Treat Depression Before It Causes Irreparable Brain Damage

Treat Depression Before It Causes Irreparable Brain Damage

Recent research using MRI scans of the brain has come up with disturbing findings. When people suffer depression, a part of their brain known as the hippocampus shrinks in size. When they recover, the hippocampus returns to normal size. However, if depression is left untreated, or poorly treated, for long, the brain fails to recover, and the person is at increased risk of permanent illness, or frequent attacks of depression.

It seems that stress causes the release of steroids in the brain, which actually damage the brain, by locking onto “glucocorticoid receptors” on the cells of the brain.  Future antidepressants are in the research stage, known as Glucocorticoid Receptor Antagonists.  These drugs will prevent stress-released steroids from causing this brain damage.

Many types of research in depression are increasingly clear that total elimination of depression is vital to prevent ongoing damage and suffering, just as it is vital to eliminate a cancer completely.

Medication combined with therapy have repeatedly been shown to produce the best results in treating depression.

NB: It also seems that antidepressant medication allows the growth of new neurons in the hippocampus, a remarkable change from the old idea that brain cells are too specialised to regrow once they have died.