Clinical depression and smoking

Jack Dikian

October 2011

Not long ago I was using the Google trends tool to look at various search volume correlations for clinical depression and other factors including smoking. I noticed Australians are in the top three countries using Google to search “depression”. The first was Ireland followed by South Africa. Another interesting thing, albeit, without a real hard look seems like there is about half the volume of searches for depression now compared to 5 or 6 years ago.

As I mentioned, my real objective was to see if there was anything to glean from data reflecting people’s propensity to use a search engine for perceived tag combinations such as “depression” and “smoking”.

Indeed, a study by the Toronto-based Centre for Addiction and Mental Health reports that the same enzyme, Monoamine oxidase (MAO), is found in elevated levels in both people suffering from clinical depression as well as heavy smokers in the early stages of abstaining from smoking. This could be why people struggle to quit the habit.

Smokers in the study also reported increased feelings of sadness in questionnaires done as part of the study. The researchers said such findings could explain why smokers are at a higher risk of suffering from depression — almost twice that of the general population, according to Jeffrey Meyer, a senior scientist with the Centre for Addiction who led the study.

Tuberculosis antibiotic treating phobias

Jack Dikian

September 2011

A phobia is defined as the unrelenting fear of a situation, activity, or thing that causes one to want to avoid it. Lifetime prevalence of specific phobias appears to be approximately 5%. However, rates vary widely in different countries, from less than 1% in Northern Ireland to approximately 9% in the United States.

Specific phobias have effectively been treated with behavior therapy1 where classical conditioning thinking is that the response of phobic fear is a reflex acquired to non-dangerous stimuli. Therapy sometimes involves setting up phobic treatment involving exposure to the phobic stimulus in a safe and controlled setting. Flooding, physical and imaginative until the fear fades away can also be used.

Pharmacology, including SSRIs, MAOIs, RIMAs, TeCA, Benzodiazepines have been used as treatment options but more recently It has been shown that a combination of acute dosing of d-cycloserine, an old antibiotic medication used for treating tuberculosis, with exposure therapy facilitates the effects of exposure therapy of social phobia.

1. Marks, I. M. (1987). Fears, phobias, and rituals: Panic, anxiety, and their disorders. New York: Oxford University Press.