Let your head do the talking Head movements play an important role in conveying emotions through speech and music

October 27, 2015
Science Daily/McGill University
When people talk or sing, they often nod, tilt or bow their heads to reinforce verbal messages. But how effective are these head gestures at conveying emotions? Very effective, according to researchers.

http://images.sciencedaily.com/2015/10/151027132930_1_540x360.jpg
Visual information about emotional states available in head movements could aid in the development of automated emotion recognition systems or human-interaction robots, the researchers say.
Credit: © stockyimages / Fotolia

Very effective, according to researchers from McGill University in Montreal. Steven R. Livingstone and Caroline Palmer, from McGill's Department of Psychology, found that people were highly accurate at judging emotions based on head movements alone, even in the absence of sound or facial expressions.

This finding suggests that visual information about emotional states available in head movements could aid in the development of automated emotion recognition systems or human-interaction robots, the researchers say. Expressive robots could potentially serve a range of functions, particularly where face-to-face communication is important, such as at hotel reception desks and as interactive care robots for the elderly.

Tracking movement, not sound

Using motion-capture equipment to track people's head movements in three dimensions, Livingstone and Palmer recorded vocalists while they spoke or sang with a variety of emotions. The researchers then presented these video clips to viewers without any sound, with the facial expressions of vocalists hidden so that only their head movements were visible. Viewers were then asked to identify the emotions that the vocalists intended to convey.

"We found that when people talk, the ways in which they move their head reveal the emotions that they're expressing. We also found that people are remarkably accurate at identifying a speaker's emotion, just by seeing their head movements," says Palmer, who holds the Canada Research Chair in Cognitive Neuroscience of Performance.

Research idea emerged from a noisy pub

"While the head movements for happy and sad emotions differed, they were highly similar across speech and song, despite differences in vocal acoustics," says Livingstone, a former postdoctoral fellow in the Palmer lab and now a postdoctoral fellow at McMaster University. "Although the research was based on North American English speakers, the focus on head movements creates the possibility for studying emotional communication in contexts where different languages are spoken."

The idea for the study emerged from a noisy pub. "One night in Montreal I was in a bar with my lab mates," explains Livingstone, "It was a lively evening, with lots of people, dim lights, and some very loud music. At one point my friend started to talk me; I knew he was excited though I couldn't make out what he was saying or see his face clearly. Suddenly I realized it was the animated way that he was bobbing his head that told me what he was trying to say."

Adds Palmer, "Our discovery may lead to new applications in situations where sound is not available, such as automated recognition of emotional states in crowd behavior or in hearing impairments, by making use of head movements when watching someone talk. It also has applications in computing and robotics, where the addition of expressive head movements may help make humanoid robots more lifelike and approachable."
http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2015/10/151027132930.htm

Soothing words do more than pills to calm anxious patients

October 27, 2015
Science Daily/American Society of Anesthesiologists (ASA)
Anxious patients heading into surgery often receive medication to ease their fears, but a few calming words from their physicians might actually be more effective medicine. In fact, “conversational hypnosis” as the approach is known, may do a better job than pills for relaxing patients before anesthesia and surgery.

"The anesthesiologist uses calm, positive words to divert the patient's attention and help him or her feel more comfortable," said Emmanuel Boselli, M.D., Ph.D., lead author of the study and a physician anesthesiologist at Édouard Herriot Hospital, Lyons, France. "It reflects a change in the way the physician interacts with the patient and takes just a few minutes."

Researchers used conversational hypnosis, which consists of talking quietly and positively to the patient (e.g. "Keep calm and quiet" vs. "Please don't move") and focusing the patient's attention on something other than the preparations for surgery and anesthesia procedure. They compared the results of hypnosis to the use of a standard medication called hydroxyzine, which is taken orally to relax patients before their procedure. To measure the effects of both, they asked patients to provide a subjective measurement of their comfort on a scale ranging from 0 (no comfort) to 10 (maximal comfort), as well as used an objective test called the Analgesia/Nociception Index (ANI), a 100-point index that is based on heart rate variability. When patients are extremely anxious and stressed the ANI is zero and when they are completely relaxed, the ANI is 100.

In the study of 100 patients undergoing hand surgery, 50 had conversational hypnosis while being given regional anesthesia, and 50 were given 25 mg of oral hydroxyzine 30 minutes to an hour before the induction of anesthesia. Their levels of relaxation were assessed using the ANI as well as the comfort scale, both prior to and after receiving hypnosis or medication and anesthesia.

