Antidepressants for a Bad Marriage Yield Depressing Results.

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New research shows that doctors regularly diagnose patients as “depressed” when they complain about marital and relationship problems.  The problem is, being sad about a bad marriage isn’t depression, and anti-depressants can’t treat marital woes.

From PsychCentral

New research finds that psychiatrists nearly always respond with prescriptions for antidepressants when clients complain of bad marriages.

The medical definition of depression does not support the assumption that people struggling with their marriage or other domestic issues are depressed and require antidepressants, said Dr. Jonathan M. Metzl, professor of sociology and medicine, health, and society at Vanderbilt University and the study’s lead author. 

The study, conducted using a Midwestern medical center’s records from 1980 to 2000, appears in the current issue of the Yale Journal of Biology and Medicine. READ THE REST

If you are struggling with marriage and family problems, be sure to get the right kind of help.  Medication can’t cure relationships problems. Marital Counseling can. But remember, not every therapist or psychiatrist is trained as a marriage or family therapist even if they say they do marriage and family therapy!  The success rate for therapists who “do marriage and family therapy” is about 30% while the success rate for therapists who have trained as marriage and family therapists (which includes completing internships in marriage and family therapy and receiving professional supervision) exceeds 90%!  To learn more about getting the help you need, check out When Divorce is NOT An Option: How to Heal Your Marriage and Nurture Lasting Love or contact the Pastoral Solutions Institute (740-266-6461) to learn how our Catholic Tele-Counseling Practice can give you the tools you need to live a more joyful, grace-filled, passionate marriage and family life.

Therapy Equally Effective as Drugs for Front Line Depression Treatment & Helps Reshape Brain, Studies Say

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The synaptic gap is filled by neurotransmitters like serotonin.

The synaptic gap is filled by neurotransmitters like serotonin.

New clinical practice guidelines advise physicians that cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT) and second-generation antidepressants (SGAs), are equally effective treatments for major depressive disorder (MDD) in adults.

The American College of Physicians (ACP) recommendation appears in the Annals of Internal Medicine.

“Patients are frequently treated for depression by primary care physicians, who often initially prescribe SGAs,” said ACP President Wayne J. Riley, M.D., M.P.H., M.B.A., M.A.C.P.

“However, CBT is a reasonable approach for initial treatment and should be strongly considered as an alternative treatment to SGAs where available, and after discussing treatment effects, adverse effect profiles, costs, accessibility, and preferences with patients.”

Major depression is a medical condition causing sadness that interferes with daily life, not a normal reaction to life situations such as the death of a loved one or the loss of a job.

Symptoms associated with depression include lack of energy and loss of interest in things previously enjoyed. READ MORE.

ALSO  another new study supports the idea that CBT actually reshapes the brain

A new Swedish study finds that after just nine weeks of Internet-delivered cognitive behavioral therapy, the brains of patients suffering from social anxiety disorder change in volume and activity — and anxiety is reduced.

Researchers noted that the brain is remarkably adaptable. For instance, previous studies have shown that juggling and video games affect brain volume. But questions remain about how brain volume and neuronal activity in specific areas may change.

In the current investigation, a group of researchers from Linköping University and other Swedish universities studied how Internet-delivered cognitive behavioral therapy (ICBT) affects brain volume and activity.

The researchers focused on patients with social anxiety disorder (SAD), one of the most common mental health problems.

For the study, magnetic resonance imaging (MRI), was performed on all study participants before and after the ICBT intervention.

The researchers found that in patients with SAD, brain volume and activity in the amygdala decrease as a result of ICBT. Study results appear in the journal Translational Psychiatry.  READ MORE

Check out the Pastoral Solutions Institute’s tele-counseling practice for more information on  how cognitive therapy can help you overcome your struggles with depression, anxiety and other emotional problems.

