According To New Research, Depression Is A Form Of Brain Damage And NOT A Choice

Sep 11, 2018 by apost team

The need to make a conscious effort to be happy and positive has never been so important. Despite major depressive disorder being a common psychiatric disease and it being one of the leading worldwide causes of disability, the scientific community still has a very rudimentary understanding of the underlying pathophysiological mechanisms. Some even tout depression as a choice, which couldn’t be further from the truth.

A new study by the ENIGMA MDD Working group not only sheds new light on the subject, it’s actually dispelled a very common belief in how depression affects the brain. 

For years, it’s been common belief that the chances of chronic depression were increased by brain damage. Some have even asserted that brain damage can cause chronic depression. The ENIGMA study’s findings, which were published in Molecular Psychology, have a different take.

Researchers found that persistent depression causes physiological brain damage, not the other way around.

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The ENIGMA study is one of the first of its kind to look at the subject from such a wide scale and with such a huge sampling group and demographic. The ENIGMA study used 9,000 individuals from across the globe, 7,199 of whom were considered healthy and 1,728 of whom were already diagnosed with depression.

Previous studies have revealed that the health of the hippocampus is an indicator of damage and depression, but these studies have all been limited in size and demographics.

This is the first study of this magnitude.

The hippocampus, located in the medial temporal brain lobe at mid-center of the lower aspect of the brain, controls emotions, spatial navigation, the creation of new memories, and the formation of long term memories.

The brain is divided into right and left hemispheres, but the hippocampus actually rests partially in both halves. It also houses the amygdala, a structure commonly linked to depression.

MRIs from the healthy and depressed subjects were compared. The hippocampus in the healthy individuals didn’t show significant shrinkage in the volume and thickness beyond that of normal aging. The depressed subjects, however, had significant shrinkage and thinning of up to 1.24 percent.

Co-author of the study professor Ian Hickie details the significance of the findings in that your sense of self entirely relies upon having an understanding of who you are in the world. Memory is more than being able to remember the password to unlock your phone, the ability to do a crossword puzzle, and such. It’s also how we view and hold ourselves within the world we live.

Hickie further backs up the findings by pointing to an array of animal experiments that have shrunken the hippocampus. In those cases, the animal’s memory changed, but so did many of the animal’s memory-related behaviors that resulted in a loss of function.

The take away here is that depression isn’t a choice. It’s a form of brain damage. Memories can become more and more negative as the hippocampus shrinks, which can alter both your current and future state of negativity and self-fulfilled bleakness. If your perspective isn’t reigned in, the function and effectiveness of your brain becomes more and more limited.

Research like this reminds you of the importance to keep a positive mindset as often as possible. Some research shows that yoga, meditation, mindful living, positive thinking, and other self-centering practices can create new neural pathways and thicken brain tissue. This could potentially reverse the brain damage associated with depression, but more research is warranted before that can be a conclusive finding.

If you or someone you know struggles with depression, use studies like this to realize that depression itself isn’t a choice. By understanding depression better, you can adopt healthy behaviors to improve your physical and mental state of wellness. Have a question, concern, thought you’d like to share, or know someone who needs to read this? Feel free to use the comment section for your voice.

Our content is created to the best of our knowledge, yet it is of general nature and cannot in any way substitute an individual consultation with your doctor. Your health is important to us!