Posted by llrrrpp on August 13, 2006, at 9:01:39
In reply to Re: Is Kramer right?, posted by SLS on August 13, 2006, at 5:54:53
> > > Fortunately, I see that there is going to be a lot of overlap in such research. For instance, parkinsons and alzheimers are two other diseases involving brain cell loss and atrophy.
>
> > I still like to think that the atrophy is due to the disuse of neurons not being called upon because of dysregulation and that any cell loss might be due to reactions secondary to the stresses placed upon the system.
>
> I forgot to say that the reason I like to think of depression this way is that this model renders the atrophy and cell loss as being secondary processes and reversible upon successful treatment. They are not the primary disease process and are not necessary to precipitate the illness. I could be wrong, but this is the way things make sense to me right now.
>Yes, I agree with this. The other thing that is important to consider is that "stress" is a phenomenon that is dramatically influenced by psychology. That is- two people who undergo the same stressful procedure can have dramatically different physiological reactions, depending on how they were primed to interpret this stressful procedure.
I kind of like to think of the hippocampal-pituitary-adrenal axis theory of depression as follows: Some of us interpret our environments differently, and this leads to increased stress, which leads to physiological changes, eventually affecting the structure and responsivity of the stress system, which then leads to responding to stress differently... and so on.
And of course there are many other areas of the brain that become affected by the out of kilter stress-regulation system, like sleeping, appetite, attention and memory... etc. And these malfunctions also affect how resilient we are to stress.
With such a complicated system, it's nearly impossible to nail down cause and effect. It's also possible to create dramatic changes in behavior and functioning by changing only one part of the system, for instance, by blocking the reuptake of serotonin. Also, the way that the individual interprets his or her enviroment, and reacts to it can be dramatically affected by talk therapy, which in turn can create physiological changes in the brain.
In my experience with depression, I was able to pull out of the first bout with exercise, a major cross-country move and starting a new job. The second bout led me to (my current dabblings in psycho-babble), psychotherapy and psychopharm treatments. I think I'm doing much better since I am able to recognize what I'm feeling and perhaps adjust my expectations and reactions to my environment.
I'm glad that Kramer has decided to interpret depression as an illness. Certainly there are behavioral and psychological components too, but this is true for many illnesses- for example colon cancer. Do we blame people and call them weak and freakish for eating a low fiber low nutrient diet and avoiding regular colonoscopy screenings? Not nearly as much as a depressed person is silently blamed for having brought the illness upon herself and having lack of will power to 'snap out of it'
okay, enough of my ranting.
I'm going to clean my place today. That's my goal. one room at a time.
-ll
poster:llrrrpp
thread:675829
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/20060810/msgs/676000.html