The Link Between Inflammation and Depression?
1–10 of 93 posts
Re: The Link Between Inflammation and Depression?
#2Not only we don’t understand the mechanism causing depression, we don’t really understand (as far as I am aware) why medications work or don’t work. I deal with mild depression sometimes, but this scares me off of considering medication for it. I’ve encountered so many horror stories of withdrawal symptoms... you really need to be at a point of desperation to consider drugs for it, imo.
Re: The Link Between Inflammation and Depression?
#3Not only we don’t understand the mechanism causing depression, we don’t really understand (as far as I am aware) why medications work or don’t work. I deal with mild depression sometimes, but this scares me off of considering medication for it. I’ve encountered so many horror stories of withdrawal symptoms... you really need to be at a point of desperation to consider drugs for it, imo.
Sadly this is true. "depression", like so many diseases, is named after its symptoms rather than etiology. So if we even have an effective drug, it will only be effective on a subset of the sufferers.
Plus we understand so little macro neurochemistry we don't even understand which apparently correlated biomarkers are causal and which are consequential. The same problem exists with other neurological diseases such as Alzheimers. With depression, as it seems to affect higher function, we even have difficulty (and treatment affordances) with non-chemical stimuli.
Still, it's very much worth working on -- people are suffering such serious debilitation.
Re: The Link Between Inflammation and Depression?
#4Not only we don’t understand the mechanism causing depression, we don’t really understand (as far as I am aware) why medications work or don’t work. I deal with mild depression sometimes, but this scares me off of considering medication for it. I’ve encountered so many horror stories of withdrawal symptoms... you really need to be at a point of desperation to consider drugs for it, imo.
Sadly this is true. "depression", like so many diseases, is named after its symptoms rather than etiology. So if we even have an effective drug, it will only be effective on a subset of the sufferers. Plus we understand so little macro neurochemistry we don't even understand which apparently correlated biomarkers are causal and which are consequential. The same problem exists with other neurological diseases such as…
I’ve benefited greatly from various medications combined with non-chemical strategies. When I first considered medication I talked with my Doctor, talked with some friends that are Doctors, and did my own research and every resource came up with the same basic info, we don’t actually know that much... Add onto that finding a combination of things that ‘worked’ was a trial and error process that took over a year, all while I was dealing with my mental health issues.
Sadly so many people in a similar situation don’t have the flexibility, access and/or support to go down the path that I did. Often they will opt out because of the stigma associated with having mental health issues.
The fact that we know so little leaves tons of room for improvement in addressing mental health, but I worry that we have a very long road to giant leaps in addressing mental health unless we can destigmatize mental disabilities (and other neurological conditions)
Re: The Link Between Inflammation and Depression?
#5Not only we don’t understand the mechanism causing depression, we don’t really understand (as far as I am aware) why medications work or don’t work. I deal with mild depression sometimes, but this scares me off of considering medication for it. I’ve encountered so many horror stories of withdrawal symptoms... you really need to be at a point of desperation to consider drugs for it, imo.
I think a larger problem is that it’s such a crapshoot about which treatments will work for a given individual, pharmaceutical or not. It took me about 10 therapists with varying backgrounds before I finally found one that would help. It also took me trying several different medications to find a combination that’s actually effective. It’s a lot of work and effort, and most people suffering through depression, anxiety, or another debilitating mental health disorder don’t have the energy to keep trying over and over again after failing. For me it was actually a matter of life or death and needing to keep going for my family that drove me to keep trying.
Re: The Link Between Inflammation and Depression?
#6Not only we don’t understand the mechanism causing depression, we don’t really understand (as far as I am aware) why medications work or don’t work. I deal with mild depression sometimes, but this scares me off of considering medication for it. I’ve encountered so many horror stories of withdrawal symptoms... you really need to be at a point of desperation to consider drugs for it, imo.
I think a larger problem is that it’s such a crapshoot about which treatments will work for a given individual, pharmaceutical or not. It took me about 10 therapists with varying backgrounds before I finally found one that would help. It also took me trying several different medications to find a combination that’s actually effective. It’s a lot of work and effort, and most people suffering through depression, anxiet…
I had a very similar experience to what you’re describing and most other folks I know that have ‘figured out’ a treatment share a similar experience as well (more info in a comment below).
Re: The Link Between Inflammation and Depression?
#7I have found for myself that taking Ibuprofen eases both anxiety and depression. It's not a cure but it surprises me how much of a mental effect a mild analgesic has.
Re: The Link Between Inflammation and Depression?
#8Not only we don’t understand the mechanism causing depression, we don’t really understand (as far as I am aware) why medications work or don’t work. I deal with mild depression sometimes, but this scares me off of considering medication for it. I’ve encountered so many horror stories of withdrawal symptoms... you really need to be at a point of desperation to consider drugs for it, imo.
My first experience with an antidepressant left me feeling quite ill. Ironically, its one of the ones that gets prescribed often because it has little side-effects. Turned out that this wasn't true, and I was one of the small percentage who experienced Discontinuation Syndrome (https://www.karger.com/Article/FullText/370338).
Having such a bad reaction to it lead me down a wild goose chase toward finding out the way my body processes serotonin ala a gene test, helped me figure out what was causing the depression to begin with.
Another reply here talks about how it seems to be a crapshoot for finding effective drugs and a lot of trial and error. I think that there may be promise in doing drug targeting genetic tests and possibly microbiome sampling as a way to help people avoid the run-around. In my case, knowing this ahead of time would have helped me avoid a lot of suffering and 3 years of obsessively searching for answers.
Re: The Link Between Inflammation and Depression?
#9Not only we don’t understand the mechanism causing depression, we don’t really understand (as far as I am aware) why medications work or don’t work. I deal with mild depression sometimes, but this scares me off of considering medication for it. I’ve encountered so many horror stories of withdrawal symptoms... you really need to be at a point of desperation to consider drugs for it, imo.
Most medications DON'T work for most people. For example here[1] is a meta-analysis from 2004 of the top 6 antidepressants which finds that 80% of the effect is achieved by placebo, and the remaining effect is statistically, but not clinically, significant (that is, the effect size is tiny). Here[2] is another follow-up that shows that there may be effects only in the most severely-depressed patients. In addition the theoretical foundation of many drugs is lacking - the seratonin theory underlying SSRIs, for example, is now widely rejected (although SSRIs continue to be prescribed for some reason probably relating to drug company profits).
Given the well-known addictive nature of most anti-depressants, I have always advised my friends to steer away from them, or wean themselves off, and favor talking therapies instead. Everyone else should do the same.
[1] https://www.researchgate.net/publication/228550299_The_Emper...
[2] https://journals.plos.org/plosmedicine/article?id=10.1371/jo...
Re: The Link Between Inflammation and Depression?
#10I have found for myself that taking Ibuprofen eases both anxiety and depression. It's not a cure but it surprises me how much of a mental effect a mild analgesic has.
Would anyone have an idea why this could potentially be?