Weather Proof Your Brain: 6 Tips for Beating Winter Blues

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            “I just feel so, blah.”  Said Carly, age 31. “Once the leaves fall off the trees, everything gets so gloomy and grey.  I just can’t get motivated and I feel sluggish all day.  When the  snow hits, I just wish I could crawl into bed and stay there until Spring. I joke that I must be part bear, but honestly, the way I feel most of the fall and winter doesn’t put me in much of a laughing mood.”

            According to the American Academy of Family Physicians, about 6% of people suffer from full-blown seasonal depression and another 20% experience what might be termed a more serious case of “winter blues” that include symptoms like sluggishness, irritability, changes in sleep and eating patterns, weight gain, and difficulty being around other people.

Interestingly, though, winter blues don’t have to be a foregone conclusion.  In sections of Scandinavia that experience “polar night” from November through January experience remarkably low rates of seasonal depression or winter blues suggesting that the problem may not be as much a deeply ingrained biological problem as much as it is a state of mind.  Inhabitants of these northernmost regions of the planet have developed some fantastic strategies for beating the winter doldrums.  Whether you tend to experience more serious manifestations of seasonal affective disorder, or just find yourself dragging through the winter months, here are some simple things you can do–drawn from both the experience of our northern neighbors and the latest research– to not just survive but thrive when the winter sets in.

1.  Celebrate

During the long darkness that descends with Norwegian winter, people have a remarkable number of celebrations, get-togethers and parties.  Although people going through seasonal blues often feel that relationships are a chore, resist the temptation to hide out.  Make a point of getting together with friends even more regularly than you do in the sunny times of the year. Invent a reason to host a party.  Brighten your home with friendship, fun foods, and some festive decorations!

2.  Cocoon

While it is never a good idea to isolate, Scandinavians have a great way to make the times they are home alone more joyful.  They get koselig, literally, “cozy.”  For them, the long winter months are a time for sitting by the fireplace,  lighting lots of candles (at mealtimes and just because) and/or huddling under warm blankets with a warm drink and good books. This is also a great time of year to do put a little extra effort into making your home…homey.  Even if you’re the only one at home, you deserve to live in a nurturing space.  Put some energy into making your home a respite; place that is welcoming and pleasant to come back to.

3.  Get Out!

When they’re tired of cocooning, Scandinavians get out of the house and enjoy winter activities like hiking, skiing, sledding and tubing. If you have seasonal blues or even seasonal depression, winter is a great time to  develop that all-important, abundant-living skill, leaving your comfort zone.  Especially if you don’t like the cold, or the snow, get out of the house and hang around people who do.  Be willing to learn from the example of those who feel energized by the cold weather.  Studies show that people who challenge their comfort zones and are open to new experiences–even experiences that they don’t think they would enjoy–live more enjoyable, fulfilling lives.

4.  Deal with the Past

Moving off the experience of our Norwegian neighbors and into what the research has to say about seasonal depression, we find that many people who struggle with the winter months do so because of bad memories that accompany the winter months.  For those who grew up in chaotic homes or experienced the death of a loved one in the winter months, this time of year–especially with so many major holidays–can be particularly painful.  Psychologists refer to the pain caused by memories associated with particular times of year as “anniversary reactions.”  The root memories causing these reactions aren’t always obvious.  One good way to identify anniversary reactions is to sit with the feelings you are having and write our whatever images or memories bubble up to the surface.  Don’t ask what memories are “causing” your feelings.  Instead, ask what memories attend your feelings and how those memories might be contributing to your gloominess.  Remind yourself that these times are past and make a point of writing out all the ways you’ve grown since you had those experiences and all the things you have to be grateful for in your present.

5. Be Grateful

Speaking of gratitude, keeping a gratitude journal (and reviewing your lists regularly) is a proven way to increase your happiness set-point (the natural degree of happiness you tend to experience from day-to-day) by 25%!  Especially if you are experiencing winter blues, make sure you take stock of all the things you have to be grateful for each day, especially the friends and people that make your life a better place to be.

