<h2>Ketamine Cleared</h2>
On Wednesday, the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approved a prescription treatment for depression that&#8217;s based on ketamine — and though they&#8217;re advocating caution, researchers appear excited about a new avenue of treatment for stubborn symptoms of depression, anxiety, and suicidal thinking.
&#8220;We’ve had nothing new in 30 years,&#8221; Steven Hollon, a researcher at Vanderbilt University, <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2019/03/05/health/depression-treatment-ketamine-fda.html">told the New York Times</a> of the new treatment. &#8220;So if this drug is an effective way to get a more rapid response in people who are treatment resistant, and we can use it safely, then it could be a godsend.&#8221;
<h2>Club Drug</h2>
Ketamine is an anesthetic that&#8217;s perhaps best known as a recreational drug. But in recent years, it&#8217;s also <a href="https://futurism.com/research-finds-esketamine-effective-treating-worst-cases-depression">gained attention</a> as a promising treatment for depression and anxiety, prompting the rise of a <a href="https://www.statnews.com/2018/09/24/ketamine-clinics-severe-depression-treatment/">cottage industry</a> of clinics that offer ketamine treatments.
The FDA&#8217;s approval of the new drug, which is called Spravato and made by Johnson &amp; Johnson will make the treatment much more widely available — though the FDA is recommending it only for treatment-resistance depression.
According to the Times, represents an alternative to long-dominant classes of antidepressant drugs, such as Prozac, which gained enormous media attention when they debuted but didn&#8217;t give all patients the results they were looking for.
<h2>Nasal Spray</h2>
Some researchers urge caution, however, pointing out that depression is complex and that ketamine hasn&#8217;t outperformed a placebo in every trial.
&#8220;Thank goodness we now have something with a different mechanism of action than previous antidepressants,&#8221; Erick Turner, a former FDA reviewer and psychiatry professor at Oregon Health and Science University, told the Times. &#8220;But I’m skeptical of the hype, because in this world it’s like Lucy holding the football for Charlie Brown: Each time we get our hopes up, the football gets pulled away.&#8221;
READ MORE: <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2019/03/05/health/depression-treatment-ketamine-fda.html">Fast-Acting Depression Drug, Newly Approved, Could Help Millions</a> [The New York Times]
More on depression and anxiety: <a href="https://futurism.com/the-byte/microdosing-dmt-lowers-depression-anxiety">New Study: Microdosing DMT Reduces Depression and Anxiety</a>

FDA approves ketamine-based nasal spray to treat depression

K-Hole

The Food and Drug Administration has approved a prescription treatment for depression that's based on ketamine, marking a new use for an old anesthetic.

FDA Approves Ketamine-Based Nasal Spray to Treat Depression

"Thank goodness we now have something with a different mechanism of action than previous antidepressants."

<h2>Microdosing DMT</h2>
The idea of taking small doses of psychedelic drugs has gained cachet in recent years, especially in the world of tech startups, where practitioners <a href="https://www.rollingstone.com/culture/culture-news/how-lsd-microdosing-became-the-hot-new-business-trip-64961/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">believe it can enhance</a> creativity and fight depression.
Now, new research shows that microdosing DMT — taking doses of the drug that are too low to cause hallucinations — could indeed reduce symptoms of depression and anxiety, <a href="https://www.theatlantic.com/health/archive/2019/03/psychedelic-microdosing-depression-anxiety/584119/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">according to The Atlantic</a> — and though data is still scarce, the work could pave the way to new mental health treatments.
<h2>Rats!</h2>
An important caveat to the <a href="http://dx.doi.org/10.1021/acschemneuro.8b00692" target="_blank" rel="noopener">new research</a>, which was published Monday in the journal ACS Chemical Neuroscience: its subjects were rats, not people.
But David Olson, a chemist and neuroscientist at the University of California at Davis, thinks his team&#8217;s study is important nonetheless because it provides some of the first evidence that there are benefits to taking psychedelic drugs below a dosage threshold that would cause you to, well, trip.
&#8220;I really wanted to answer the question as to whether or not the hallucinogenic effects of these compounds were necessary for the therapeutic effects,&#8221; he told The Atlantic.
<h2>Cytotoxic Effects</h2>
Still, before you start microdosing DMT at work, it&#8217;s probably worth waiting for more data. In some rats, Olson&#8217;s team found, the DMT appeared to have &#8220;cytotoxic effects&#8221; that killed brain cells. At the very least, more research is needed.
&#8220;There’s that saying,&#8221; Olson told The Atlantic, &#8220;that the difference between a medicine and a poison is the dose.&#8221;
<div>
READ MORE: <a href="https://www.theatlantic.com/health/archive/2019/03/psychedelic-microdosing-depression-anxiety/584119/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">A New Chapter in the Science of Psychedelic Microdosing</a> [The Atlantic]
</div>
<div>
More on microdosing: <a href="https://futurism.com/study-microdosing-fights-depression-improves-focus" target="_blank" rel="noopener">First Rigorous Study: Microdosing Fights Depression, Improves Focus</a>
</div>

