[Ready2Transform]

Thank you for that link, LL.  Bookmarked!

I had a psychologist who specializes in PTSD tell me she believes if Hoss had been given a mood stabilizer along with his meds, it could have been different. She also said (and I've read it other places), giving an SSRI to someone who actually is bipolar, as he'd been diagnosed, will throw them into mania if they're not already there. There's just a lot more to them than, "take this, cheer up" - which is what we both naively thought would happen.

MBIB, I had been on bcp's for many years, but when my doctor switched me to a monophasic instead of a triphasic one in my early 30's, my hormones immediately went out of wack. I was so scared to come off of them though, because I felt comfortable taking a pill! Dumbest reason ever. Lots of symptoms including swelling, weight gain, hair loss, and fits of anger. 2008 was the last one I was "switched" to in order to see if brand made a difference, and that's when my crisis started. I used the generic form of a drug that has since been taken off the market and has class action suits against it. I took myself off of it in 2010, but my crisis didn't end until 2012. I feel like I have my life back but it threw me into early menopause, so there are some parts that are permanent.

We trust our doctors, and I do think most really do want to help, but the pressure toward pharmaceuticals and the minimization of the risks involved is just so great. It's scary to be a patient of anything, because they hold our lives in their hands far more than we have realized in the past, in my opinion.

[LisaLives]

I don't trust most doctors, and I don't trust any pharmaceuticals.  There is too much disconnect between doctors and pharmacology, and no concern in pharmacology for whole humans, IMHO.  And if I wasn't jaded before, my sons false cancer diagnosis put me there, for sure.  I could tell the whole long story, but if I were not the person I am, and did not become the person it forced me to be (which I also think DID force exH into his crisis and definitely to OW), I would have lost a son.  I do not believe MOST humans are sick and I do not believe that even most sick people need drugs.  I think that is our biggest problem, as a society, that we think we are all broken and in need of adjustment. 

I have ADHD, and I do self-medicate, a bit--there is a reason I am almost never without a Coke, BUT I could have worst vices...  I think it is what makes me successful, in many ways.  Are a lot of people depressed, for sure, but I argue, in most cases, we choose it, and there is so little patience for just getting over stuff and accepting the bad.  We have become a weak and entitled people, in so many ways.  We are impatient, anxious, depressed, hyperactive and so many other things as a result of the way we live and the expectations we have for ourselves...  And we allow people to think we are WRONG because they make money from those beliefs.  Most of the things I buy are supposed to fix me--make me smarter, richer, more popular, healthier, better, faster, stronger, prettier, thinner, or have more time to be those things.  Anyway, stepping down from my soapbox, but read these, too... 

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/art-levine/abilify-is-top-selling-us_b_6282684.html
https://www.psychologytoday.com/blog/sacramento-street-psychiatry/201503/americas-top-selling-drug

[MyBrainIsBroken]

One comment. SSRIs inhibit reuptake, leaving more free serotonin available to receptors, so SSRIs should help relieve all of the problems described here.

Not necessarily: 

http://www.neuropsychotherapist.com/is-the-low-serotonin-theory-of-depression-wrong/

Thanks for the link. This is an interesting article. The first part of my comment is valid, SSRIs increase the amount of available serotonin. I wasn't aware of the controversy over whether having more available serotonin is a good thing or a bad thing. The article does make a lot of interesting points. I know I haven't had much luck with SSRIs. Last fall my doctor had to take me off an SSRI because it greatly increased my suicidal ideation. I'm taking bupropion (Wellbutrin) which is not an SSRI. It affects neurotransmitters other than serotonin. I haven't had any problems with bupropion.

I don't believe in mindlessly following doctor's advice, but I do think some doctors and some medications can be useful.

[osb]

I don't trust most doctors, and I don't trust any pharmaceuticals.  ... I do not believe MOST humans are sick and I do not believe that even most sick people need drugs. 

Gentle defense of docs here (well, I do have a vested interest  )  Most of what we know about the workings of the brain (or other parts of the body), come from research by interested, earnest but fallible docs (people like everyone else). Hence insulin, chemo, antihypertensives, etc etc. The same substances exist in nature; some chemo comes from plants, aspirin from willow bark. No kickbacks from pharma for prescribing btw, whether you chew on aspirin or willow.

But the study of brain chemistry is fraught with problems - a lab rat can't tell you it feels happier, and a mouse can't tell you its romantic inclinations are suppressed. So the drugs affecting mood are terribly hit and miss, and the brain side-effect profile of most drugs is completely unknown. Relies completely on people reporting back on what drugs don't work for them, and red-flagging side-effects that nobody expected.  It's not intentional harm; but it's a grave limitation of the ways in which we can understand the body (but not the mind). Treatment of even depression is still largely on the Alice-in-Wonderland principle ("the left side of the mushroom makes you bigger, the right side makes you small; try one, then the other"). The brain chemistry of something so complex as MLC is mind-boggling; don't think there will ever be a treatment.

