Can depressive disorder be the outcome of an infectious disease

One in five Australians aged 16-85 experience a mental illness in any year. The most common mental illnesses are depressive, anxiety and substance use disorder. These three types of mental illnesses often occur in combination. For example, a person with an anxiety disorder could also develop depression, or a person with depression might misuse alcohol or other drugs, in an effort to self-medicate. Of the 20% of Australians with a mental illness in any one year, 11.5% have one disorder and 8.5% have two or more disorders. Almost half (45%) Australians will experience a mental illness in their lifetime.

Recently Psychiatric News ran a story with at least one researcher asking if major depressive disorder is the outcome of an infectious disease? This question arises from the belief that a variety of infectious pathogens affect the central nervous.

Patients with depression exhibit sickness behavior. Also, depression is significantly associated with infectious agents, including viruses like Borna disease virus, herpes simplex virus-1, varicella zoster, and Epstein-Barr virus. Parasites like Toxoplasma gondii may play a role. And even if every case of depression isn’t caused by an infectious agent; given its prevalence, even a subset of patients would still add up to a large number of cases. We know, for example, infectious agents have been known to affect the brain and cause psychiatric disorders. Syphilis helped fill America’s mental asylums in the late 19th century.

It’s said that among patients with diagnosed major depression or bipolar disorder, those with a history of suicide attempt had higher Toxoplasma gondii antibody titers.

Another possibility is the “leaky gut” hypothesis, suggesting that cytokines increase intestinal-tract permeability to lipopolysaccherides from gram negative bacteria and that antibodies to the LPS are found at higher levels in depressed patients.

The key may not be a disease, however, rather an inflammatory reaction caused by disease given that higher levels of pro-inflammatory cytokines are found in people with depression. A recent report, drawing on data from the Avon Longitudinal Study of Parents and Children in Great Britain, found that children with the highest levels of the systemic inflammatory marker IL-6 at age 9 were more likely to be depressed at age 18.

The Most Toxic Types of People to Avoid at Work

Anyone who has ever worked in an office knows there’s more to succeeding at your job than just doing the work itself. A big part of almost any position involves relationship management – in other words, knowing how to get along with different personality types.

But being a team player and navigating office politics can only take you so far. Even experienced employees can quickly feel like they’re drowning in quicksand when working with toxic people.

While it’s impossible to avoid all difficult people at work, learning to recognize common problematic personalities can be helpful, and in some cases, it can save your career. Once you know the type of person you’re dealing with, it’s easier to shift gears from business as usual relationship management to specific strategies that can minimize the damage such people can do to those around them when left unchecked in the office.

Here are tell-tale signs of three toxic types of people you may encounter in your company and how to deal with them most effectively.

Constant complainer

Negativity is draining and depressing, both for the person complaining and those around him or her. While there are certainly plenty of legitimate issues one might complain about at work, beware of people who seem perpetually dissatisfied and are constantly complaining about issues at work that can’t be changed.

While you may initially feel compelled to lend an ear, associating yourself too closely with this personality type can mark you as one of the same.

If you join in negative talk with the depressed complainer, other colleagues may notice your dissatisfaction and be repelled by you. Instead of showing sympathy or chiming in you may wish to avoid it.

Boundary-less BFF

It’s nice to have allies at work, and over time, some colleagues may consider themselves to be friends as well as co-workers. But when a peer or boss comes on too strong and quickly in the friendship department, see it as a red flag.

When starting a job in a new workplace, the first person who wants to be your best friend may not be genuine.  Beware the office gossip who takes a personal interest in you. That person may be mining for information to be used against you.

The “too close” personality can be seen in some supervisors who want to be pals with their direct reports, grabbing lunch every day and hanging out together after hours. This has become more challenging with the over-sharing of social media and more of a blended work philosophy.

Perhaps keeping your own boundaries strong by limiting the outside-of-work activities and including others in the plans, like by setting up a monthly full-team after-hours event.

Office bully

According to 2015 research by Connectria Hosting, more than half of all professionals surveyed have been bullied by a co-worker, and 65% say they have dreaded going to work because of a colleague.

While you may not recognize the signs of bullying in the office as easily as you do on the children’s playground, bullying of adults is very prevalent and can damage a professional’s esteem and performance quickly. The Workplace Bullying Institute describes bullying as “a systematic campaign of interpersonal destruction that jeopardizes your health, your career [and] the job you once loved.” Common experiences include being constantly undermined in meetings and told your work isn't good enough no matter what you do, as well as being yelled at and ostracised by others.

Name this type of harassment for what it is – bullying or emotional abuse – rather than pretend it isn't happening. Consider taking time out to recover from the effects of bullying before you feel ready to deal with it. Almost all companies these days have workplace support systems, anti-bullying and harassment policies and procedures.