"There’s that saying, that the difference between a medicine and a poison is the dose."

New study: Microdosing DMT reduces depression and anxiety

Small Doses

New research shows that microdosing DMT — taking it in quantities too low to cause hallucinations — could reduce symptoms of depression and anxiety.

New Study: Microdosing DMT Reduces Depression and Anxiety

But you might not want to start microdosing just yet.

<h2>Psychedelic Discovery</h2>
Since its discovery in 1938, the drug LSD — that&#8217;s lysergic acid diethylamide — has puzzled researchers. They knew the drug had a profound effect on people, causing hallucinations and an altered state of consciousness, but they couldn&#8217;t figure out why.
Now that could be changing.
A research team from the <a href="https://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2019-01/potn-lab012319.php" target="_blank" rel="noopener">University Hospital of Psychiatry Zurich</a> thinks it&#8216;s figured out what&#8217;s going on in the brain when someone &#8220;trips&#8221; — and <a href="https://www.inverse.com/article/52797-lsd-trip-psychedelic-serotonin-receptors-thalamus" target="_blank" rel="noopener">the discovery</a> could play a major role in future research on psychiatric disorders.
<h2>Tripping for Science</h2>
For their <a href="https://www.pnas.org/content/early/2019/01/23/1815129116" target="_blank" rel="noopener">study</a>, which was published in the journal PNAS on Monday, the researchers gave 25 volunteers LSD while scanning their brains. They also gave some of those volunteers ketanserin, a drug that blocks serotonin receptors. Serotonin is a neurotransmitter previously suspected of playing a role in the LSD experience.
When the researchers had the volunteers answer a questionnaire designed to determine whether someone is &#8220;tripping,&#8221; they found that the people who took the ketanserin experienced none of the subjective drug effects of the LSD.
Another intriguing result was that the scans revealed that the LSD interrupts a major circuit between four parts of the brain, including the thalamus, which acts as an information filter. Essentially, the drug allowed more information to flow through the thalamus to other parts of the brain.
<h2>Looking Ahead</h2>
Now that we have a better understanding of how LSD affects the brain, researchers believe they can use that information to study disorders that produce the same effects as the drug, such as depression and schizophrenia.
&#8220;We are getting nearer to understanding the complexity of what happens with LSD in the brain,&#8221; researcher Katrin Preller <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/science/2019/jan/28/study-shows-how-lsd-messes-with-brains-signalling" target="_blank" rel="noopener">told The Guardian</a>, &#8220;and that is particularly important if we are to develop new medicines.&#8221;
READ MORE: <a href="https://www.inverse.com/article/52797-lsd-trip-psychedelic-serotonin-receptors-thalamus" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Tripping Brains Reveal How the Drug Creates the Psychedelic Experience</a> [Inverse]
More on psychedelics: <a href="https://futurism.com/scientist-world-leaders-magic-mushrooms-mdma-medicines" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Scientist Tells World Leaders MDMA and Magic Mushrooms Should Be Legal</a>

It's taken more than 80 years, but we're finally starting to understand this drug.

Scientists might have finally figured out how LSD works

Acid Test

By scanning the brains of people while they tripped on LSD, researchers think they've figure out how the drug causes its effects.

Scientists Might Have Finally Figured out How LSD Works

They asked 25 people to trip for science.

