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As part of their findings, the researchers have developed a new model for clinical depression that takes into account the dynamic role of the immune system. This neuroimmune interaction results in different phases of depression, and has implications for current treatment practices.

"Depression is much more complex than we have previously understood," says senior author Professor Bernhard Baune, Head of Psychiatry at the University of Adelaide.

"Past research has shown that there are inflammatory mechanisms at work in depression. But in the last 10 years there has been much research into the complexities of how the immune system interacts with brain function, both in healthy brains and in people experiencing depression.

Among the major findings during follow-up:

• Moderate to severe depressive symptoms were identified on 18% of monthly assessments and pain was reported on 79% of monthly assessments.
• Patients with depressive symptoms were 21% more likely to miss dialysis treatments, 24% more likely to visit the emergency department, 19% more likely to be hospitalized, and 40% more likely to die.
• Patients with severe pain were 16% more likely to undergo abbreviated dialysis treatments, 58% more likely to visit the emergency department, and 22% more likely be hospitalized.

The new study shows that postpartum depression is accompanied by strongly elevated monoamine oxidase A in the brain, particularly in the prefrontal cortex and in the anterior cingulate cortex. In women with postpartum depression, the values recorded were 21 percent higher than those of women who were not plagued by negative feelings after giving birth. Women who did not develop full-blown depression but found themselves crying more often than usual due to depressed mood also presented moderately elevated values.

"Therefore, we should promote strategies that help to reduce monoamine oxidase A levels in the brain, and avoid everything that makes these values rise," explains Sacher. Such factors include heavy smoking, alcohol consumption and chronic stress, for example when the mother feels neglected and abandoned by her partner and family. "My ultimate goal is to provide women and their families with very concrete lifestyle recommendations that will enable them to prevent postpartum depression," explains the psychiatrist.

The details of the results show that an increase in sleep, better reactions and more motivation were observed during the 'blue' weeks. Moreover, while the circadian rhythm tended to shift during the 'white' weeks, no disturbance in rhythm was observed during the 'blue' weeks. In addition, the effects did not disappear with the passage of time.

Have you ever seen someone park in a handicap spot and look  perfectly healthy as they step out of the car? You wonder, “They’re not disabled, they can walk just fine! They must have that handicap card illegally.” What most don’t stop to think is that perhaps this individual may have an invisible disease. A disease that causes a brief walk across the parking lot to feel like the equivalent of running the length of a football field five times over while every single joint screams in pain.

According to one study, more than 125 million Americans have at least one chronic condition (defined as a condition that lasts a year or longer, limits activity and may require ongoing care) and nearly half of those have more than one.  These chronic illnesses often share one major characteristic: they are not visible to an onlooker; thus the term “invisible illness.

“Disability Incarcerated is an exciting development at the intersection of the fields of critical prison studies and disability studies. The anthology not only represents important scholarly work in these fields, but it also stages conversations across numerous borders, including the one separating the United States and Canada and those that strive to divorce scholarship and activism,” writes Davis in the book’s foreword.

I have commented in my writings that, sometimes, I use dissociation as a coping technique. Now, I’m not saying this is the best thing to do nor am I suggesting that it’s professional-recommended, I’m just saying it’s what I do to get through the day at times.

So, people have asked me, what is dissociation? Does dissociation help or hurt someone with bipolar disorder?

Similarly, when I talk in front of crowds something similar can happen. My mind, you see, is nervous, so it retreats into some corner while my body takes over and makes me seem confident and, perhaps, nigh on invincible. I’d say dissociation is very helpful then.

And, essentially, dissociation can be helpful whenever we’re overwhelmed to the point of incapacitation. 

I wasn’t always so forthright with my diagnosis. I have been diagnosed with bipolar 1 (rapid cycle), borderline personality disorder and PTSD. It is a gnarly combo. My first symptoms reared up in early childhood. My grandma used to call me the “Princess Dictator” as I would round up all of the kids in the neighborhood and make them put on plays and musicals to my meticulous specifications. It was pretty heavy stuff for a 7 year old.

I spent a lot of time in high school living fast. I was in power in nearly all school groups, a member of almost all extracurricular and an avid sexaholic and drug addict. My drug of choice was cocaine, as it kept me going during my depressive phases when I couldn’t keep up with everything I had committed to. My symptoms were pretty typical of severe bipolar disorder and addiction, but growing up with my grandparents proved to be an easy way to get away with such debauchery. 

When I met my husband I stopped all of my partying, drugs and random sexual encounters. My symptoms became more severe without my drug and sex filled security blanket. I had no outlet and I was controlled by my moods for the first time.  I feel pregnant about 2 years into our relationship.  My pregnancy went smoothly and my son Gabriel was born nearly to the day I was due.

Three weeks after my son was born I had my first nervous breakdown........

The operative phrase here is "immediate relief"..........

Low field magnetic stimulation (LFMS) is one such potential new treatment with rapid mood-elevating effects, as reported by researchers at Harvard Medical School and Weill Cornell Medical College. "LFMS is unlike any current treatment. It uses magnetic fields that are a fraction of the strength but at higher frequency than the electromagnetic fields used in TMS and ECT," explained first author Dr. Michael Rohan. Indeed, the potential antidepressant properties of LFMS were discovered accidentally, while researchers were conducting an imaging study in healthy volunteers. This led Rohan and his colleagues to conduct a preliminary study in which they identified the imaging parameters that seemed to be causing the antidepressant effect. They then designed and constructed a portable LFMS device, which delivers a low strength, high frequency, electromagnetic field waveform to the brain. The next step was to test the device in depressed patients, the results of which are published in the current issue of Biological Psychiatry. 

An immediate and substantial improvement in mood was observed in the patients who received real LFMS, compared to those who received the sham treatment. There were no reported side effects. 

In the United States, the voices are harsher, and in Africa and India, more benign, said Tanya Luhrmann, a Stanford professor of anthropologyand first author of the article in the British Journal of Psychiatry.

The experience of hearing voices is complex and varies from person to person, according to Luhrmann. The new research suggests that the voice-hearing experiences are influenced by one's particular social and cultural environment – and this may have consequences for treatment.

In an interview, Luhrmann said that American clinicians "sometimes treat the voices heard by people with psychosis as if they are the uninteresting neurological byproducts of disease which should be ignored. Our work found that people with serious psychotic disorder in different cultures have different voice-hearing experiences. That suggests that the way people pay attention to their voices alters what they hear their voices say. That may have clinical implications." 

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