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Depression and suicide linked to air pollution in new global study

theguardian.com

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Re: Depression and suicide linked to air pollution in new global study

#41

Post by scythe »

bransonf wrote: post #4

The causal relationship seems like a stretch here. I highly doubt reducing air pollution will cure anyone’s depression. That said, it has other value in signally regions of high air pollution are regions of higher proportional depression. Areas of high pollution are less desirable to live in. If you live right next to a highway, garbage dump or power plant, your property value is going to be lower. (I must admit, I’m…

>The causal relationship seems like a stretch here.

For context, particles from PM2.5 can and apparently do enter the brain:

https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2016/sep/05/toxic-ai...

Re: Depression and suicide linked to air pollution in new global study

#42

Post by civilian »

sn41 wrote: post #15
saagarjha wrote: post #11

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> And it is not a placebo effect. How do you know?

please read the very next sentence. peace.

We've proven that the air filter can remove particulates from the air. We haven't proven that it's improvement on your sleep is any more than a placebo.

Re: Depression and suicide linked to air pollution in new global study

#43

Post by mewpmewp2 »

JamesBarney wrote: post #30
saagarjha wrote: post #11

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> And it is not a placebo effect. How do you know?

I think he means based on the size of the effect it's unlikely to be a placebo.

Well the reasoning was pointing towards high chance of placebo though. He said there was lots of grime and also something he could measure was different, which means psychologically a lot greater chance and effect for placebo.

Re: Depression and suicide linked to air pollution in new global study

#44

Post by IanSanders »

aszantu wrote: post #26

also: look into anti nutrients, some of the depression might just be nutrient deficiency. Can be tested by fasting for 4 days.

If that's the case, how would fasting work? Wouldn't it just reliably deprive you from nutrients hence give you a depression?

Re: Depression and suicide linked to air pollution in new global study

#45

Post by IanSanders »

chmod775 wrote: post #2

Something that isn't immediately clear to me is whether they accounted for the causes of air pollution. If not this is like observing that there are a lot of loud bangs in warzones and concluding loud noises kill people, even though they are at best just a side effect of the actual causes.

I'm questioning this as well. Air pollution is almost always an attribute of big cities, which mostly imply certain lifestyle. For example, living in concrete box for most of one's life is new to our species.

Re: Depression and suicide linked to air pollution in new global study

#46

Post by JamesBarney »

civilian wrote: post #40
JamesBarney wrote: post #30

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think he means based on the size of the effect it's unlikely to be a placebo.

A treatment being a placebo implies nothing about the effect size!

Most placebo effects are modest and the ones that aren't are usually mixed in with regression to the mean effects(which are usually pretty modest). So OP is implying that if an effect is especially large it's less likely to be placebo.

Re: Depression and suicide linked to air pollution in new global study

#47

Post by ericd »

seanmcdirmid wrote: post #35
ericd wrote: post #32

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Making the air smell like ozone means it’s probably doing something unhelpful/actively harmful in addition to filtering. Did it have an ionizer or similar?

No, it’s a Blue Air so doesn’t include an ionizer, it just when HEPA filter.

Huh weird, seems highly rated, too. If it was loud in addition to the ozone smell and there was definitely no ionizer, I wonder if the motor was faulty.

Re: Depression and suicide linked to air pollution in new global study

#48

Post by JamesBarney »

IanSanders wrote: post #45
chmod775 wrote: post #2

Something that isn't immediately clear to me is whether they accounted for the causes of air pollution. If not this is like observing that there are a lot of loud bangs in warzones and concluding loud noises kill people, even though they are at best just a side effect of the actual causes.

I'm questioning this as well. Air pollution is almost always an attribute of big cities, which mostly imply certain lifestyle. For example, living in concrete box for most of one's life is new to our species.

Also air pollution is usually highest near freeways and plants which are also notoriously poorer areas.

Re: Depression and suicide linked to air pollution in new global study

#49

Post by stakhanov »

I can't find the link to the actual study. What I'd like to know is whether there was any research into the actual causal relationships (such as the other study that was linked with pollution particles found in brains), or if it was just statistical correlation between places with high pollution and places with high levels of depression and suicide. If the latter, it could well be a spurious correlation (e.g. pollution happens in big cities, people in big cities tend to have more stressful jobs, stressful jobs cause burnout and depression...)
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