<h2>Hidden Danger</h2>
Anxiety and depression aren&#8217;t just problems for adults — children can experience both, which researchers call &#8220;internalizing disorders,&#8221; by the time they&#8217;re old enough for preschool. But given the inward-facing nature of both disorders, it can be difficult for adults to realize a child is suffering.
Now, researchers from the University of Vermont have <a href="https://www.uvm.edu/uvmnews/news/uvm-study-wearable-sensor-could-detect-hidden-anxiety-depression-young-children" target="_blank" rel="noopener">developed a system</a> that they say uses sensors and artificial intelligence to detect signs of internalizing disorders in children — and they claim it&#8217;s faster than experts and more accurate than a child&#8217;s own parents.
<h2>Scary Snake</h2>
The UVM team describes its disorder-detecting system in a <a href="https://journals.plos.org/plosone/article?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0210267" target="_blank" rel="noopener">study</a> published on Wednesday in the journal PLOS ONE.
For the study, the team asked 63 children, some with known internalizing disorders and some without, to each wear a commercial motion-tracking sensor while completing a &#8220;mood induction task,&#8221; a common research technique designed to prompt certain actions or feelings. In this case, that feeling was anxiety.
A researcher would lead each child into a room with low lighting, while making ominous statements such as &#8220;I have something to show you&#8221; and &#8220;Let’s be quiet so it doesn’t wake up.&#8221; Once the pair reached a covered terrarium at the back of the room, the researcher would quickly remove the cover and pull out a fake snake.
The researcher would then assure the child that everything was fine and let them play with the fake snake, presumably to avoid any permanent trauma.
<h2>Quick Response</h2>
Normally, researchers would watch a recording of the snake exercise and manually score a child&#8217;s actions and speech to diagnose an internalizing disorder.
But an algorithm trained to process the data collected by the sensor was able to identify the children with disorders with 81 percent accuracy — a higher level than provided by the standard parent questionnaire — and it only needed to analyze 20 seconds of data to make its decision.
&#8220;Something that we usually do with weeks of training and months of coding can be done in a few minutes of processing with these instruments,&#8221; researcher Ellen McGinnis said in a <a href="https://www.uvm.edu/uvmnews/news/uvm-study-wearable-sensor-could-detect-hidden-anxiety-depression-young-children" target="_blank" rel="noopener">press release</a>.
<h2>Risky Business</h2>
Children with untreated internalizing disorders have a higher risk of substance abuse and suicide as adults, so the team is hopeful that its research could help more of these children get the help they need while they&#8217;re still young.
Next, the researchers plan to refine their algorithm and see if they can train it to tell the difference between <a href="https://futurism.com/the-byte/mindstrong-depression-anxiety-app" target="_blank" rel="noopener">anxiety and depression</a>. Eventually, they hope to see the system used in schools or doctor&#8217;s offices, screening children for the potentially life-threatening disorders that could be lurking beneath the surface.
READ MORE: <a href="https://www.uvm.edu/uvmnews/news/uvm-study-wearable-sensor-could-detect-hidden-anxiety-depression-young-children" target="_blank" rel="noopener">UVM Study: Wearable Sensor Could Detect Hidden Anxiety, Depression in Young Children</a> [UVM]
More on anxiety: <a href="https://futurism.com/the-byte/mindstrong-depression-anxiety-app" target="_blank" rel="noopener">This Startup Says Its App Can Detect Signs of Depression and Anxiety. Experts Aren’t Sure.</a>

It didn't even need to hear the children speak to make its diagnosis.

A wearable was better than parents at detecting anxiety in kids

Internal Turmoil

A system combining motion-tracking sensors and AI was able to detect anxiety and depression in children with 81 percent accuracy.

A Wearable Was Better Than Parents at Detecting Anxiety in Kids

It was 81 percent accurate — better than a parental questionnaire.