Another way to be grateful is to make what St. Paul calls a “sacrifice of praise” (Heb 13:5).  Praising God, even when you don’t feel like it (which is where the “sacrifice” part comes in) reconnects us with God’s love and providence in those times when we feel lonely and blah.

6.   Get Help

Sometimes, self-help isn’t enough.  If you find that your winter blues are negatively affecting your work, health, or relationships, it is time to talk with a professional.  A mental health professional can help determine whether medication, light therapy, cognitive-behavior therapy (all treatments that have been shown to be affective with Seasonal Affective Disorder) or some combination of these would be most effective for you.  The good news is that whether you are suffering from milder or more serious problems with seasonal depression, treatments are available that can help get you to happier, more joyful place.  Don’t buy the lies that say, “this is just the way I am” or “this is how it has to be.”  With a little help, you can learn to see all the good things winter has to offer and learn to love the gifts it brings.

Dr. Greg Popcak, the author of many books and the host of More2Life Radio, directs The Pastoral Solutions Institute, which offers pastoral counseling by telephone to Catholics around the world.  Learn more at www.CatholicCounselors.com or call 740-266-6461

New Study: Probiotics May Help Ease Pain of Negative Thoughts/Depression.

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From ScienceDaily.

Linking probiotics and mood

Probiotics are live microorganisms which, when administered in adequate amounts, are fundamental in improving digestion and immune function.  A new study found that people focus less on bad feelings and experiences from the past (i.e. rumination) after four weeks of probiotics administration.   The study was published in the journal, Brain, Behavior and Immunity.   

In the study, half of the people received a placebo powder, while the other half received the probiotics mixture.  Compared to subjects who received the placebo intervention, participants who received the  multispecies probiotics intervention showed significantly reduced ruminative thoughts. Colzato: “Even if preliminary, these results provide the first evidence that the intake of probiotics may help reduce negative thoughts associated with sad mood. As such, our findings shed an interesting new light on the potential of probiotics to serve as adjuvant or preventive therapy for depression.”  READ MORE

For more information on how your gut, “your second brain”, affects mood, check out this article from Scientific American.  Think Twice: How the Gut’s Second Brain Influences Mood and Well-Being.

Most Antidepressants Make it Harder To Get Better, Study Says.

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A new study from Neuroscience and Biobehavioral Review asserts that the science behind most anti-depressant medications is entirely backwards.  Rather than easing symptoms, the authors of the study argue that serotonin boosting medications may be actually making it harder to depression-sufferers to recover.

The low-serotonin theory is the basis for commonly prescribed serotonin re-uptake inhibitor (SSRI) anti-depressant medications which keep the neurotransmitter’s levels high by blocking its re-absorption into the cells that release it.

Those serotonin-boosting medications actually make it harder for patients to recover, especially in the short term, says lead author Paul Andrews, an assistant professor of Psychology, Neuroscience & Behaviour at McMaster University in Hamilton, Ontario, Canada.

“It’s time we rethink what we are doing,” Andrews says. “We are taking people who are suffering from the most common forms of depression, and instead of helping them, it appears we are putting an obstacle in their path to recovery.”  READ MORE

This latest research adds to the body of literature pointing to the ineffectiveness of serotonin re-uptake inhibitors (the most common type of anti-depressant).  For more information go here and here.

In God Help Me, This Stress is Driving Me Crazy:  Finding Balance through God’s Grace, I point to a number of different psychotherapeutic techniques that have been shown to be effective in helping people overcome depression and anxiety disorders.  My associates and I have a great deal of success helping depression-suffers make use of techniques that can significantly improve their mood and quality of life.  Although medication can be an important part of recovery for many depression sufferers, the truth is, compared to the public’s perception of its effectiveness, most research shows that medication only helps about 50% of the people who take it and may only decrease depressive symptoms by about 30%.   As I noted in the posts I linked above, medication can help, but as with illnesses such as hypertension, depression can only be cured through lifestyle and psychological changes.  Unfortunately, the vast majority of depression sufferers either believe or are led to believe that taking medication alone can be sufficient.  That’s simply not the case.  If you or someone you love are suffering with depression, seek professional counseling help so that you can get the most comprehensive treatment.

