Depression doesn’t discriminate. Everyone is a potential target for it, regardless of gender, age, ethnicity, geographical location, or income. We are all subject to its grasp, and remember, it’s not the same thing as sadness.
Opinion | The Real Causes Of Depression Have Been Discovered, And They're Not What You Think
To deal with depression, you need to deal with its underlying causes.
The downside of being happy
Nobody likes to be sad, but it can have a powerful and positive effect.
For the first time, scientists pinpoint brain cells linked to depression
Scientists identified two types of brain cells, neurons and microglia, that are altered in people with depression. Through genomic mapping of post-mortem brain tissue, they found major differences in gene activity affecting mood and inflammation. The findings reinforce that depression has a clear biological foundation and open new doors for treatment development.
the depression thing
the depression thing: a neat story about depression and mental health. By Zach Holman.
how to support people who have depression
Admit you don’t know what to say Express “I care” Remind them that they matters Check them regularly Ask how I can help, but be specific (“Could I do X?” rather than “How can I help you?“) Encourage them to see professional treatment To listen without interruptions Only claim understanding if you g...
Depression doesn't shrink the brain like we thought it did | New Scientist
For the past decade, depression has been linked to a shrunken hippocampus, which has a vital role in memory. But a large study using up-to-date scanning techniques suggests this may not be the case
Generative AI Use and Depressive Symptoms Among US Adults
This survey study examines the associations of generative artificial intelligence (AI) use with negative affective symptoms in a large nationally representative sample of US adults.
Can One Donation a Day Keep Depression Away? Three Randomized Controlled Trials of an Online Micro-Charitable Giving Intervention
Prosocial interventions grounded in social interactions have shown limited effectiveness in alleviating depressive symptoms, possibly because of the discomfort and unease that depressed individuals experience during such interactions. We developed and examined an innovative prosocial intervention—an online micro-charitable giving intervention, in which individuals voluntarily donated at least one Chinese cent (¥0.01, or about $0.0014) daily. We conducted three preregistered, 2-month randomized controlled trials with depressed individuals (Sample 1: N = 125, Sample 2: N = 296, Sample 3: N = 462). Results showed that, compared with the waitlist group, the intervention group exhibited significantly greater improvements in both depressive symptoms (Cohen’s d s = −0.19 to −0.46) and emotional positivity (Cohen’s d s = 0.22 to 0.49), and that emotional positivity mediated the intervention’s effect on the reduction of depressive symptoms. Exploratory analysis found a slightly larger intervention effect for generous donors than for minimal donors. This low-cost, easily accessible prosocial intervention holds potential for the prevention of depression. Statement of Relevance Can donating one cent (specifically one Chinese cent, or about $0.0014) alleviate depressive symptoms? We have developed a practical and effective intervention—donating at least one cent daily on an online charity platform—and have discovered that this intervention effectively mitigates depressive symptoms in depressed individuals. Despite the nominal purchasing power of one cent in contemporary society, this act of giving has been shown to significantly enhance mental health. Our findings could be relevant to everyone in society; charitable donations promote societal harmony and, in addition, offer a cost-effective way to alleviate depressive symptoms. As the intervention instruction asserts, “Charity encompasses love, regardless of its size, as even one cent holds value.”
Depression linked to internal jet lag study finds
Circadian rhythms controlling sleep were out of sync in a quarter of young people with depression in this Sydney-based study. Read more
Life Is Strange Post-Game Depression Starter Kit
163 votes, 53 comments. Just finished the game and have that empty whole inside your heart? You're not alone! Lot's of people have gone through the…
How Annihilation Nails the Complex Reality of Depression
No film in recent memory captures the truth of self-destruction and depression quite like it.
Positive and Negative Affect and Salivary Markers of Inflammation Among Young Adults
Emerging evidence suggests that higher circulating levels of inflammatory biomarkers in blood are associated with higher negative affect (NA) and lower positive affect (PA). To our knowledge, the unique associations between NA and PA in daily life and salivary biomarkers of inflammation have not been examined. This study examined these associations in young adults.
The Global Decline in the Mental Health of the Young
One of the major findings in wellbeing research until recently was that happiness was U-shaped by age and unhappiness hump-shaped by age. There was a midlife crisis — a finding reported in well over 600 published papers using data on 145 countries. It was present in both developing and developed countries. And it was persistent over time. The finding of a peak in ill-being in midlife was consistent with Anne Case and Angus Deaton’s work on mortality and the so-called “deaths of despair.”1 In the US in particular and to a lesser extent in other countries, White prime-aged individuals without a college degree had high death rates from suicide, drug overdoses, and cirrhosis of the liver. Drug overdose deaths in the US, for example, peaked at midlife ages. In 2023, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) reported that overdose death rates per 100,000 by age rose from 13.5 for 15-to-24-year-olds to 45.6 for 25-to-34-year-olds and 60.8 for 35-to-44-year-olds, and then declined to 53.3 for 45-to-54-year-olds, 49.2 for 55-to-64-year-olds, and 14.7 for those over the age of 65.2 The morbidity data matched the mortality data.
The neuroimaging correlates of depression established across six large-scale population datasets
Depression has been linked to reduced size of subcortical regions and abnormal functional connectivity in frontal and default mode networks. However, recent meta-analyses have failed to identify significant converging correlates of depression across the literature such that a conclusive mapping of the neuroimaging correlates of depression remains elusive. We leveraged 23,417 participants across 6 population datasets to comprehensively establish the neuroimaging correlates of depression. We found reductions in gray matter volume/cortical surface area associated with depression in the frontal cortex, anterior cingulate and insula, confirming previous studies showing the importance of prefrontal and default mode regions in depression. Our findings demonstrate multiple surprising results, including a lack of depression correlates in subcortical brain regions and significant depression correlates in somatomotor and visual regions. Overall, these results shed new light on key brain regions involved in the pathophysiology of depression, updating our understanding of the neuroimaging correlates of depression symptoms.
The neuroimaging correlates of depression established across six large-scale population datasets
Depression has been linked to reduced size of subcortical regions and abnormal functional connectivity in frontal and default mode networks. However, recent meta-analyses have failed to identify significant converging correlates of depression across the literature such that a conclusive mapping of the neuroimaging correlates of depression remains elusive. We leveraged 23,417 participants across 6 population datasets to comprehensively establish the neuroimaging correlates of depression. We found reductions in gray matter volume/cortical surface area associated with depression in the frontal cortex, anterior cingulate and insula, confirming previous studies showing the importance of prefrontal and default mode regions in depression. Our findings demonstrate multiple surprising results, including a lack of depression correlates in subcortical brain regions and significant depression correlates in somatomotor and visual regions. Overall, these results shed new light on key brain regions involved in the pathophysiology of depression, updating our understanding of the neuroimaging correlates of depression symptoms.