<h2>Diagnosing Depression</h2>
Depression can manifest with <a href="https://www.psycom.net/depression-definition-dsm-5-diagnostic-criteria/">many different symptoms</a>, from a &#8220;loss of energy&#8221; to &#8220;indecisiveness&#8221; — broad criteria that make the condition difficult to diagnose with a high degree of certainty.
Now, researchers at MIT’s Computer Science and Artificial Intelligence Laboratory <a href="https://www.smithsonianmag.com/innovation/can-artificial-intelligence-detect-depression-in-persons-voice-180970702/">are working on an algorithm</a> that could eliminate some of that guesswork. They used text and audio data from 142 interviews with patients — 30 of whom had been diagnosed with depression — to teach a <a href="https://www.csail.mit.edu/news/model-can-more-naturally-detect-depression-conversations">machine learning algorithm</a> to listen for signs of depression in speech.
<h2>Tone of Voice</h2>
What makes this effort stand out is that the researchers examined the patients&#8217; tone of voice, not just the specific words they used. That technique made the model surprisingly accurate: It was able to identify subjects who had been diagnosed with depression with a 77 percent success rate.
But before we go on and implement AI as a tool to diagnose mental disorders in the real world, we&#8217;ll have to take these results with a substantial grain of salt.
<h2>AI Therapy</h2>
While chatbots like <a href="https://futurism.com/new-app-for-depression-uses-artificial-intelligence-for-therapy-treatments">Woebot</a> have recently surfaced help people to deal with depression, they won&#8217;t be able to replace a human therapist, at least for the time being.
There are far too many variables, and while 77 percent sounds promising, a false positive could raise serious ethical concerns. For instance, AI diagnostic tools could fall into the wrong hands — like your employer or insurance company.
But the researchers are realistic about their machine learning model&#8217;s ability to detect depression. Rather than replacing human therapists, they see it as another tool in [a clinician&#8217;s] toolbox,” MIT researcher James Glass, who worked on the model, <a href="https://www.smithsonianmag.com/innovation/can-artificial-intelligence-detect-depression-in-persons-voice-180970702/">told</a> Smithsonian.
READ MORE: <a href="https://www.smithsonianmag.com/innovation/can-artificial-intelligence-detect-depression-in-persons-voice-180970702/">Can Artificial Intelligence Detect Depression in a Person’s Voice?</a> [Smithsonian]
More on treating depression: <a href="https://futurism.com/new-app-for-depression-uses-artificial-intelligence-for-therapy-treatments">New App for Depression Uses Artificial Intelligence for Therapy Treatments</a>

Algorithms may eliminate some of the diagnosis guesswork.

AI can tell if you're depressed by listening to you talk

Depression AI

Researchers at MIT developed a machine learning model that can detect depression by analyzing speech and the way patients talk.

AI Can Tell If You're Depressed by Listening to You Talk

But it won't replace a human therapist any time soon.

AI Can Tell If You’re Depressed by Listening to You Talk

<h2>MOOD RING</h2>
How are researchers supposed to know if the subjects of their experiments are happy, sad or depressed? A patient&#8217;s own description, presumably, sometimes just doesn&#8217;t cut it. A team of neuroscientists <a href="https://www.newscientist.com/article/2178972-weve-cracked-the-brains-emotion-code-and-it-may-help-depression/">figured out a way</a> to read a person&#8217;s mood by analyzing their brainwaves. It&#8217;s more than just a party trick — it&#8217;s first time scientists have made an explicit connection between brainwaves and emotional states, and it could have far-reaching implications for the future of treatments for mood disorders.
They describe their technique in study published Monday in the journal <a href="https://www.nature.com/articles/nbt.4200">Nature Biotechnology</a>.
<h2>ELECTRODE SLIDE</h2>
The scientists worked with <a href="https://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2018-09/uosc-rdm091018.php">seven volunteer subjects</a> whose brains had already been implanted with electrodes as part of their treatment for epilepsy.
Over the course of several days, researchers collected neural signals from those patients&#8217; implants, as well as questionnaires about the patients&#8217; moods.
The brainwaves associated with a particular mood looked different in each patient, the researchers found. But the scientists were still able to create software that finds correlations between a patient&#8217;s brainwave data and corresponding questionnaire. Eventually, it could infer that patient&#8217;s mood by analyzing the neural signals alone.
<h2>BRAIN BOOST</h2>
Granted, this study only included a handful of patients (those with sensitive detection devices already embedded in their brains, at that) over a short period of time. And the researchers didn&#8217;t figure out precisely why certain brainwaves were associated with particular moods
Still, though, the researchers believe their work could pave the way for treatments that build on deep brain stimulation, a technique in which an implant stimulates the brain to treat conditions such as obsessive compulsive disorder and major depression.
Farther into the future, though, such an implant <a href="https://www.wsj.com/articles/mapping-moods-in-the-human-brain-1536591601?ns=prod/accounts-wsj">could keep tabs </a>on a patient&#8217;s emotional state — and, if it detected an abnormality, give them a jolt to help bring them back to normal.
READ MORE: <a href="https://www.newscientist.com/article/2178972-weve-cracked-the-brains-emotion-code-and-it-may-help-depression/">We’ve cracked the brain’s emotion code and it may help depression</a> [The Wall Street Journal]
More on brain implants: <a href="https://futurism.com/first-time-scientists-boosted-human-memory-brain-implant/">For the First Time Ever, Scientists Boosted Human Memory With a Brain Implant</a>

Are the research subjects happy, sad or depressed? Now scientists don't have to even ask.

