Diaries of a survivor: Depression, the silent killer

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• Pelicles. 8 years ago

  In the good old days, we were made to understand the importance of family members or groups. Now, we are being told to live in isolation ie, me-myself-and-I in the sense that people around you are nothing but leeches.
  
  The ...
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  In the good old days, we were made to understand the importance of family members or groups. Now, we are being told to live in isolation ie, me-myself-and-I in the sense that people around you are nothing but leeches.
  
  The west had polluted the minds of so many people to the extent that a time will come that marriage will be seen as a something "satanic". It is knocking at our doors.
  
  I don't know what depression means or does because I haven't experienced nothing like that before but I think you should try to be around people or have someone with you. Also, you should understand that MONEY is not the end of everything.

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• BERNARD 8 years ago

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• Abbey 8 years ago

  There is opportunity for a counselling in our communities Perhaps Otiko can explore this area as more and more women are committing suicide because there is lack of a counselling session around in every community.Church leade ...
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  There is opportunity for a counselling in our communities Perhaps Otiko can explore this area as more and more women are committing suicide because there is lack of a counselling session around in every community.Church leaders are also exploiting the situation to their own benefit and having sex with with young women who go to them for such help.

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• Kweku Yeboah 8 years ago

  Depression is indeed a silent killer. It is difficult to understand it if you haven't experienced it before. Like you I am suffering from it and it is only the grace of God that I haven't committed suicide. I feel better for ...
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  Depression is indeed a silent killer. It is difficult to understand it if you haven't experienced it before. Like you I am suffering from it and it is only the grace of God that I haven't committed suicide. I feel better for a while and then I am plunged into it again. Lately the bout of depression is becoming longer and longer and it is becoming alarming. All the same I hope that we will find a lasting cure to this silent killer.

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• Speaker of My Mind 8 years ago

  I must applaud you for coming out to share with us your condition.
  I have full conviction that you will overcome, especially with the keen insight into the condition you have, and your willingness to undergo treatment with ...
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  I must applaud you for coming out to share with us your condition.
  I have full conviction that you will overcome, especially with the keen insight into the condition you have, and your willingness to undergo treatment with combined psychotherapy and medications. I will always remember you in my prayers.

  reply
• Tekonline.org 8 years ago

  Hello Dorcas,
  First of all, only a board-certified psychiatrist or clinical psychologist has the right to manage your situation, so I'm just going to give you a few nuggets of general scientific information.
  
  Most brain sc ...
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  Hello Dorcas,
  First of all, only a board-certified psychiatrist or clinical psychologist has the right to manage your situation, so I'm just going to give you a few nuggets of general scientific information.
  
  Most brain scientists (neuroscientists) do firmly believe it is the fleshy, jelly-like physical brain that produces the mind, feelings, emotions, and thoughts.
  
  And all these products of the physical brain are at the mercy of the chemicals and electrical activities in the brain.
  
  Therefore, emotional states like depression are no different from the various symptoms we experience when the organs in the body malfunction.
  
  When the muscles in your colon are not working well, you have constipation. When certain micronutrients in the blood (like potassium and sodium) are out of balance, you may experience hypertension or even improper heart rhythms.
  
  So the brain is no exception--the fine balance among brain chemicals (neurotransmitters and neuromodulators) must be maintained for optimal function of the mind.
  
  Then also, there are two kinds of depression: what I would dare to call "normal or common" depression, and clinical depression, which is the serious type you described.
  
  Normal depression is what we experience when we realize, for instance, that the lottery ticket for the $100 million prize was accidentally flushed down the toilet.
  Or when the love of one's life call off the engagement at the last minute. Or having an entire family killed in a car accident.
  
  Often the reasons for certain biological processes are best explained by the theory of evolution.
  
  Normal depression might have been used by nature to direct our behavior towards survival of the human species. After all, if the death of a baby would bring great joy and euphoria to a mother, would it matter to that mother to take great care of a baby?
  
  Clinical depression is an entirely different situation.
  
  More often than not, chemical imbalances in the brain are involved, and therefore it matters not one's socioeconomic status: kings, presidents, garden-boys, popes, neuroscientists, terrorists, fishermen, professors, Nobel laureates, billionaires, evangelists, military generals, you-name-it, all can have clinical depression.
  
  The board-certified professional (psychiatrist or clinical psychologist) would be the most well equipped to handle clinical depression.
  
