Lovely gifts and also psychedelics, serotonin, and misery
Maybe just concentrate on the gifts, yeah?
If this enterprise can’t raise enough money from listeners/readers, I swear to God, I’ll turn this show around. And we’ll never get to Grandma’s. If you’ve already donated, thank you. If not, go here, pick a level that works for you, then select DEPRESH MODE from the list of shows. And thank you.
Stuff! We got stuff! To buy and have and give!
I’m so very excited about our new DEPRESH MODE MERCH STORE.
It features shirts! Beanies! Hoodies! Sweatpants! Mugs! Blankies! And note cards!
And sweatpants that didn’t fit in the original screen shot!
Most of the stuff has the show name on it but all of it has "I'm glad you're here." So you can buy it because you love the show or just because you're glad someone else (or you yourself!) is here!
Shop early and get stuff nailed down for Christmas gifts!
What do you mean "I’m glad you’re here.”?
The story behind "I'm glad you're here.", which one listener might get tattooed(!), is that I wanted to say something at the top of the show besides my name and the show's name. I thought of how my therapist says, "It's good to see you." Not judgmental just welcoming.
I can't see anyone on the podcast. It's a podcast. But I know that the listeners are there. And they're reaching out to try to make a better world and healthier minds. If you listen to Depresh Mode, I'm glad you're here.
And it also means, quite bluntly, that I'm glad you're not dead. We need you here in the world as long as you can be here because you're cool and smart and fun and I like your hair. You're one of the good people. I'm glad you're here.
Psychedelic treatment is really on the way
Maybe it’s because I’m Gen X and somewhat dubious about everything but I still can’t believe that the future of mental health treatment seems to involve trippy-outy drugs. On this week’s show, I talk to journalist and researcher John Semley about what’s going on in this field and why so many scientists, startup companies, and big pharma giants are busy in the lab creating new strains of psychedelics. The intention is to get these things made, patented, and into legal, clinical settings where they can help people. Because research has indicated they do.
It’s not going to be LSD in the classical sense. For one thing, LSD has like a 12-hour efficacy window and that’s an awfully long time to be in a clinic or, frankly, to be tripping. The new drugs are meant to kind of doink you around for 15 minutes or so, which is evidently enough.
John Semley got doinked up, legally and safely, in Jamaica on a retreat. He tells us how that went (very well!) and what the lasting mental health effects have been.
Getting elective cosmetic surgery doesn’t really fix things
Research reported in Neuroscience News says people who get a lot of work done because they’re insecure or ashamed of their appearance pretty much stay that way.
With the distress associated with body dysmorphic disorder seemingly stemming from physical appearance issues, it makes sense someone with body dysmorphic disorder is far more likely to turn up at a cosmetic clinic for treatment than a mental health clinic.
The problem is, cosmetic intervention usually makes the person with body dysmorphic disorder feel the same or worse after the procedure. They may become even more preoccupied with the perceived flaw and seek further cosmetic procedures.
Wait, how can he fly?
(Shhh, John, just go with it, it’s not like the rest of it is so realistic.)
Is serotonin really the issue with depression?
As a society, we have believed so.
But then the idea was floated that we maybe really don’t know.
Recently, a widely publicized review paper in Nature (Moncrieff et al., 2022) found no direct evidence that serotonin is involved in the pathophysiology of depression. This led to an explosion of reports and even attacks which reverberated across the internet about the serotonin hypothesis, the long-debunked “chemical imbalance” explanation, and, to an extent, psychiatry as a field.
The uproar is understandable–depression affects an estimated 20 million US citizens and nearly 300 million worldwide, and current treatments are only partially effective. There is a growing awareness that mental health problems are epidemic–a recent survey by the American Psychiatric Association found 79 percent of people see mental health as a public health emergency.
Well, the latest is that serotonin is back! New research says so:
The main study result was that in patients with depression, serotonin activity is indeed diminished compared with people without depression. Following d-amphetamine challenge, [11C]Cimbi-36 tracer binding across brain cortex (surface) areas was as expected for healthy individuals, consistent with prior experiments.
However, for depressed participants, a very different pattern emerged. When this group received d-amphetamine, [11C]Cimbi-36 binding was significantly lower than in the non-depressed group, reflecting underlying decreased serotonin activity in depressed patients compared with healthy controls. This activity was seen across many brain regions, reaching statistical significance in the temporal cortex (areas located on the sides of the brain, in rough proximity to the ears).
If you never knew that the role of serotonin was in question, well, that’s fine. Go about your business then.