This device reads your brainwaves to figure out your mood

Health & Medicine

Researchers have discovered how to translate brainwaves into the actual mood a subject is feeling — and it could lead to new treatments for depression.

This Device Reads Your Brainwaves to Figure Out Your Mood

If you're feeling down, it could someday give your brain a little boost.

Educated guesses — totally acceptable for trivia nights. But for prescribing medications? Less than ideal. Well, the sad truth is that&#8217;s been psychiatrists&#8217; only real technique to decide how to treat patients with depression.
Today, most psychiatrists rely on their education and experience to choose which of the dozens of <a href="https://www.cms.gov/Medicare-Medicaid-Coordination/Fraud-Prevention/Medicaid-Integrity-Education/Pharmacy-Education-Materials/Downloads/ad-adult-dosingchart.pdf" target="_blank" rel="noopener">FDA-approved antidepressants</a> is likely to work best for a particular patient. But human biology (and especially the brain) is complex. So often, it&#8217;s not until a doctor&#8217;s <a href="https://www.everydayhealth.com/depression/finding-the-right-depression-medication.aspx" target="_blank" rel="noopener">second (or third or fourth&#8230;)</a> &#8220;guess&#8221; that they land on a medication that&#8217;s effective.
Now, psychiatrists can use something far more concrete to guide their antidepressant decisions: a patient&#8217;s DNA.
At the American Psychiatric Association&#8217;s (APA&#8217;s) annual meeting on Monday, <a href="https://assurexhealth.com/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Assurex Health,</a> a personalized medicine company, <a href="https://myriad.com/investors/press-release-detail/?newsItemId=1066426" target="_blank" rel="noopener">shared the results</a> of a study in which doctors used Assurex&#8217;s genetic test, <a href="https://genesight.com/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">GeneSight</a>, to help inform their recommendations to treat patients with clinical depression.
GeneSight begins like many other <a href="https://futurism.com/23andme-competitor-genetic-testing/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">genetic tests</a>: with a swab of the inside of a person&#8217;s cheek. The company then analyzes 12 genes from the sample to determine how the person will likely respond to more than 55 psychotropic medications (drugs designed to affect a patient&#8217;s mental state). GeneSight only looks at genes that are &#8220;clinically meaningful,&#8221; according to several independent studies. In other words, the genes must have the potential to affect how a patient responds to medication.
Finally, the test places each drug into one of three groups: green (&#8220;use as directed&#8221;), yellow (&#8220;moderate gene-drug interaction&#8221;), and red (&#8220;significant gene-drug interaction&#8221;). This helps doctors figure out what to prescribe patients. The drugs that fall into the &#8220;green&#8221; group are the ones that are most likely to work for the patient. Those in the other groups could have some undesirable interaction — they might make side effects more likely, or make it difficult for the doctor to nail down an effective dosage.
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Assurex Health&#8217;s 24-week-long study started with 1,167 patients with moderate-to-very-severe depression. Each patient had already tried at least one medication and found it wasn&#8217;t effective.
About half of the patients took the GeneSight test. Their doctors then used the test results to inform which medication they prescribed. The other patients served as a control — their doctors prescribed medications in the usual way, based on their best judgment.
The researchers relied on the <a href="https://dcf.psychiatry.ufl.edu/files/2011/05/HAMILTON-DEPRESSION.pdf" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Hamilton Depression scale (HAM-D17)</a>, a questionnaire often used to assess patients&#8217; depression symptoms, to track the effectiveness of each prescribed drug. A higher score means more severe depression.
At week 8, the study showed, patients in the GeneSight segment were 50 percent more likely to achieve &#8220;remission&#8221; (a HAM-D17 score in the &#8220;normal&#8221; range) than patients in the control group. They were also 30 percent more likely to achieve &#8220;response&#8221; to the drug their doctors chose (a 50 percent decrease in their HAM-D17 score from their baseline) and demonstrate slightly higher symptom improvement (though not enough to be &#8220;statistically significant&#8221;).
The GeneSight group continued to show improvement in all three areas through the end of the study.
<a href="https://www.nimh.nih.gov/health/statistics/major-depression.shtml" target="_blank" rel="noopener">According to the National Institutes of Mental Health (NIMH)</a>, 50 percent of people diagnosed with depression use a medication to treat it. The right drug can <a href="https://www.cambridge.org/core/journals/the-british-journal-of-psychiatry/article/changes-in-the-quality-of-life-of-patients-receiving-antidepressant-medication-in-primary-care-validation-of-the-whoqol100/09E92364161A2A64287E33D9E469DF63" target="_blank" rel="noopener">radically improve patients&#8217; quality of life</a>; the wrong one can actually <a href="https://tonic.vice.com/en_us/article/8gxba4/antidepressants-just-make-me-feel-worse" target="_blank" rel="noopener">make their symptoms worse</a>.
While GeneSight can&#8217;t tell doctors specifically which medication to prescribe, this study shows a genetic test could provide the extra bit of knowledge physicians need to &#8220;guess&#8221; correctly more often. And for patients with depression, that could literally be the <a href="https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3353604/"> difference between life and death</a>.