Feeling Blah? The Cure For Apathy.

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The Catholic Almanac’s Emily Stimpson interviewed me for a piece in OSV  titled, Our Brother’s Keeper. Fighting Apathy.  Here’s a sample…

Surveying the cultural landscape, a growing number of commentators have diagnosed Americans’ declining interest in political and community involvement as one of apathy. But that, said Dr. Gregory Popcak, executive director of CatholicCounselors.com, is just another way of saying “sloth.”

“Sloth is apathy,” he explained. “It’s one of the seven deadly sins. It’s not laziness; it’s indifference. It’s an unwillingness to use my gifts and talents to affect the world around me. It’s me, out of a desire for a peaceful life, sticking my head in the sand and pretending every problem in the world is just small stuff that I don’t need to worry about.”

The sin of sloth

While decidedly less intriguing than its more well known counterparts — lust, pride, envy, gluttony, wrath and greed — sloth, or apathy, remains equally deadly. That’s true politically and socially, shutterstock_217013218with lower volunteer activity leaving more work for the government to do and more basic human needs going unmet.

It’s also true spiritually.

“We find ourselves by making gifts of ourselves,” Popcak said. “God has given us to the world to be a gift. He’s counting on us to do something that only we can do. Each of us is unique and unrepeatable. If we don’t do our part, if we don’t do what God created us to do, it doesn’t get done, and God’s plan is frustrated.”

According to Popcak, post-modern culture is a breeding ground for that kind of frustration.

“We’re constantly bombarded in every way we can imagine by information about problems we can do nothing about,” he explained.

He went on to note that while once people lived in smaller communities and were primarily confronted by the solvable problems of friends and neighbors, today, “We don’t know our neighbors, but we know the intimate details of problems in every corner of the globe, which we’re often helpless to counter.”

It also doesn’t help that we’re a culture on the move. Increasing mobility — moving from town to town and job to job — makes people less inclined to care about and invest in the long-term welfare of their communities. Constant busyness — racing from school to work to the soccer field — does the same.

“If I’m too busy, I don’t have time to reflect,” Popcak said. “The busier I am, the less able I am to attend to my world and be the gift God wants me to be.”   READ MORE

– See more at: https://www.osv.com/TodaysIssues/PoliticsandSocialIssues/Article/TabId/700/ArtMID/13747/ArticleID/16454/Our-brother%E2%80%99s-keeper-Fighting-apathy-in-our-world.aspx#sthash.FA1IHs5J.dpuf

The Serotonin Myth Continued: What You Need To Know About Depression

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A few weeks back, I reported on a new study that pounded yet another nail in the coffin of the theory that depression is caused by low serotonin.   You can read that original post here as well as the follow shutterstock_217156765up post wherein I responded to a question from a reader asking if I was trying to say that people who suffered with depression were to blame for their struggles (short answer:  no.)

Over at PsychCentral, one of the most popular psychology news portals on the web, the director, Dr. John Grohol has an excellent piece summarizing the growing case against the low serotonin theory of depression.  He writes….

Back in 2005, Lacasse and Leo pointed out in the journal PLOS Medicine that there was a huge disconnect between what we knew about serotonin’s role in depression from the medical research, and what pharmaceutical advertisements were claiming we knew:

Regarding SSRIs, there is a growing body of medical literature casting doubt on the serotonin hypothesis, and this body is not reflected in the consumer advertisements. In particular, many SSRI advertisements continue to claim that the mechanism of action of SSRIs is that of correcting a chemical imbalance, such as a paroxetine advertisement, which states, “With continued treatment, Paxil can help restore the balance of serotonin…” [22].

