Toward a Predictive Theory of Depression
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Toward a Predictive Theory of Depression
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Re: Toward a Predictive Theory of Depression
#2Chekroud (2015) here - just wanted to say that I think SSC is awesome, and does a terrific job discussing complex problems in psychiatry & philosophy.
Re: Toward a Predictive Theory of Depression
#3A book review[1] linked in the article is also very interesting.
[1] http://slatestarcodex.com/2017/09/05/book-review-surfing-unc...
Re: Toward a Predictive Theory of Depression
#4Chekroud (2015) here - just wanted to say that I think SSC is awesome, and does a terrific job discussing complex problems in psychiatry & philosophy.
Could you give any recommendations of great articles on that blog? Or should people just go to the About/Top Posts[1] page and go down the rabbit hole from there?
Re: Toward a Predictive Theory of Depression
#5Chekroud (2015) here - just wanted to say that I think SSC is awesome, and does a terrific job discussing complex problems in psychiatry & philosophy.
Could you give any recommendations of great articles on that blog? Or should people just go to the About/Top Posts[1] page and go down the rabbit hole from there? [1] http://slatestarcodex.com/about/
Here’s a reddit survey of people’s favorite posts, which closely matches my own:
https://www.reddit.com/r/slatestarcodex/comments/61qrm2/favo...
If your main interest is psychology, though, note that many of the top posts are more in the sociology and politics realm.
Re: Toward a Predictive Theory of Depression
#6> also, there’s one way to end all prediction error forever, and it’s something depressed people think about a lot
We believe it will end them forever. I strongly believe so. But that's still a belief, and may itself be a prediction error.
Re: Toward a Predictive Theory of Depression
#7This doesn’t make sense to me. Pretty much every purported treatment for depression involves either increasing the amount of sensory stimulation you’re getting or else becoming more attuned to sensory stimulation: exercise, acupuncture, aromatherapy, drugs, meditation, float tanks, social interaction, music, intensely flavored foods, cold therapy, saunas, electroshock therapy, etc.
Occam’s razor would suggest its more likely that lack of sensory stimulation causes some sort of brain damage, e.g. inflammataion or receptor density changes, and that it just takes a few weeks to reverse. I’m not seeing what evidence there is for this pereptual confidence model beyond what I’m proposing. I wouldn’t doubt if people do get more confident in some aspects of their sensory experience, but it would seem difficult to prove this as an explanatory model.
Re: Toward a Predictive Theory of Depression
#8> also, there’s one way to end all prediction error forever, and it’s something depressed people think about a lot We believe it will end them forever. I strongly believe so. But that's still a belief , and may itself be a prediction error.
While it's certainly true that we don't have a complete understanding of nature, I think we can safely assert that dead things don't feel, and I'm completely unaware of any evidence to the contrary (and I would think its existence would be quite noteworthy).
I don't think we need to call it a "belief" anymore than we need to say Russel's Teapot not existing is a "belief." We certainly could go down that route, but then virtually everything becomes a belief and we're left with a much less meaningful term.
I kinda feel like this argument is similar to an nihilist telling a logician that nothing is true.
Re: Toward a Predictive Theory of Depression
#9> Depressed people move more slowly, in a characteristic pattern called “psychomotor retardation”. They display perceptual abnormalities. They’re more likely to get sick. There are lots of results like this.
> Depression has to be about something more than just beliefs; it has to be something fundamental to the nervous system.
Depression is frequently related to metabolic problems: people are exhausted because their mitochondria aren't putting out enough ATP to run their nervous system.
There are various interventions that can help. B-vitamins are important cofactors for burning sugar to make energy. T4 thyroid is activated by the liver to make T3, which is one factor that boosts the metabolism. If the liver is overworked (alcohol, drugs, hormonal imbalance, too much pufa, etc), it can have trouble activating adequate thyroid.
Emotional resiliency is a big factor here too. My friend was really just lonely before she met me. She's doing better now because she now has a 'vision' for her future (she originally 'lost her future' when she was expelled from high school, essentially for being depressed and self-medicating with drugs that are now being investigated for treating depression).
Re: Toward a Predictive Theory of Depression
#10This doesn’t make sense to me. Pretty much every purported treatment for depression involves either increasing the amount of sensory stimulation you’re getting or else becoming more attuned to sensory stimulation: exercise, acupuncture, aromatherapy, drugs, meditation, float tanks, social interaction, music, intensely flavored foods, cold therapy, saunas, electroshock therapy, etc. Occam’s razor would suggest its mor…
> exercise, acupuncture, aromatherapy, drugs, meditation, float tanks, social interaction, music, intensely flavored foods, cold therapy, saunas, electroshock therapy, etc.
None of those are guaranteed to work though, a significant number of depressed people never gets over it and it wouldn't be that way if we knew effective treatment methods.