Depression is the alteration of brain systems and chemicals; It is possible to treat it with drugs and psychiatric monitoring.
By Eddie Ludewig Rocha-Bracamontes
Behavioral Psychologist MSc
August 4th, 2024
After the pandemic, the World Health Organization (WHO) revealed that depression had increased by 25%, which adds up to 250 million people with the condition.
Depression, according to specialists, does not arise overnight but develops over the years. You can notice when sadness is not temporary but a constant, when the things you enjoyed no longer interest you or when you behave differently.
Eduardo Ludewig, director of the LatinamericanFoundation to Fight Anxiety and Depression, explains that the ancient Greeks called it “melancholy.”
“If you see the deadly sins, the description of laziness, well it is not laziness but depression, this part of not doing anything, or not wanting to get up is not laziness, if you see these symptoms, it is depression,” he says.
The article The Origin of Our Modern Concept of Depression-The History of Melancholia From 1780-1880: A Review, published in the journal Jama Psychiatry in 2020, documents that the modern concept of depression emerged around 1780, when it was defined as a disorder in the state of mind that could even cause “partial madness.”
Eduardo Ludewig Rocha, usually explains in a simple way what is happening to them: “Your brain said: ‘You are not happy enough, so we have to save happiness chemicals because I have to use them in something else, but he has saved them.’
“A depression takes between 5 to 10 years to brew,” he says.
If you suspect you have depression, you can contact the foundation that offers free treatment.
A depressive brain
Through the media and social networks, it has been spread that depression is a failure in the serotonin neurotransmitter in the brain.
However, according to Carlos Arnaud, professor of psychiatry at Technológico de Monterrey, depression is a much more complex phenomenon.
“Depression is not serotonin deficiency. Depression is the alteration of multiple systems and multiple chemicals: serotonin, dopamine, norepinephrine, cortisol, histamine, brain growth systems,” explains Arnaud.
The area of the brain that is active by depression is the frontal lobe, which is the brain region linked to planning, so one of the effects of depression is a lack of motivation to carry out activities.
About the physical state of the brain, different studies have found different results. Longitudinal brain volume changes in major depressive disorder warns of brain shrinkage. While in Volumetric brain differences in clinical depression in association with anxiety it has been detected that the region of the cerebral amygdala grows abnormally.
Eduardo Ludewig Rocha Bracamontes / Behavioral Psychologist
New Treatments
Currently, there are around 25 to 30 antidepressants that are highly effective and are not harmful to the body, that is, they do not generate addiction.
However, there are studies that show that 30% of patients with major depression do not react to these medications.
Daniel S. Marcos, director of the psychiatry specialty at Tec de Monterrey, explains that for complex cases there are also successful treatments.
One is ketamine, which in the 60s was used as a recreational drug and it is proven that in controlled doses it can improve your mood, since the brain releases glutamate.
“When there is severe depression there is an absence of this neurotransmitter,” he explains, but warns that excess glutamate can also be harmful to health.
Another treatment is transcranial magnetic stimulation and electroconvulsive therapy, which do not represent a risk to the patient since anesthesia is used in the procedure.
“The patient arrives at the clinic, puts a magnetic coil in his head and is stimulated, magnetically, so the areas that the brain are not working properly get stimulated. In fact, the patient may be reading a magazine or awake and there are virtually no side effects.
With most serious cases we do transcranial magnetic resonance protocols with ketamine administered at the same time,” explains Arnaud.
In November, the expert will present the first 10 successful cases in the city of Guadalajara.
On the other hand, electroconvulsive therapy is not performed like it was done before, it is a technique that is performed in the operating room and consists of causing a medically controlled seizure, through which neurotransmitters such as serotonin, dopamine and acetylcholine are released, massively and immediately, which does not happen with antidepressant medications.
“It is very effective for patients who are resistant to pharmacological treatment. You arrive, they anesthetize you and, when you wake up, everything has already happened,” says Daniel Marcos.
To know if you or someone you know has depression, it is important to pay attention to moods, especially if they are recurrent, as patients usually wait a long time until the problem is serious.
