Why SSRIs work but don't work the way you might think
Also, bear shapes, bleakness in Montana, but not bleak bears in Montana. Black bears, sure.
Sierra Katow on the podcast
You would think that someone who got good grades, went to Harvard, and has had enough success in standup to release an hour-long special might have no reason to have depression. But you’d only think that if you haven’t been listening to me for the last thousand years telling you THAT’S NOT HOW IT WORKS. Depression, that is. Because NO ONE has reason to have depression, it just happens. Sure, it can be spurred on by environmental or genetic factors but it’s not caused by, say, some sad event. That’s sadness; you’re thinking of sadness there.
Also, another thing I’ve been saying for a thousand years: you can’t achieve your way out of depression. Because on account of it’s not the same thing as sadness or disappointment. Or anything really. It’s its own monster.
Anyway. Sierra Katow is a very funny comedian and she’s on the show this week.
Just because someone’s depressed, doesn’t mean they can’t achieve great things. Just because someone can achieve great things, doesn’t mean they aren’t depressed. You may already know these facts, especially if you’ve been listening to our show doe a while, but they bear repeating because they can be easy to forget. Sierra Katow has a new standup special, her first, called Funt (referring to the Fun Aunt she hopes to be) and she joins us to talk about the depression that has been there since she was a kid and which she’s had to work to manage ever since. It’s an honest and very funny conversation.
New research into how and why antidepressant medications work
For years, it has been believed that selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors (SSRIs) help relieve major depressive disorder by providing a better balance of serotonin in the brain, a correction of a chemical imbalance. Not so, says new a new study. Instead, it’s all about providing better communication channels between the parts of the brain.
“The best evidence of changes in the brain in people suffering from MDD is that some brain regions are not communicating with each other normally,” says Scott Thompson, PhD, professor in the department of psychiatry at the University of Colorado School of Medicine and senior author.
“When the parts of the brain responsible for reward, happiness, mood, self-esteem, even problem solving in some cases, are not communicating with each other properly, then they can’t do their jobs properly.
“There is good evidence that antidepressants that increase serotonin, like SSRIs, all work by restoring the strength of the connections between these regions of the brain. So do novel therapeutics such as esketamine and psychedelics.”
Montana is full of guns and, not shockingly, suicides
The state of Montana has led the nation in suicide rates for the last three years. The New York Times reports on one woman’s efforts to distribute gun locks around the state as a means of cutting those rates down. Problems are: you’re not going to get anywhere with any kind of gun control in Montana these days and the cultural view of mental health and treatment is quite dim. So the odds are long and the deaths pile up and compound:
Research has shown that 135 people can be “exposed” to a single suicide and that some of those closest to the person who dies can be at greater risk of contemplating suicide themselves.
“There is a lot of strength in a small-town structure, but the downside is that if you lose one person to suicide, it can have a large impact on the community,” said Janet Lindow, chief executive of the Rural Behavioral Health Institute in Livingston, Mont., which screens children for suicide risk and connects them with mental health care.
Researchers say numerous issues contribute to Montana’s suicide problem. A report by the state’s suicide prevention coordinator points to a combination of factors, including access to firearms, the isolation of rural living and the relatively large number of veterans and Native Americans in Montana, groups that have had higher rates of suicides.
‘If Not Friend, Why Friend-Shaped?’
Bears look so friendly and cuddly but also can and gladly will kill you to death. Scientific American makes itself useful and goes looking for some answers with a special investigation as to why bears are shaped the way they are.
Why do we find these features friendly? It could be that we simply think bears look like dogs, which humans domesticated over thousands of years explicitly to be our friends. Tens of millions of years ago, bears and dogs had a common ancestor, and they still share some physical traits. Within the order Carnivora, the two are both part of the suborder Caniformia, which refers to “doglike” carnivores. Other caniforms include racoons, seals, red pandas and otters—which are pretty friend-shaped animals.
Some of bears’ features—especially their chubby, rounded face—might also remind us of our own babies.
Rachel Feinstein, comedian and exciting person, is incongruently on Sleeping with Celebrities
We took extra steps to make you sleepy on this one.
You may have seen Rachel Feinstein perform her comedy on late night shows, on YouTube, and on Netflix for her latest special, Rachel Feinstein: Big Guy. If you’re a firefighter in Queens, you may have seen her in her own home while you were stopping by to attempt some home repair at the behest of her husband, also a member of the FDNY. She walks us through her life as the spouse of firefighter. Because that firefighting sounds pretty exciting and because Rachel has a lot of energy, we periodically slow things down by reading from the New York City fire code.
Do you have a link to that SSRI study? Super interesting and I want to read more!