They can help psychiatrists pick effective antidepressants.

DNA tests can take some of the guesswork out of treating depression

In a new study, GeneSight, a pharmacogenomics test, proved effective at helping doctors choose which antidepressant to prescribe to a patient.

DNA Tests Can Take Some of the Guesswork out of Treating Depression

Finally, a better way than just trying drugs till patients find something that works. 

Reddit doesn&#8217;t have the best reputation. Between the <a href="https://www.vice.com/en_us/article/gyj3yw/how-reddit-is-teaching-young-men-to-hate-women" target="_blank" rel="noopener">sexism</a>, <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2018/apr/12/racism-slurs-reddit-post-ceo-steve-huffman" target="_blank" rel="noopener">racism</a>, and <a href="https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2018/03/19/reddit-and-the-struggle-to-detoxify-the-internet" target="_blank" rel="noopener">general harassment</a> levied by and toward users daily, the internet&#8217;s &#8220;front page&#8221; might also be its most toxic.
However, Reddit does have at least one positive trait: It can help people cope with mental disorders.
A quick primer on Reddit: The site is made up of thousands of communities called subreddits, each centered on a specific topic — music, sports, news, cute animals, whatever — each with its own rules, <a href="https://reddit.zendesk.com/hc/en-us/articles/204533859-What-is-a-moderator-" target="_blank" rel="noopener">moderators</a>, and subscribers. Among these, some subreddits function sort of like virtual, text-based <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/the-intersect/wp/2016/01/05/the-surprising-internet-forum-some-alcoholics-are-choosing-over-aa/?noredirect=on&amp;utm_term=.f97ee2b4dc99" target="_blank" rel="noopener">support groups</a>. Subscribers to those subreddits might share personal stories, seek out advice, or simply commiserate with one another.
In 2017, University of Utah researchers set out to determine whether or not frequenting one such subreddit, <a href="https://www.reddit.com/r/depression/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">r/depression</a>, actually improved the mental state of subscribers.
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For that study, <a href="https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5379019/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">published in the Journal of Medical Internet Research (JMIR)</a>, the researchers analyzed the language used by subscribers on the subreddit over time, looking at such linguistic dimensions as “positive emotion,” “negative emotion,” and “sadness.” They concluded that users&#8217; language improved in nine of 10 categories, suggesting r/depression prompted a &#8220;positive emotion change&#8221; in users.
On April 10, the researchers published a <a href="https://www.jmir.org/2018/4/e121/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">follow-up paper</a> in JMIR. This time, they focused on the readability of the posts submitted by regular users (people with four or more posts) in a trio of mental health subreddits — r/depression, r/bipolar, and r/schizophrenia. They wanted to see if participation helped those users communicate more clearly over time.
Using three other subreddits — r/happy, r/bodybuilding, and r/loseit — as their control group, the researchers determined that contributors to the mental health subreddits appeared to have trouble clearly communicating initially. However, over time, those users showed &#8220;statistically significant improvement&#8221; in both their lexical diversity and readability.
“I started to notice that as they come in more, and they participate more, they’re more calmed down, and they’re articulating a little bit better,&#8221; study author <a href="http://www.hcanews.com/news/the-longterm-effects-of-participating-in-reddits-mental-health-communities" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Albert Park told Healthcare Analytics News</a>.
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As the researchers note in their paper, the impact of mental health disorders on written communication is a little-studied aspect of mental health. The next step is figuring out how to build on the knowledge gleaned from their study. They suggest implementing automated systems that analyze language and alert moderators if a subscriber&#8217;s writing is getting less readable as that could be a sign that their mental health is worsening.
While even Park notes in an <a href="https://gizmodo.com/reddit-is-helping-some-people-deal-with-their-mental-he-1825364592" target="_blank" rel="noopener">interview with Gizmodo</a> that the people who use Reddit aren&#8217;t representative of all people with mental health issues, his study does illustrate the usefulness of the platform.
“I can’t speak for my coauthors, but I want to stress the value of emotional and information support that are provided by your peers through social media platforms like Reddit,” he told Gizmodo. “Social media may not be perfect, but it has its value in helping people in the context of health.”
If Reddit can help people cope with mental illness, maybe it&#8217;s worth having to deal with r/the_donald. Maybe.