Yet […] there is no such thing as a scientifically established correct “balance” of serotonin. The take-home message for consumers viewing SSRI advertisements is probably that SSRIs work by normalizing neurotransmitters that have gone awry. This was a hopeful notion 30 years ago, but is not an accurate reflection of present-day scientific evidence.

New research that we reported on last month confirms the role of serotonin in depression is not well-understood. In that mice study, removing the stuff in the brain that creates serotonin2 did not create a bunch of depressed mice.

Other research confirms it’s not as simple as a serotonin deficit. As Whitaker (2010) noted, the 1976 Asbert study is still relevant. Asbert looked at levels of a metabolized result of serotonin (something called 5-HIAA) in spinal fluid. If low-levels of serotonin cause depression, then all people suffering from depression should have significantly lower levels of 5-HIAA in their spinal fluid than people without depression.

What Asbert found, however, wasn’t a clean result. In fact, it clearly shows how complicated depression as a disease process is. In both groups of people studied — both a depression group and a control group — about 50 percent had “regular” levels of 5-HIAA, about 25 percent had really low levels, and another 25 percent had really high levels.

If serotonin were really an important part of the picture in depression, we’d expect that group to look significantly different than the control group. In this study, at least, the two groups looked largely the same.

As we said back in 2007, serotonin may play some small, not-yet-well-understood role in depression. But if it does, it looks nothing like the simplistic “low levels of serotonin cause depression” hypothesis that was all the rage ten to twenty years ago.  READ MORE.

Of course, none of this means that depression medication can’t be helpful but only, as I reported before, that it should never be the first course of treatment for depression. Research shows that meds are best when they play a supportive role to therapy.   Meds alone do not represent the best standard of care for treating depression.  If you are on medication for depression but not currently in counseling, talk to your doctor about getting a referral to a therapist in your area, or contact the Pastoral Solutions Institute to learn more about you can benefit from our Catholic-integrated, telephone counseling practice.  Let us help you find effective, faithful solutions to the tough emotional challenges you are facing.

Belief Beats Genes: Study Reveals Shocking Truth About Reaching Your Goals

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Simply telling people that hard work is more important than genetics causes positive changes in the brain and may make them willing to try harder, a study shows. “Giving people messages shutterstock_173393477that encourage learning and motivation may promote more efficient performance,” said the lead investigator. “In contrast, telling people that intelligence is genetically fixed may inadvertently hamper learning.”

Telling people…that hard work trumps genes causes instant changes in the brain and may make them more willing to strive for success, indicates a new study from Michigan State University.

The findings suggest the human brain is more receptive to the message that intelligence comes from the environment, regardless of whether it’s true.  And this simple message, said lead investigator Hans Schroder, may ultimately prompt us to work harder.

“Giving people messages that encourage learning and motivation may promote more efficient performance,” said Schroder,  “In contrast, telling people that intelligence is genetically fixed may inadvertently hamper learning.”  READ MORE

This study, obviously, has wide-reaching significance for our ability to both accomplish our goals in life and overcome adversity.  It is also why I argued, the other day, that attributing depression, anxiety and other emotional problems primarily to “chemical imbalances”–besides not being strictly accurate–is actually detrimental to the well-being of the person struggling with these disorders.  The fact is, as St. Thomas Aquinas reminds us, “Grace builds on nature.”  The more we believe we can accomplish, the more we tend to accomplish–even in areas where nature might lead us to think differently if we let it.

The bottom line?  Don’t be afraid to believe in the amazing things God wants to accomplish in your life.  The more you believe in God’s grace and your good effort, the more likely it is that you can become your best self in every area of your life!   If you’d like more support in achieving your goals and overcoming the challenges that stand in your way, check out the Pastoral Solutions Institute’s Tele-Counseling Practice (740-266-6461).  Let us help you discover how to get everything God wants to give you in your marriage, family, or personal/emotional life!