The colour of our office space - the impact of colour on our psychology and productivity

I have written extensively on the subject of light and colour elsewhere.  However I wanted to share some thoughts here on colour and its impact on our psychology and productivity.

Light signals from the retina is analysed by retinal ganglion cells, which compare the stimulation of neighbouring cones, and calculate whether the light reaching a patch of cones is more blue, yellow, red or green. These signals travel to the brain where they are divided into several pathways - throughout the cortex. For example, visual signals from the photo-receptors pass to retinal ganglion cells, which code colour information, and then to the lateral geniculate nucleus in the thalamus (hypothalamus, which governs our endocrine system and hormones, and much of our activity) and onwards to the primary visual cortex. The primary visual cortex preserves the spatial relationships of images on the retina. Colour processing, perception building and interpretation is a complex mind function.

It’s also been shown that what defines whether a colour is stimulating or soothing is not the colour but rather its intensity. A strong bright colour will stimulate while a colour with low saturation may help soothe. Research has also shown that each colour affects a different part of us. The four psychological primaries are: red, blue, yellow and green. And they affect the body (red), the mind (blue), the emotions, the ego, and self-confidence (yellow) with balance between the mind, the body, and emotions (green).

And so back to your office….

• If you and your colleague are doing mind-work all day consider painting your office blue; however introduce some yellow or orange where possible.

• For and office of designers wanting to promote creativity, use yellow to stimulate ego and spirit; This may also help increase the level of optimism.

• Productivity of physical work might be improved by red.  It’s said that red might contribute to physical strength and stimulus.

• If you’re in an environment where having a strong sense of balance is most important, green might just be the colour. As well it’s balanced, calming and reassuring.

Colour, like a musical note doesn't actually evoke much of an emotional response until it’s combined with other colours.

Cracking the code

If you’re the parents of 6-year-old Massimo who has been diagnosed with a rare brain disorder, so rare it has no name. And all you’re told is that the myelin, the insulation that surrounds the nerves of the brain is missing or breaking down. What do you do?

Massimo's developmental milestones stopped and he was regressing. He could not stand or speak. Stephen and his wife Sally were losing their son; and his prognosis was dire.  

This is a story of a father's search to find a diagnosis, and ultimately a cure, for his son's mystery disease. The family teamed with geneticist Ryan Taft to map their genome in an attempt to discover the cause of their son's illness and in the process developed a diagnostic tool that will revolutionise diagnoses and treatments of diseases as complex and rare as Massimo's leukodystrophy.

Previously, trying to find a specific gene mutation that might be responsible for a disease was a million times harder than finding a needle in a haystack. Stephen, Massimo's dad suggested that Ryan align the genomes, or DNA blueprints, of himself, his wife Sally as well as Massimo, to find any unique variations and thereby create a smaller haystack was previously untried. Stephen convinced Massimo's neurologist, Dr Rick Leventer at Melbourne's RCH, that it was just a case of technology, statistics, data, and money, but that it could be done.

Once Taft was able to locate and isolate the specific genetic mutation of Massimo's DARS gene, the hunt was on to find other children with the same genetic mutation so that the diagnoses could be confirmed. With the help of Dr Adeline Vanderver at the Children's National Hospital in Washington DC, along with Prof. Marjo van der Knaap and Dr Nicole Wolf in Amsterdam, they were able to locate several other children with DARS mutations and have now moved on to the next phase of Mission Massimo: finding a cure.

Cracking the code

Cracking the code by

Sally & Stephen Damiani, Leah Kaminsky

This is a beautifully written story of a father's search to find a diagnosis, and ultimately a cure, for his son's (Massimo) mystery disease. Massimo succumbed to a mystery disease. In the space of a few weeks, the toddler lost the ability to eat and crawl. The prognosis was bleak and the cause mystifying.

It’s the story of how a man teamed with geneticist to map his family's genome in an attempt to discover the cause of his son's illness and in the process developed a diagnostic tool that will revolutionize diagnoses and treatments of diseases as complex and rare as his son’s leukodystrophy. This is also a story that is an inspiration that has set the world of genetic medicine and research abuzz with the possibilities for the future.

But first, in the way of a brief background; the Human Genome Project was an international research effort to determine the sequence of the human genome and identify the genes that it contains. This project began in 1990 and was completed in 2003, 2 years ahead of its original schedule. The work of the Human Genome Project has allowed researchers to begin to understand the blueprint for building a person. As researchers learn more about the functions of genes and proteins, this knowledge is envisioned to have a major impact in the fields of medicine, biotechnology, and the life sciences.

Even though this isn’t a story about the use of a reference genome (as a representative example of a species' set of genes) it is very much about locating and isolating the specific genetic mutation of Massimo's DARS (aspartyl-tRNA synthetase) gene.