The platform has the capacity to do good.

Surprise! Reddit is actually helping people battle mental illness

According to a new study, Reddit can help people battling mental illnesses communicate more clearly and improve their mood.

Surprise! Reddit Is Actually Helping People Battle Mental Illness

Amidst the misogyny and racism are some truly supportive communities.

For people that take SSRIs (a specific type of antidepressant medication that affects a compound in the brain called serotonin), they are a great, commonly-prescribed treatment for depression.
But in about half the population, the opposite is true — SSRIs are just as likely to make depression symptoms worse as they are to help alleviate them, according to <a href="http://www.nejm.org/doi/pdf/10.1056/NEJMsa065779">numerous studies</a>.
Even worse: we have no way of knowing if the drugs will work until the patients try them.
That&#8217;s a major flaw in how we handle mental illness.
Luckily, scientists might have just cracked the code to determine if an SSRI will work, before a patient pops a single pill.
As depression symptoms improve, a certain brain region called the anterior cingulate cortex (ACC) becomes more active. The ACC is one of the chunks of our brain that helps us control our emotions and makes us capable of complex thoughts, and we can trace its behavior to tell whether or not a particular antidepressant is going to help a patient. At least, that was the conclusion of <a href="https://jamanetwork.com/journals/jamapsychiatry/fullarticle/2678040">a study published yesterday</a> in JAMA Psychiatry.
For years, doctors have known to look at this part of the brain, which is found right behind your forehead, as an indicator of depression. But studies looking at ways to use that analysis in the clinic — experiments often only examined a small number of patients, so the findings might not pertain to more extreme cases. Some didn’t compare the effects of antidepressants vs placebo on the ACC, so they couldn’t actually claim that the antidepressant was doing anything. Plus, no one had looked at how this phenomenon varied among demographics like race and gender. So, yeah, if this was going to get more solid, the science really needed to catch up.
This new research had much more promising methods, adding weight to the study&#8217;s findings. It was conducted over four years and included several hundred patients. The researchers found that, after just one week of medication, a change in a patient&#8217;s anterior cingulate cortex activity would indicate whether or not an antidepressant was going to work. This was the case regardless of a patient&#8217;s demographic, and independent of other variables that had tripped up previous experiments.
Granted, it&#8217;s not yet commonplace for psychiatrists and GPs to take brain measurements like these. But if they do become more widely used, patients could waste less time finding the treatment they need. It&#8217;s an important step towards the personalized healthcare that people with depression deserve.

After just one week, doctors could tell whether or not an antidepressant would help a particular patient.

Antidepressants don’t always work. Now doctors can peer into the brain to get patients the right one

The activity of a particular brain region has been linked to whether or not a depression treatment is going to work.

Antidepressants Don’t Always Work. Now Doctors Can Peer Into The Brain To Get Patients The Right One

Scientists have known about this brain region for a while, but studies about what readings can show were flawed. 