[Anjae]

The brain chemistry of something so complex as MLC is mind-boggling; don't think there will ever be a treatment.

I think one day there will be a treatment. But brain chemistry, in fact brain neurology is very complex. The brain is much more than its neurotransmitters.

Neurologists also research the brain. But, like with doctors, their mice don't tell them how they are feeling. Studies are also conducted by dissecting the human brain, but, since on that case, the person is dead, also nothing about how they are feeling.

But we already know that, for example, Alzheimer's patients brains become different. Among other things, in the brain of an Alzheimer's patient the colour of the substantia nigra will change and their hippocampus (that is necessary for instances for episodic memory) is diminished or nearly vanished.

However, like with many other things regarding the brain, we still do not know enough/that much. We know much more than what we used to, but there is still a long way to go.

MLC seems to be more connected with out of order hormones than strictly with brain chemistry. Out of order hormones, will affect the brain chemistry, as well as other things in the brain.

And another thing that alters the brain is the ambient a person is in/live in/works at. Many of our MLCers lead lives who, while they are leading them, will provoke brain changes.

For those interested, Cousera has some very good short term courses on the brain/neuroscience/neurobiology and also on genetics. 

[Anjae]

A very interesting article on More Intelligent Life about dopamine and a scientist who has been researching it for 30 years, Dr Kent Berridge - http://moreintelligentlife.com/content/features/wanting-versus-liking

His views were not accepted at first. In fact, for many years, but have now become to be seen as making sense.

These are just highlights from the article, it is worthy ready in full.

So, dopamine is linked both to desire (wanting) and pleasure (liking), but we may desire something that we do not like. One thing to always have in consideration that Dr Berridge says:

«He says is not a reductionist who believes we can explain away our minds by these brain mechanism's. "Its just I think these brain mechanisms are part of our minds"» I happen to agree with him. We cannot explain our minds only on the basis of whatever brain mechanisms, let alone a person, its actions or soul.

Another important thing: «There are few certainties in this game. Berridge views science as a cacophony of ideas shouting at each other. “You place your bets, the wheel spins...” »

His views regarding addiction:

«Together with his Michigan colleague Terry Robinson, Berridge has sought to understand why addicts crave drugs, even after years of abstinence, and how this overwhelming desire could be separate from liking the drug of choice. They have found that addictive substances hijack the dopamine system, altering it permanently by a process they call incentive-sensitisation.

We now know, he says, that “when exposed to addictive substances—cocaine, amphetamine, heroin, alcohol, nicotine and even sugar—neurons are releasing more dopamine, and also sprouting more receptors for a transmitter that makes them release the dopamine.” This is a permanent physical change, which remains even if they stop taking the drug (although dopamine production in general slows as we age).»

Can we see some similarities with our MLCer and what is going on with them?

Also:

"What’s more, brains become sensitised to cues. If you use Pavlovian conditioning on rats to link a certain cue to cocaine or sugar, the rats will eventually end up wanting the cue more than the substance. This behaviour is also common in humans. For many addicts, scoring drugs becomes part of the ritual, eventually rendering the anticipation more pleasurable than the drug. The same may apply to checking our phones."

«Dopamine is a powerful motivator, and itself a high, of sorts. When it is stimulated, subjects have reported that everything and everyone seems brighter and more desirable. “There are notions”, Berridge told me in Washington, “that dopamine’s anticipatory joy is a wonderful thing, and certainly it is, when you think of Christmas morning, window-shopping and things. Even if it’s all by itself, without the pleasure coming, people do become addicted to it.”»

«Some brains are more dopamine-reactive, and thus prone to addiction. “Roughly 30% of individuals are very susceptible.” Genetics, traumatic stress during childhood, gender (women are more prone) and other factors are all implicated. Along with pleasure rewards and their cues, novelty also activates dopamine. Even something as simple as dropping your keys once will fire dopamine neurons. Drop them a few more times and the neurons will get bored and take no notice.»

And this very interesting part on free will, self-control:

«That’s not to say that self-control alone doesn’t stand a chance. Take the most extreme form of wanting: addiction. There are two main schools of thought on its hold over us, which Berridge and the Cambridge philosophy professor Richard Holton outline in a chapter of a recent book, “Addiction and Self-Control: Perspectives from Philosophy, Psychology and Neuroscience”, edited by an Oxford neuroethicist, Neil Levy. The first is the disease model: addicts are driven “by a pathologically intense compulsion that they can do nothing to resist”. The second is that addicts’ decisions are no different from normal choices, and are dealt with intellectually.

