Suffer from Depression? Your Internal Clock Might Be Off
Depression has long been known to be a serious illness. And given the fact that an estimated one in 10 adults in America suffers from it, there have been countless studies attempting to figure out what causes depression, and therefore, how we can better help people deal with it. While there have been some breakthroughs, a unique report from researchers at the University of Michigan presents findings worth noting. Jun Li, the lead author of the study, which was recently published in the Journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, says that depression is linked to something quite simple: our body's sleep clock.
Depression is not just being sad about another Kevin James movie. It's not even that feeling you get when you're dumped by a partner. According to the CDC depression can "result in increased work absenteeism, short-term disability, and decreased productivity" and even make other ailments — such as asthma, heart disease, cancer, diabetes, and obesity — worse. It is a very serious condition and it lasts. So yes, hearing that another studio agreed to pay James is horrible, but you get over it. And yes, that relationship ending was brutal, but you'll find someone else. Depression is worse.
The fact that depression is so debilitating is what led Li and his team to investigate it. They started by taking a different perspective; and examining dead peoples' brains. The scientists analyzed about 12,000 genes from 55 brains of people who had suffered no known psychological or neurological illness. They also studied 34 brains of people who had battled with severe depression. They were looking for "daily activity rhythms" in the brains.
They found that the normal brain gene activity was very regimented. So much so that they could predict within the hour of when the person had died. But in the depressed brains, the "internal clock" was so disrupted that their gene activity during the day sometimes indicated it was night, and vice versa. "We saw that the people with depression were not synchronized to the usual solar day in terms of this gene activity," Li recently explained to the British newspaper The Independent, adding: "It's as if they were living in a different timezone than the one they died in."
Since we depend so much on our internal clocks to keep us sane, Li's findings are huge. There's going to need to be more research, but the study indicated that sleep is even more important to people suffering from depression than others. If they can align themselves to those "normal" people, perhaps it would help them heal. Li theorizes that by resetting their internal clocks though light therapy and/or physical activity, the severly depressed might find some form of relief.
Of course, Li's thoery might clash with other treatments for depression — a lot of depression meds make people sleepy and too much sleep is often just as bad as too little. The line is extremely fine. But Li's study could mean good things for depressed people. Even those who are still spiraling after seeing a trailer for Grown Ups 2.
[Pic via Flickr - Hang In There]
