in order to be fully diagnosed with this. In her experiment, the participants were of two types. Some participants did not have any history of depression and some participants had remitted depression, meaning they experienced future depressive episodes. Dr. Stilton, as a way of indicating future depressive episodes, she measured alpha wavelength activity in the left prefrontal cortex using EEG. After her experiment, her results showed that high levels of alpha wavelengths were associated when there was low positive affect. In other words, high levels of alpha can possibly be an indicator of future depressive episodes.

Interestingly I came across an article, Can Mushrooms Treat Depression? Which caught my attention mostly for its unique title and grew a curiosity of my own. The article starts off with a personal anecdote of how one ate Mushrooms and felt like they were in a better mood. It goes on to explain how depression is caused and what it entails; meaning there is a negative feeling and there is a low positivity in general. The article also mentions how there have actually been studies done on why this is the case. Mushrooms contain Psilocybin, which resembles the structure of serotonin. Serotonin is a neurotransmitter that regulates mood, appetite, sleep, cognitive functions like memory and learning and feelings of pleasure. Psilocybin may actually stimulate serotonin and serotonin receptors in the brain which causes the pleasant mood after eating mushrooms. Researchers concluded that psilocybin might be useful in psychotherapy as an adjunct therapy to help patients reverse “negative cognitive biases”; which is all too common in people with depression, where the person recounts negative memories versus positive memories.

It was interesting to see how closely both studies mentioned one way or another how depression is a form of having high levels of negative affect and low levels of positive affect. However, Dr. Stilton focuses more on what may cause future depressive episodes and how that is linked to the alpha wavelengths in the prefrontal cortex. Whereas in the article, it talked about the possible option of what can cure or help people diagnosed with depression to get out of this cycle of running negative thoughts. The two articles reaffirmed that in order to have or prevent depression, there needs to be a level of positive affect that must be maintained. Once the negative affect starts taking control, the individual can be thrown into depression and if it continues, then could have future depressive episodes.

References

Silton, L. R., Polnaszek, K. L., Dickson, A. D, Miller, A. G., Heller, W. Low positive affect is associated with reduced prefrontal cortical activity in remitted depression. Psychophysiology, 1-31.

Bone, Eugenia. "Can Mushrooms Treat Depression." NewYork Times: Sunday Review. 29 Nov. 2014. Web. 04 May 2016. <http://www.nytimes.com/2014/11/30/opinion/sunday/can-mushrooms-treat-depression.html>.