Holton and Berridge call for a middle ground. The strength of dopamine/wanting in an addict’s brain is so fierce that it is hard to conquer. Addicted pilots and anaesthetists, who have to take blood and urine tests to keep their jobs, are remarkably good at avoiding drugs and alcohol when they have to. But not all addicts have such clear incentives, and people in these fields may have been disciplined in the first place. For the rest of us, there are ways to give self-control a leg-up.»

Like Holton and Berridge I also call for a middle ground.

[Ready2Transform]

Alterations to gut bacteria as a result of stress in early life may play a key role in the development of anxiety and depression in adulthood, according to the results of a new study published in Nature Communications.


Researchers say stress in early life may trigger gut bacteria alterations that lead to the development of anxiety and depression in adulthood.

Increasingly, researchers are investigating how gut bacteria impact health. In November 2014, for example, Medical News Today reported on a study revealing how gut bacteria influence weight, while another study associated gut bacteria with Parkinson's disease.

According to senior study author Premysl Bercik, associate professor of medicine at the Michael G. DeGrotte School of Medicine at McMaster University in Canada, and colleagues, it has long been known that gut bacteria can also influence behavior.

However, the majority of studies investigating this association have used healthy, normal mice, says Bercik. For their study, the team used two groups of mice; one group had normal gut bacteria while the other group had no gut bacteria.

Some of the mice in each group were subjected to early-life stress, triggered by separation from their mothers for 3 hours daily from the age of 3-21 days.
Neonatal stress changed gut bacteria in mice, inducing anxiety and depression

In mice with normal gut bacteria, the team found stressed mice developed abnormal levels of the stress hormone corticosterone, alongside anxiety and depression-like behavior. What is more, these mice showed impaired gut function.

However, while stressed mice with no gut bacteria still experienced a rise in corticosterone and impaired gut function, they did not develop anxiety and depression-like behavior.

The researchers then colonized stressed germ-free mice with bacteria from stressed mice with normal gut bacteria. They found this triggered anxiety and depression, but this was not the case when they transferred gut bacteria from stressed mice into non-stressed germ-free mice.

"This suggests that in this model, both host and microbial factors are required for the development of anxiety and depression-like behavior," explains Bercik. "Neonatal stress leads to increased stress reactivity and gut dysfunction that changes the gut microbiota which, in turn, alters brain function."

Speaking of the importance of their findings, Bercik says:

    "We are starting to explain the complex mechanisms of interaction and dynamics between the gut microbiota and its host. Our data show that relatively minor changes in microbiota profiles or its metabolic activity induced by neonatal stress can have profound effects on host behavior in adulthood."

The team says it is important to determine whether the observations made in this study apply to humans. "For instance, whether we can detect abnormal microbiota profiles or different microbial metabolic activity in patients with primary psychiatric disorders, like anxiety and depression," adds Bercik.

In April, MNT reported on a study published in the journal Cell, in which researchers identified specific gut bacteria that may play an important role in the production of serotonin - a neurotransmitter believed to be responsible for maintaining mood balance.

Written by Honor Whiteman

Copyright: Medical News Today
http://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/297382.php

[Anjae]

More genetics than neuroscience, but still interesting. Must be taken with a grain of salt since the sample size is only of 32 people who were all Holocaust survivors.

That is, the sample size is small, and it is not know how it would affect non Holocaust survivors.

But it is not too far fetched to consider that trauma can, much like stress, can be genetically passed. In the case of stress a child of a genetically stressed mother, if raised by a non genetically stress mother will not be genetically stress, because genes alter with ambient.

In the case of the Holocaust survivors, the researchers do not tell us (or have no way of telling us) if the trauma was already there before the Holocaust or was added during it. It is plausible that during it. So, we can assume that the parents did not born with genetic trauma.

However, since genes change with ambient and life events, it may also be possible that the children who were born with a trauma gene may, under certain circumstances, loose it.

http://www.theguardian.com/science/2015/aug/21/study-of-holocaust-survivors-finds-trauma-passed-on-to-childrens-genes

[Ready2Transform]

Just in case the Dr. Joe Carver link didn't appear anywhere prior, here it is:

http://www.drjoecarver.com/clients/49355/File/Chemical%20Imbalance.html

Huge amount of information with the most important (IMO) being the effects of low serotonin.

[Velika]

I posted this in the Gut Health thread as well, but I read that upwards of 95 percent of body's serotonin is stored in the gut:

http://www.scientificamerican.com/article/gut-second-brain/

Another article of interest that was posted elsewhere on the forum by another member challenges the idea that low seratonin causes depression and instead posits that homeostasis is key:

http://www.neuropsychotherapist.com/is-the-low-serotonin-theory-of-depression-wrong/

My husband had his MLC in the wake of starting Paxil. I recently learned SSRIs can trigger manic or hypomanic episodes in people with no history of them but with a family history of bipolar (which my husband's family has). I believe my husband was hypomanic or manic around bomb drop and that many of the spouses on this forum were likely as well.