Mixed Depression
Mixed depression describes a state of depression accompanied by a few symptoms typically associated with mania. At the 2015 meeting of the International Society for Bipolar Disorders, researcher Roger McIntyre shared some findings about mixed depression.
People with mixed depression have higher levels of MHPG, which is produced as the neurotransmitter norepinephrine breaks down. They also have higher levels of the stress hormone cortisol and their depressions are more difficult to treat. Those with unipolar mixed depression may respond poorly to traditional antidepressants.
There are also medical risks associated with mixed depression. People with mixed depression are more susceptible to cardiovascular disease than are people with depressive symptoms alone.
The drugs lurasidone, olanzepine, and ziprasidone have each shown efficacy in mixed depression.
Family Intervention in Early Childhood Can Help Children Cope with Stress
Enduring stressful life events in childhood can affect children long-term. Children who experience neglect can show increased levels of cortisol, a stress hormone. Family interventions can reduce these levels, and a new study shows that the impact of these interventions can be lasting. The study, by Kristin Bernard and colleagues in the journal JAMA Pediatrics, included 115 children whose families had been referred to Child Protective Services after allegations of neglect. After an incident of neglect in early childhood, the families received either an experimental intervention called ABC (focused on increasing parental nurturance to child distress, increasing synchronous interactions, and decreasing frightening parental behavior) or a control intervention (which provided educational information about child development). When the children reached preschool age about three years later, the researchers collected the children’s cortisol levels at waking and bedtime on three different days.
The children whose families received the ABC intervention had more typical cortisol levels than those whose families had received the control intervention. The ABC children had higher morning cortisol, with a steeper decline throughout the day, compared to a more blunted cortisol rhythm in the control group children. These patterns resembled differences in the two groups observed three months after the initial intervention. The authors concluded that the ABC intervention has long-term effects on children’s physiological stress system, helping them maintain health and adjustment.
Exposure to Stress Hormone Leads to Poor Decision-Making
Adolescence may be a period of particular vulnerability to the effects of stress. New research by Shannon Gourley indicates a possible mechanism for this vulnerability. When Gourley exposed adolescent mice to low levels of the stress hormone corticosterone (the equivalent to human cortisol), they developed habit-based rather than goal-oriented decision-making, leading to behaviors that resembled human depression, which lasted into adulthood. Adult mice that were exposed to the low levels of corticosterone were not affected by it.
Gourley also used an alternative method of producing these stress responses a second time by silencing the trkB receptor for brain-derived neurotrophic factor (BDNF) in the amygdala and hippocampus of the mice. The depression-like behaviors that resulted, such as lack of motivation, were able to be reversed by treating the mice with 7,8-dihydroxyflavone, a drug that activated the trkB receptor. In the adolescent mice, this treatment had antidepressant effects that lasted into adulthood, even though the treatment stopped earlier.
Ratio of Cortisol to CRP May Affect Depression
New research suggests that the ratio of cortisol to C-reactive protein (CRP), a marker of inflammation, may be a biomarker of depression that affects men and women differently. In women, lower ratios of cortisol to CRP were associated with more severe depression symptoms, including poor quality sleep, sleep disturbances, and decreased extraversion. In men, higher ratios of cortisol to CRP were associated with more daytime disturbance and greater anxiety. The study by E.C. Suarez et al. was published in the journal Brain, Behavior, and Immunity.
Further work must be done to confirm whether low cortisol and high inflammation predicts depression in women, while the opposite (high cortisol and low inflammation) predicts depression in men.
Transgenerational Transmission of PTSD
At a recent scientific meeting, Rachael Yehada showed that PTSD-like traits could be passed transgenerationally. Mothers in New York City who were pregnant on September 11, 2001 and developed post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) produced children with low cortisol in their blood (a sign of PTSD). If the fathers had PTSD during the mother’s pregnancy, the children had high cortisol.
These gender-related findings have some parallels in studies of rodents. When a rat pup is separated from its mother for 15 minutes, the mother is overjoyed to see the pup return and licks and grooms it excessively. This maternal overprotection yields an animal with lifelong low cortisol through an epigenetic process. The glucocorticoid receptor gives a feedback message to suppress cortisol, and glucocorticoid receptors are increased in the pups’ brains because of lower methylation of the DNA promoter for glucocorticoid receptors.
If a father has PTSD, there is more methylation of the promoter for glucocorticoid receptors and less expression of them in the forebrain. There is also less feedback suppression of cortisol and the baby exhibits high cortisol.
The methylation of the glucocorticoid receptors in the offspring’s white blood cells is highly correlated (r=0.57, p<0.005, n=23) with methylation in the parent’s white blood cells.
