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For over five years now i have suffered from depression and anxiety . Like anyone else who has suffered from these conditions i went to see psychiatrist in attempt to rid myself of this affliction.
They could not say what was causing my condition , but gave me prozac just the same saying it would help me . Needless to say it didn't work , in fact it made me about ten times worse.
I then decided to take matters into my own hands ,and spent a number of months
researching over the internet the causes of depression. Time and time again across the information that the the disregulation of HPA (Hypothalamus Pituitary Axis) and the subsequent hypersecretion of the Stress Hormone Cortisol is responible for causing depression.
From Medscape.com :
Corticotropin-Releasing Factor Triggers Depression
Carl Sherman, Contributing Writer
[Clinical Psychiatry News 28(6):27, 2000. © 2000 International Medical News Group.]
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
KEY WEST, FLA. - Adverse experience in early life appears to have a lasting effect on the stress response and thus may play an important role in the etiology of depression, Dr. Charles Nemeroff said at a meeting on psychiatry sponsored by the University of Miami.
Corticotropin-releasing factor (CRF) is most likely a central element in this process and may provide an effective point of intervention for new antidepressants, said Dr. Nemeroff, chairman of the department of psychiatry at Emory University in Atlanta.
The fact that depressed patients hypersecrete cortisol is "the most common finding in biological psychiatry," and CRF, which is secreted by the hypothalamus, appears to be "the culprit." It stimulates pituitary release of corticotropin, or ACTH, which in turn triggers cortisol.
Every study of depressed patients, except those involving atypical depression, has found increased CRF concentrations, which normalize after successful treatment. Postmortem examination of the brains of depressed patients have found 2.5 times the number of CRF-expressing neurons than in normal brains.
The importance of early trauma as a risk factor for later depression as well as other disorders has been suggested by several studies. One such study, involving 1,931 women in four community-based primary care practices, showed that the 204 women who had been physically and/or sexually abused as children had more physical symptoms, depression, and anxiety than the others. They also were more prone to substance abuse and suicide attempts.
Preclinical studies point to changes in CRF as a result of early stress. Rats subjected to maternal deprivation in the first 2 weeks of life, for example, showed a "supersensitive" stress response as well as increased CRF gene expression. They also show heightened plasma and CSF concentrations of the hormone - both basally and in response to stress. "This matches what is seen in depressed patients," Dr. Nemeroff said at the meeting, also sponsored by the South Florida Psychiatric Society.
He reported a study that brought these strands together. It compared the stress responses of 11 women who had no history of early stress and no psychiatric disorders; 12 women who had a history of childhood abuse, largely sexual, but no major depression; and 10 women who had both the abuse history and depression.
The patients were subjected to a stressful situation: They were told to give a speech on a topic for which they were unprepared and to perform a difficult arithmetic task.
The increase in ACTH was "in the Cushing's range" for the women who had a history of abuse but far less pronounced in the controls.
The increase in cortisol was marked in the previously abused women who were depressed but not in those who were abused but not depressed. The depressed-abused women also showed dramatic tachycardia in response to the stress task, while the others did not.
CRF is a promising area for potential novel antidepressants: Three pharmaceutical companies are in fact developing CRF-receptor antagonists. In addition to treatment applications, they could arguably "prevent the persistent sequelae of trauma if given in early childhood," Dr. Nemeroff said.
Studies have associated increasing doses of these agents with reduction in CRF receptors. "In the next 10 years, we'll see the introduction of such compounds," he predicted.
I have since then taken this information and others like it to numerous doctors ,however they refuse to take it into account as they weren't taught it at med school . Its a real tragedy that myself and others like me will have to wait another ten years , before we hear a doctor say :
" You know what i think your problem is too much cortisol..."
They could not say what was causing my condition , but gave me prozac just the same saying it would help me . Needless to say it didn't work , in fact it made me about ten times worse.
I then decided to take matters into my own hands ,and spent a number of months
researching over the internet the causes of depression. Time and time again across the information that the the disregulation of HPA (Hypothalamus Pituitary Axis) and the subsequent hypersecretion of the Stress Hormone Cortisol is responible for causing depression.
From Medscape.com :
Corticotropin-Releasing Factor Triggers Depression
Carl Sherman, Contributing Writer
[Clinical Psychiatry News 28(6):27, 2000. © 2000 International Medical News Group.]
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
KEY WEST, FLA. - Adverse experience in early life appears to have a lasting effect on the stress response and thus may play an important role in the etiology of depression, Dr. Charles Nemeroff said at a meeting on psychiatry sponsored by the University of Miami.
Corticotropin-releasing factor (CRF) is most likely a central element in this process and may provide an effective point of intervention for new antidepressants, said Dr. Nemeroff, chairman of the department of psychiatry at Emory University in Atlanta.
The fact that depressed patients hypersecrete cortisol is "the most common finding in biological psychiatry," and CRF, which is secreted by the hypothalamus, appears to be "the culprit." It stimulates pituitary release of corticotropin, or ACTH, which in turn triggers cortisol.
Every study of depressed patients, except those involving atypical depression, has found increased CRF concentrations, which normalize after successful treatment. Postmortem examination of the brains of depressed patients have found 2.5 times the number of CRF-expressing neurons than in normal brains.
The importance of early trauma as a risk factor for later depression as well as other disorders has been suggested by several studies. One such study, involving 1,931 women in four community-based primary care practices, showed that the 204 women who had been physically and/or sexually abused as children had more physical symptoms, depression, and anxiety than the others. They also were more prone to substance abuse and suicide attempts.
Preclinical studies point to changes in CRF as a result of early stress. Rats subjected to maternal deprivation in the first 2 weeks of life, for example, showed a "supersensitive" stress response as well as increased CRF gene expression. They also show heightened plasma and CSF concentrations of the hormone - both basally and in response to stress. "This matches what is seen in depressed patients," Dr. Nemeroff said at the meeting, also sponsored by the South Florida Psychiatric Society.
He reported a study that brought these strands together. It compared the stress responses of 11 women who had no history of early stress and no psychiatric disorders; 12 women who had a history of childhood abuse, largely sexual, but no major depression; and 10 women who had both the abuse history and depression.
The patients were subjected to a stressful situation: They were told to give a speech on a topic for which they were unprepared and to perform a difficult arithmetic task.
The increase in ACTH was "in the Cushing's range" for the women who had a history of abuse but far less pronounced in the controls.
The increase in cortisol was marked in the previously abused women who were depressed but not in those who were abused but not depressed. The depressed-abused women also showed dramatic tachycardia in response to the stress task, while the others did not.
CRF is a promising area for potential novel antidepressants: Three pharmaceutical companies are in fact developing CRF-receptor antagonists. In addition to treatment applications, they could arguably "prevent the persistent sequelae of trauma if given in early childhood," Dr. Nemeroff said.
Studies have associated increasing doses of these agents with reduction in CRF receptors. "In the next 10 years, we'll see the introduction of such compounds," he predicted.
I have since then taken this information and others like it to numerous doctors ,however they refuse to take it into account as they weren't taught it at med school . Its a real tragedy that myself and others like me will have to wait another ten years , before we hear a doctor say :
" You know what i think your problem is too much cortisol..."
