A thread through the archive
Essays tagged “depression”. Follow an idea across the archive.
Two psychiatrists conduct an adversarial review of Adam Kay's 'This Is Going To Hurt,' debating whether his NHS memoir represents institutional failure causing PTSD or a self-inflicted martyr complex, while examining the book's comedy, structure, and impact on healthcare discourse.
Daniel Böttger describes his experience after brain surgery for cancer removed his right amygdala, resulting in the complete elimination of visceral fear, depression, and most suffering, while also causing some social difficulties and autism-like symptoms.
Scott Alexander proposes a theory of depression as a recalibrated happiness set point, drawing parallels with fever and anorexia, to explain why depressed people seek out sad stimuli.
Scott Alexander examines a study challenging ketamine's effectiveness as an antidepressant, discussing potential confounding factors and maintaining his belief in ketamine's utility despite the study's results.
Scott Alexander provides a comprehensive guide on ketamine as a depression treatment, covering administration methods, effectiveness, safety, dosage, and potential side effects.
Scott Alexander reviews 'Crazy Like Us', exploring how Western mental health concepts spread globally and whether raising awareness of mental health problems might make them worse.
Scott Alexander examines a review of a paper on serotonin receptors, discussing prediction error, suffering, and the effects of different serotonin receptor activations on problem-solving approaches and psychedelic experiences.
Scott Alexander presents a detailed guide on depression, covering its causes, symptoms, and various treatment options, including lifestyle changes, therapies, medications, and other interventions.
Scott examines the relationship between sleep, synaptic homeostasis, and depression, exploring how sleep deprivation temporarily alleviates depression symptoms.
Scott Alexander critically examines a new theory on antidepressant mechanisms, expressing skepticism while acknowledging its potential significance if proven true.
Scott Alexander examines a theory proposing that depression, anxiety, and trauma are characterized by low precision of sensory evidence, leading to overreliance on negative priors.
Scott Alexander examines mental disorders through the lens of dynamical systems theory, exploring how this perspective complements and contrasts with taxometric approaches.
Scott examines the bidirectional relationship between depression and sense of smell, exploring potential mechanisms and treatment implications.
Scott Alexander analyzes the PANDA Study, a large real-world antidepressant trial, discussing its methodology, results, and implications for understanding antidepressant efficacy.
Scott Alexander argues that psychiatric diagnoses, while imperfect, are useful tools despite potentially combining multiple conditions with different causes.
Scott examines how the 5-HTTLPR gene was wrongly linked to depression for years, discussing the implications for psychiatric research and genetic testing products.
Scott Alexander presents results from an SSC Survey on SSRI usage, covering effectiveness, side effects, and discontinuation experiences among 2,090 users.
Scott Alexander discusses new research suggesting ketamine's antidepressant effects may be linked to the opioid system, exploring the implications and potential future directions for depression treatment.
Scott Alexander revisits his stance on SSRIs, discussing new meta-analyses, broader trends in psychiatric medication efficacy, and potential explanations for the discrepancy between statistical and clinical observations.
Scott Alexander uses the evolution of genetic science as a metaphor to explore how other fields might benefit from recognizing the polycausal nature of complex phenomena.
Scott Alexander examines melatonin's effects, proper dosage, and uses for sleep disorders and circadian rhythm issues, emphasizing its dual role as a hypnotic and chronobiotic.
Scott Alexander examines whether psychiatrists should test for lead more often, concluding that while it could be relevant in some cases, there's not enough evidence to justify universal testing.
The post reviews research on adult neurogenesis, initially presenting evidence for its existence and importance, then reveals a new study suggesting it doesn't occur in humans, examining the implications of this potential field-wide error.
Scott reviews a paper proposing a computational model of mood and emotions based on predictive processing, discussing its implications for understanding mood disorders.
The post examines research suggesting placebos are largely ineffective, explores exceptions, and proposes explanations for observed placebo effects based on brain function and study design.