Setting the Captive Free! New Research Illustrates our Power to Overcome Depression

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In response to my post linking the new study questioning the serotonin-deprivation theory of depression, I received a very thoughtful email from a reader who wrote, shutterstock_212803426

“Dr. Popcak, some of my friends who suffer with depression are saying that in this article you are blaming them for their depression. Can you explain further?”

Blaming the Victim?  A Response

I am grateful for her question because I would never want anyone to think that I was blaming sufferers of depression for being depressed. She was referring, I suspect, to this part of my post where I addressed the notion that depression is caused by a chemical imbalance.  I wrote, “every choice you make, every behavior you exhibit sends a wash of chemicals through your body.  It stands to reason that healthy thoughts, choices, and behaviors would facilitate a healthy chemical balance and unhealthy thoughts, choices, and behaviors would increase the likelihood of an unhealthy chemical imbalance.”

As I assured my correspondent in the comments section of that post, it was not my intention to blame depression sufferers, rather it was (and is) my intention to show depression sufferers that they don’t have to be passive victims of this horrible disease, that there is a lot that they can do to contribute to their healing.

Depression: No One’s Fault.

It is not the depression-sufferers “fault” that they think the way they do, approach problems they way they do, or have some of the unhealthy habits and/or relationship patterns they have.  For the most part these things were taught and modeled and “caught” unconsciously in one’s family-of-origin over the course of tens of thousands of interactions between parents and children and grandparents and siblings and the community and the belief system one is raised in.  No one person could possibly be personally responsible for all that, but it still impacts us mightily.

How Environment Influences Depression Gene Expression

On top of all this, biology certainly is a factory, but it isn’t as straightforward as saying, “depression is caused by genetics and biology.”  In the first place, depression is not so much genetic as it is an epigenetic illness.   Epigenetics studies how environment effects the expression of certain genetic traits and profiles.  Certain genes won’t “turn on” if the environmental conditions aren’t right. Depression has genetic and biological components, yes,  but those components, by and large, won’t come online unless the environment tells them to.  And, curiously enough, once our life experiences activate our genes they can be passed on to the next generation, communicating positive and negative environmental experiences from parents to children through genetic encoding, which is why depression tends to run in families.

Victim No More

The good news is, we don’t have to be passive victims of any of the “bad programming” from these environmental and epigenetic triggers that cause poor thinking habits, unhealthy attitudes, and destructive approaches to life.  Medication can certainly take some of the edge off the worst of it, but counseling can help us make dramatic changes in our thoughts, behaviors, and relationships that not only help us feel better emotionally, but rewire our biological and genetic programming, bringing healing both to us and the next generation.  With God’s grace and consistent effort, we can master the environmental programming–even the environmental programming that triggers certain biological responses–that causes depression and other emotional illnesses.

A Light in the Darkness

To my way of thinking, that is anything but “blaming the victim.”  That is a tremendously liberating and hopeful idea, a light that shines the way out of the terrible darkness that is depressive illness.

If you would like to learn more about faithful and effective treatments for depression and other emotional and relational problems, visit the Pastoral Solutions Institute’s website (or call 740-266-6461) to learn more about how our Catholic telecounseling practice can help you set you free.

 

 

Suicide and the Christian

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In light of Robin Williams‘ tragic death there are a lot of people saying a lot of different things about Christianity and suicide. I thought it would be useful to take a moment to consider the wisdom the Catechism has to offer.

“Grave psychological disturbances, anguish, or grave fear of hardship, suffering, or torture can diminish the responsibility of the one committing suicide. We should not despair of the eternal salvation of persons who have taken their own lives. By ways known to him alone, God can provide the opportunity for salutary repentance. The Church prays for persons who have taken their own lives.”    – Catechism of the Catholic Church, Paragraph 2282-2283