  Needless to say, any disorder of the human brain is bound to be complex, and there is quite a bit of overlap among the various illnesses. For instance, there is often some clinical depression exhibited by schizophrenics. But even seemingly-unrelated diseases like Parkinson's, Alzheimer's, and also strokes, can all elicit depressive symptoms.
  
  And that why a trained professional is required for proper diagnosis and treatment.

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• Kweku 8 years ago

  Your contributions on this forum are always a wealth of information especially on the scientific topics that you mostly comment on. There are many of us who always go through comments and read only the ones written by you. Yo ...
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  Your contributions on this forum are always a wealth of information especially on the scientific topics that you mostly comment on. There are many of us who always go through comments and read only the ones written by you. You should know that you're very much appreciated.
  
  I hope your own site on science is still doing well. It's a long time I've been there but I'll go soon. Kudos for good work done.
  
  I will suggest that when you put in such long comments on such an important topic like today's, you may want to put them in paragraphs. Some of us are still old-fashioned and think paragraphs make written stuff more reader-friendly.
  
  Thank you for your input.

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• Kweku 8 years ago

  I read the stuff in the mobile version and didn't see the paragraphs.
  
  I must apologize for my previous suggestion. Your comment is well written even in more paragraphs than I can think of.
  
  Kudos

  I read the stuff in the mobile version and didn't see the paragraphs.
  
  I must apologize for my previous suggestion. Your comment is well written even in more paragraphs than I can think of.
  
  Kudos

  reply
• pat 8 years ago

  Thanks for the insight, it's very useful to me since I am a candidate as well. But as you explained I don't think I have reached the clinical stage yet. But will still seek medical attention because it scares me alot that it ...
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  Thanks for the insight, it's very useful to me since I am a candidate as well. But as you explained I don't think I have reached the clinical stage yet. But will still seek medical attention because it scares me alot that it will never go away completely

  reply
• Tekonline.org 8 years ago

  Newly Discovered Pathway in Brain Could Ease Depression
  
  NEUROSCIENCE NEWS
  OCTOBER 4, 2016
  
  
  
  Summary: Researchers report they have discovered a new target for antidepressants which could help those for who other trea ...
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  Newly Discovered Pathway in Brain Could Ease Depression
  
  NEUROSCIENCE NEWS
  OCTOBER 4, 2016
  
  
  
  Summary: Researchers report they have discovered a new target for antidepressants which could help those for who other treatments for depression have failed.
  
  Source: Northwestern University.
  
  Promising new target for antidepressant to help those where others have failed.
  
  Northwestern Medicine scientists have discovered a new pathway in the brain that can be manipulated to alleviate depression. The pathway offers a promising new target for developing a drug that could be effective in individuals for whom other antidepressants have failed.
  
  New antidepressant options are important because a significant number of patients don’t adequately improve with currently available antidepressant drugs. The lifetime prevalence of major depressive disorder is between 10 to 20 percent of the population.
  
  The study was published Oct. 4 in the journal Molecular Psychiatry.
  
  “Identifying new pathways that can be targeted for drug design is an important step forward in improving the treatment of depressive disorders,” said Sarah Brooker, the first author and an M.D./Ph.D student at Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine.
  
  Brooker did the research in the lab of senior study author Dr. Jack Kessler, a professor of neurology at Feinberg and a Northwestern Medicine neurologist.
  
  The aim of the study was to better understand how current antidepressants work in the brain. The ultimate goal is to find new ones that are more effective for people not currently getting relief from existing drugs.
  
  In the study, scientists discovered for the first time that antidepressant drugs such as Prozac and tricyclics target a pathway in the hippocampus called the BMP signaling pathway. A signaling pathway is a group of molecules in a cell that work together to control one or more cell functions. Like a cascade, after the first molecule in a pathway receives a signal, it activates another molecule and so forth until the cell function is carried out.
  
  Brooker and colleagues showed that Prozac and tricyclics inhibit this pathway and, thereby, trigger stem cells in the brain to produce more neurons. These particular neurons are involved in mood and memory formation. But the scientists didn’t know if blocking the pathway contributed to the drugs’ antidepressant effect because Prozac acts on multiple mechanisms in the brain.
  
  After confirming the importance of the BMP pathway in depression, Northwestern scientists tested a brain protein, Noggin, on depressed mice. Noggin is known block the BMP pathway and stimulate new neurons, called neurogenesis.
  
  “We hypothesized it would have an antidepressant effect, but we weren’t sure,” Brooker said.
  
  They discovered Noggin blocks the pathway more precisely and effectively than Prozac or tricyclics. It had a robust antidepressant effect in mice.

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