Cracking the Code screened on Australian Story Stephen Damiani and his extraordinary ordinary family in 2013. Previously, trying to find a specific gene mutation that might be responsible for a disease was a million times harder than finding a needle in a haystack. The Damiani family teamed with geneticist Ryan Taft to map their family's genome in an attempt to discover the cause of their son's illness. Stephen (dad) suggested that Ryan align the genomes of himself, his wife Sally as well as Massimo, to find unique variations and thereby create a smaller haystack was previously untried. Stephen convinced Massimo's neurologist, Dr Rick Leventer at Royal Children's Hospital Melbourne that it was just a case of technology, statistics, data, and money, but that it could be done.

Once Taft was able to locate and isolate the specific genetic mutation of Massimo's DARS gene, the hunt was on to find other children with the same genetic mutation so that the diagnoses could be confirmed. With the help of Dr Adeline Vanderver at the Children's National Hospital in Washington DC, along with Prof. Marjo van der Knaap and Dr Nicole Wolf in Amsterdam, they were able to locate several other children with the same mutations and have now moved on to the next phase of Mission Massimo: finding a cure.

The Monty Hall problem

The following simple Maths problem has proven to be subtle, controversial, paradoxical and idiosyncratic. All this aside, the result is nonetheless factual and makes good television.

So you’re on a game show where you’ve been shown 3 doors. Behind one of the doors is a prize. Behind the other 2 are goats. You get to choose a door. Let’s say you choose door 1. The host then opens one of the doors you didn’t choose to revel a goat.

You’re now asked if you want to stay with your fist choice of door or would rather switch doors. What do you do? Your first thought is to stay door 1. After all, it has worked out so far. Since there are 2 doors now, you reason that it’s a 50/50 shot for the prize.

Right?

Wrong!!!

The best strategy for this game is to switch every time.

• The player who’s strategy is to switch every time will only lose when door they initially selected had the prize behind it.

• Since the odds of choosing the prize on the first move are one in three. The odds of losing the game when you switch every time are also one in three.

• This means that a person who switches every time will win two-thirds of the time. This is double the odds of winning of the person whose strategy is to stay every time.

Acceptance and Commitment Therapy

Recently I published a post presenting one of the many hundreds of techniques in mindfulness. It was the 5, 4, 3, 2, 1 method. Many of you acknowledged the value of mindfulness as practiced in psychology but also as a widely popular as an adjunct to conventional medical, psychological therapy, behavioural psychology and an effective tool for increasing emotional intelligence. I wanted to touch on Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT) as a powerful mindfulness-based therapy which currently leads the field in terms of research, application and results.

Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT) gets it name from one of its core messages: accept what is out of our personal control, and commit to action that improves and enriches our life. The aim of ACT is to maximise human potential for a rich, full and meaningful life. ACT is a mindfulness-based therapy.

As we know mindfulness is a mental state of awareness, focus and openness - which allows us to engage fully in whatever we’re doing at any moment. In a state of mindfulness, difficult thoughts and feelings have much less impact and influence over us - so it’s hugely useful for everything from full-blown psychiatric illness to enhancing athletic or business performance. ACT provides a range of tools to learn mindfulness skills, many of which require only a few minutes to master.

ACT breaks mindfulness skills down into 3 categories:

• Defusion - distancing from, and letting go of, unhelpful thoughts, beliefs and memories.

• Acceptance - making room for painful feelings, urges and sensations, and allowing them to come and go without a struggle.

• Contact with the present moment - engaging fully with our here-and-now experience, with an attitude of openness and curiosity.

These skills require us to use an aspect of our self for which there isn’t a word in common everyday language. It is the part of us that is capable of awareness and attention. In ACT, this is often called the 'observing self'. Self can be talked about in many ways, but it’s the physical self and the thinking self. The observing self is the part of us that is able to observe both our physical self and our thinking self.

We can think of it also as awareness.  It’s the part of us that is aware of everything else: aware of every thought, every feeling, everything we see, hear, touch, taste, smell, and do.

Developing psychological flexibility through six core processes in ACT

• Being psychologically present: consciously connecting with whatever is happening right here, right now.

•  Learning to step back or detach from unhelpful thoughts and worries and memories

• Opening up and making room for painful feelings and sensations.

• Accessing both our thinking self and observing self. The thinking self is the part that is responsible for all our thoughts, beliefs, memories, judgments, fantasies. The observing self is the part of our mind that is able to be aware of whatever we are thinking or feeling or doing at any moment.

• Understanding our values and beliefs - what we want our life to be about. What we want to stand for. What we would like to be remembered for by the people we love.

• Committed action by taking action guided by our values, doing what matters even if it's difficult or uncomfortable.