Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

Researchers treat depression by reversing brain signals traveling the wrong way

med.stanford.edu

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

141–150 of 215 posts

Re: Researchers treat depression by reversing brain signals traveling the wrong way

#141

Post by amelius »

malauxyeux wrote: post #139
flippinburgers wrote: post #118

I have had what seems to me to be depression for most of my life (40+ years). I have been fortunate enough to have a kid and, now, I guess I just don't have time to be depressed or something because most of my thoughts of ending life etc have, quite thankfully, gone away. I'm really not trying to be off-putting when I say this but I do sometimes wonder if some instances of depression aren't simply a cause of people n…

Maybe not even having kids, but being engaged in something fully. From neuroscience, there's the default mode network. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Default_mode_network > It is best known for being active when a person is not focused on the outside world and the brain is at wakeful rest, such as during daydreaming and mind-wandering. Apparently, activation of the DMN is correlated to rumination, itself correlated to…

There are many examples of people who are obsessed by work, and at the same time depressed. While the distraction can temporarily take away the depressive thoughts, it is by no means a solution. I think the social aspects of raising a kid could be a better explanation.

Re: Researchers treat depression by reversing brain signals traveling the wrong way

#142

Post by burglekutt »

Sometimes I feel like programming is physically and mentally designed to create bad health and mood, at least if you’re not very careful about how you’re _being_ while doing it.

Maybe it’s just me, but I have to work hard to avoid:

- Bad posture, hunching towards the monitor

- Scrunching the face

- Feeling impatient because my fingers and the computer can’t keep up with where I am in my mind

- “Damn you, computer!” frustration in small doses throughout

- Frequent interruptions via email, Slack, texts, coworkers, etc

- In some cultures, it’s very hard to have a plan for what to get done in the day and then execute on it due to getting sucked into meetings and stuff.

Re: Researchers treat depression by reversing brain signals traveling the wrong way

#143

Post by ryanklee »

bendbro wrote: post #123
flippinburgers wrote: post #118

I have had what seems to me to be depression for most of my life (40+ years). I have been fortunate enough to have a kid and, now, I guess I just don't have time to be depressed or something because most of my thoughts of ending life etc have, quite thankfully, gone away. I'm really not trying to be off-putting when I say this but I do sometimes wonder if some instances of depression aren't simply a cause of people n…

I agree, I wonder if depression is not always rooted in some random, mental problem but rather a reasonable reaction to reality.

People who suffer from chronic depression do so without regard to circumstance. It's a mental plague that follows one wherever they go, whatever they do. It has nothing do with reactions to anything. There's nothing reasonable about it.

Re: Researchers treat depression by reversing brain signals traveling the wrong way

#144

Post by ryanklee »

EGreg wrote: post #124
bendbro wrote: post #123

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I agree, I wonder if depression is not always rooted in some random, mental problem but rather a reasonable reaction to reality.

I kept saying this for years on HN but until the 2022 study it was always voted down and told that NO, it is due to a chemical imbalance and that we don’t understand

This is a misreading of the study which was about seratonin. It does not conclude that therefore there is no material condition underlying depression and that it's environmental and somehow the result of circumstance.

Re: Researchers treat depression by reversing brain signals traveling the wrong way

#145

Post by dgfitz »

ryanklee wrote: post #143
bendbro wrote: post #123

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I agree, I wonder if depression is not always rooted in some random, mental problem but rather a reasonable reaction to reality.

People who suffer from chronic depression do so without regard to circumstance. It's a mental plague that follows one wherever they go, whatever they do. It has nothing do with reactions to anything. There's nothing reasonable about it.

I disagree. Mine set in after my first child.

Re: Researchers treat depression by reversing brain signals traveling the wrong way

#146

Post by ryanklee »

bendbro wrote: post #131
EGreg wrote: post #124

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I kept saying this for years on HN but until the 2022 study it was always voted down and told that NO, it is due to a chemical imbalance and that we don’t understand

I recall that study! I suspect those downvotes are due to people recognizing that it implies depression is sometimes within the control of someone afflicted by it and conflating that with blaming the person afflicted by it. People seem offended by critiques of modern ideas that rationalize away an individual's control, agency, and especially culpability for their behavior or outcomes. Sometimes these rationalizations…

That study does not support your intuitions on this matter, but merely excludes seratonin as the basis for a chemical imbalance causing depression. It does not show that there exists no material cause for depression, only that there is strong reason to believe it is not related to seratonin.

Re: Researchers treat depression by reversing brain signals traveling the wrong way

#147

Post by iandanforth »

What does "brain signals traveling" even mean? The brain is highly interconnected with both forward and feedback connections at all levels. Both of the mentioned regions are always active and always sending signals bidirectionally. fMRI is a slow, low resolution approximation of brain activity, so I'd really like to know what they are actually measuring as opposed to some clearly reductive analogy of what they suspect might be an underlying cause for that observation.

Re: Researchers treat depression by reversing brain signals traveling the wrong way

#148

Post by whats_a_quasar »

EGreg wrote: post #124
bendbro wrote: post #123

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I agree, I wonder if depression is not always rooted in some random, mental problem but rather a reasonable reaction to reality.

I kept saying this for years on HN but until the 2022 study it was always voted down and told that NO, it is due to a chemical imbalance and that we don’t understand

The thing that's dangerous about this line of thinking is that most depressed people feel like they have insight and are reacting to reality as it really is. But if the depression lifts, they usually no longer feel that way.

So trying to figure out whether depression is reasonable is usually a trap, and will not improve the person's life. The thing to do is to manage the feelings, treat the depression, and revisit those topics once the depression lifts.

Re: Researchers treat depression by reversing brain signals traveling the wrong way

#149

Post by ShamelessC »

flippinburgers wrote: post #118

I have had what seems to me to be depression for most of my life (40+ years). I have been fortunate enough to have a kid and, now, I guess I just don't have time to be depressed or something because most of my thoughts of ending life etc have, quite thankfully, gone away. I'm really not trying to be off-putting when I say this but I do sometimes wonder if some instances of depression aren't simply a cause of people n…

> really I think having kids gets looked down on

It does? As someone who has decided not to have children, I feel very much like I’m the outcast. Particularly in the southern US. Also, here on HN where there are a shocking number of parents compared to say, Reddit.

Re: Researchers treat depression by reversing brain signals traveling the wrong way

#150

Post by [deleted] »

mynameisash wrote: post #102

My son, who is diagnosed with ADHD, anxiety, depression, and OCD, and who has been in talk therapy, on SSRIs, and other interventions for years, recently started LENS therapy, also called neurofeedback. (I'm on mobile device, otherwise I'd find the link.) It sounds a lot like a form of TMS. He's had something like 7 sessions, each lasting maybe 15 minutes. The results are nothing short of astounding for our family. H…

[deleted]
Post reply on HN