Medication. Therapy. These are some of ways people can treat depression, <a href="https://www.cdc.gov/reproductivehealth/depression/treatments.htm">according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC)</a>.
But there&#8217;s one a surprising one that may help reduce the symptoms: going on a diet.
And not just any diet. The DASH diet.
Let&#8217;s backtrack a second. Scientists have known for a long time that food — the kinds we eat, how we digest it — can affect our moods. People who are obese <a href="https://futurism.com/scientists-still-dont-fully-understand-the-connection-between-obesity-and-depression/">are more likely to have depression</a>, studies have shown; neurotransmitters that alter our moods, such as <a href="http://www.caltech.edu/news/microbes-help-produce-serotonin-gut-46495">serotonin</a> and <a href="https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/9360553">dopamine</a>, are in fact produced by the microbes that live in the gut. There have been so many studies linking diet and depression that Psychiatry Research published a <a href="http://www.psy-journal.com/article/S0165-1781(17)30198-1/fulltext" target="_blank" rel="noopener">meta-analysis</a> of 21 such studies in April 2017. That analysis concluded what you might expect: a healthy dietary pattern may decrease the risk of depression.
But the relationship is, in many ways, still a correlation. That is, scientists may know that these thing are related, but they haven&#8217;t figured out a specific intervention or treatment that would use this knowledge to help patients.
Now, however, it seems they may have stumbled upon a diet that could do just that. It&#8217;s called the DASH diet — the Dietary Approaches to Stop Hypertension. The U.S. National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute <a href="https://www.nhlbi.nih.gov/health-topics/dash-eating-plan" target="_blank" rel="noopener">developed the diet</a> in the 1990s to treat (you guessed it) hypertension, aka high blood pressure.
The diet takes a pretty common sense approach to healthy eating. Fruits, vegetables, lean meats, and low-fat dairy? Good. Foods high in salt and sugar? Bad.
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Laurel J. Cherian, an assistant professor of vascular neurology at Rush University Medical Center, performed a study to firm up the relationship between the DASH diet and lower rates of depression. Cherian will <a href="https://www.rush.edu/news/press-releases/dash-style-diet-associated-reduced-risk-depression">present her research</a> at the meeting of the American Academy of Neurology this month.
&#8220;There is evidence linking healthy lifestyle changes to lower rates of depression and this study sought to examine the role that diet plays in preventing depression,&#8221; Cherian said<a href="https://www.rush.edu/news/press-releases/dash-style-diet-associated-reduced-risk-depression"> in a press release</a>.
For more than six years, Cherian screened 964 participants over the age of 60 for signs of depression every year. She also asked them to complete a 144-item questionnaire focused on the foods they ate. Cherian then divided the participants into three groups based on how closely their diets mirrored the DASH diet.
Even after controlling for variables known to affect depression, such as age and education level, Cherian found that the group that most closely adhered to the DASH diet was less likely to experience depression. And conversely, those that strayed the most from the diet were the most likely to show symptoms of depression.
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But don&#8217;t throw out your antidepressants just yet.
&#8220;I think we need to view food as medicine,&#8221; Cherian <a href="https://www.theatlantic.com/health/archive/2018/03/the-diet-that-might-cure-depression/556742/?utm_source=atlfb" target="_blank" rel="noopener">told The Atlantic</a>. &#8220;Medications to treat depression are wonderful, but for many people, it&#8217;s going to be a combination of things.&#8221;
Hear that? Combination is key. A new diet might not totally clear up symptoms of depression. But, then again, it might not hurt.
Admittedly, we&#8217;re not there yet. According to Felice Jacka, a professor of nutritional psychiatry at Australia&#8217;s Deakin University, now that we are more certain there&#8217;s a link between diet and depression, we need to figure out how to exploit it to help people.
&#8220;Given how many observational studies there are already published, the field does not really need more of these,&#8221; Jacka told The Atlantic. &#8220;What it needs now are interventions that show that if you improve diet, you also improve depression.&#8221; (Jacka performed <a href="https://bmcmedicine.biomedcentral.com/articles/10.1186/s12916-017-0791-y">a similar study of her own</a>, published in January 2017, concluding that &#8220;people who improved their diets showed significantly happier moods than those who received social support,&#8221; <a href="https://www.wsj.com/articles/the-food-that-helps-battle-depression-1522678367?mod=e2fb">according to the Wall Street Journal</a>.)
There are lots of benefits to improving your diet, including weight loss and better management of existing health conditions. Improved mood may very well come along with it (that&#8217;s what the science suggests), but then again it might not since it&#8217;s not a proven treatment yet.
It&#8217;s worth trying, at least. But it&#8217;s also a good idea to stick to whatever treatments you&#8217;re already using for depression.

But don't throw out your antidepressants just yet.

Diet to reduce blood pressure may help combat depression

A recent study found patients who followed the DASH diet, developed initially to treat high blood pressure, were less likely to show signs of depression.

/Depression

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