Depression forum Electroconvulsive therapy (ECT), also known as electroshock or electroshock therapy, uses short bursts of a controlled current of electricity (typically fixed at 0.9 ampere) into the brain to induce a brief, artificial seizure while the patient is under general anesthesia. While a depressed mood is usually seen as deleterious, it may have adaptive benefits. Some general physiological considerations include geics (i.e. a hypothesised innate disposition to depression), neurochemistry (e.g. high levels of stress hormones such as cortisol, low dopamine activity), sleep patterns, female hormone imbalance (e.g. PMS in women), male hormone imbalance (testosterone) in men, use of medication (e.g. corticosteroids), chronic illness (e.g. diabetes or hypothyroidism), and seasonal factors (e.g. seasonal affective disorder related to hormones and sunlight). The causal relationship with biological variables is unknown and so it is difficult to pinpoint the condition's roots. Depression of the central nervous system of an animal may be expressed as drowsiness or sleep, lack of coordination and unconsciousness. For individuals who are in genuine need, however, the fitness cost of major depression is low because the individual is not generating many fitness benefits. The depressed mood is adaptive in that it leads the person towards altering his thought patterns and behavior or way of living or else continues until such a time as he does so. It can be argued that depression and clinical depression is in fact the refusal of a person to heed the call to change from within his own mind. External affective signs of depressed mood also include a physical hunching or stooping, or putting the head in the hands, and an appearance of being physically subdued, and flatness of speech. Electroconvulsive therapy (ECT), also known as electroshock or electroshock therapy, uses short bursts of a controlled current of electricity (typically fixed at 0.9 ampere) into the brain to induce a brief, artificial seizure while the patient is under general anesthesia. Depression forum. The causal relationship with biological variables is unknown and so it is difficult to pinpoint the condition's roots. Repetitive transcranial magic stimulation (rTMS) is under study as a possible treatment for depression. Disturbed sleep patterns, such as insomnia, loss of REM sleep, or excessive sleep (Hypersomnia). Regarding the treatment of depression, this hypothesis calls into question any assumptions by the clinician that the typical cause of depression is related to maladaptive perverted thinking processes or other purely endogenous sources. |