Mental illness affects one out of every five U.S. adults every year. It is estimated that eight percent of Americans are affected by depression each year. Since so many people are effect by mental illnesses it is imperative that research is conducted on ways to cure said illnesses. Both medicine and therapy are effective ways to better symptoms of mental illnesses and can be used both separately and in conjunction to one another.
The paper we read by Dr. Silton talks about the role that positive emotion regulation can play in the treatment of Depression. Positive emotion regulation (PER) refers to changing a person’s response to a stimulus so that their experience of positive emotions is strengthened. Most of the research done on depression has focused on reactivity to affective stimuli and analyzing the differences in said reactivity. PER on the other hand had largely been overlooked until a little while ago. New research tells us that positive emotion regulatory mechanisms are impaired in people with depression and could diminish the frequency, duration etc. of positive emotions. Dr. Silton also talks about savoring which is defined as the ability to appreciate and enhance a person’s positive experiences. We initiate responses to savor after experiencing a positive feeling or event so that we can maintain or prolong said experience. The upregulation of positive emotions is linked to savoring processes. A lack of the capacity to savor is inversely correlated with depression. Dr. Silton also talks about mindfulness meditation which is thought to be able to increase a person’s experience of and capacity for positive emotions.
Dr. Marwaha et al. published a paper on treatments for depression a couple years ago. The paper goes on to describe many up-and-coming treatments for depression such as Ketamine. Ketamine is a glutamatergic agent and is an antagonist at the NDMA receptor. Intranasal treatment for depression with ketamine has been licensed by the FDA. TRD stands for treatment resistant depression. People with TRD have been through two trials of antidepressants and have not responded to them. Dr. Marwaha talks about how many studies focus on the use of ketamine in people with TRD. It was then shown that the infusion of ketamine appeared to be working in alleviating the symptoms of depression in TRD patients.
Both papers focus on finding treatments for depression. Dr. Silton provided an excellent overview of the symptoms of depression and of research that is being conducted on positive emotional regulation. Dr. Marwaha’s paper provided us with information on a novel treatment of depression that uses Ketamine. Both papers are advancing our knowledge of mental illnesses and forging a path for more treatments to be made.
Sources:
Depression. Mental Health America. (n.d.). https://mhanational.org/conditions/depression
Mental health by the numbers. NAMI. (2024a, February 12). https://www.nami.org/about-mental-illness/mental-health-by-the-numbers/#:~:text=22.8%25%20of%20U.S.%20adults%20experienced,represents%201%20in%205%20adults
Marwaha, S., Palmer, E., Suppes, T., Cons, E., Young, A. H., & Upthegrove, R. (2023). Novel and emerging treatments for major depression. The Lancet, 401(10371), 141–153. https://doi.org/10.1016/s0140-6736(22)02080-3
Silton, R. L., Kahrilas, I. J., Skymba, H. V., Smith, J., Bryant, F. B., & Heller, W. (2020). Regulating positive emotions: Implications for promoting well-being in individuals with depression. Emotion, 20(1), 93–97. https://doi.org/10.1037/emo0000675
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