Patients measured an average ANI of 51 before and 78 after hypnosis, whereas those who had medication averaged 63 before and 70 after. The average comfort scale of those who had received hypnosis was 6.7 before and 9.3 after, while patients who had medication averaged 7.8 before and 8.3 after.

According to Dr. Boselli, the study suggests that conversational hypnosis might increase patient self-reported comfort during regional anesthesia without medication, and that this effect might be objectively monitored using the ANI. "Conversational hypnosis can be used prior to surgery in conscious patients having local or regional anesthesia," said Dr. Boselli. "It also could be beneficial before general anesthesia to decrease patient anxiety."
http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2015/10/151027213824.htm

Lack of 'sleep' may zap cell growth, brain activity

October 30, 2015
Science Daily/University of Tennessee at Knoxville
Lack of adequate sleep can do more than just make you tired. It can short-circuit your system and interfere with a fundamental cellular process that drives physical growth, physiological adaptation and even brain activity, according to a new study.

Albrecht von Arnim, a molecular biologist based in the Department of Biochemistry and Cellular and Molecular Biology, studied plants but said the concepts may well translate to humans.

His team examined how protein synthesis--the process that determines how organisms grow and how cells renew themselves--changes over the course of the daily day-night cycle. He also explored whether any such changes are controlled by the organism's internal time keeper, the circadian clock.

Proteins are newly created in every cell by translating messages made from the cell's own DNA, the genome.

Von Arnim's findings, published in the journal Plant Cell, show not only that protein synthesis activity changed over the course of the day, but also that it was under the influence of the circadian clock.

"When we misalign our behavior with our circadian clock, for example by creating jet lag, or by working as a night owl, we do not only disrupt normal physiological processes such as cycles of appetite and body temperature," von Arnim said. "This work in plants suggests that we may also be interfering with a more fundamental cellular process, protein synthesis."

Muscle action, brain activity, growth and development are functions all performed by proteins whose synthesis is carefully regulated, he said. "For example, when cells are stressed by high temperatures or from a virus infection, they drastically reduce their protein synthesis activity," von Arnim said.

The findings could also have implications for agricultural production as farmers and companies seek to better cultivate land and maximize outputs from plants required to sustain human life.

"Protein synthesis is part of the basis for crop yield," von Arnim said.
http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2015/10/151030153115.htm

Sleep interruptions worse for mood than overall reduced amount of sleep

October 30, 2015
Science Daily/Johns Hopkins Medicine
A new study suggests that awakening several times throughout the night is more detrimental to people's positive moods than getting the same shortened amount of sleep without interruption.

As they report in the November 1 issue of the journal Sleep, researchers studied 62 healthy men and women randomly subjected to three sleep experimental conditions in an inpatient clinical research suite: three consecutive nights of either forced awakenings, delayed bedtimes or uninterrupted sleep.

Participants subjected to eight forced awakenings and those with delayed bedtimes showed similar low positive mood and high negative mood after the first night, as measured by a standard mood assessment questionnaire administered before bedtimes. Participants were asked to rate how strongly they felt a variety of positive and negative emotions, such as cheerfulness or anger.

But the researchers say significant differences emerged after the second night: The forced awakening group had a reduction of 31 percent in positive mood, while the delayed bedtime group had a decline of 12 percent compared to the first day. Researchers add they did not find significant differences in negative mood between the two groups on any of the three days, which suggests that sleep fragmentation is especially detrimental to positive mood.

"When your sleep is disrupted throughout the night, you don't have the opportunity to progress through the sleep stages to get the amount of slow-wave sleep that is key to the feeling of restoration," says study lead author Patrick Finan, Ph.D., an assistant professor of psychiatry and behavioral sciences at the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine.

Although the study was conducted on healthy subjects with generally normal sleep experiences, Finan says the results are likely to apply to those who suffer from insomnia.

Frequent awakenings throughout the night are common among new parents and on-call health care workers, he says. It is also one of the most common symptoms among people with insomnia, who make up an estimated 10 percent of the U.S. adult population. "Many individuals with insomnia achieve sleep in fits and starts throughout the night, and they don't have the experience of restorative sleep," Finan says.

Depressed mood is a common symptom of insomnia, Finan says, but the biological reasons for this are poorly understood. To investigate the link, he and his team used a test called polysomnography to monitor certain brain and body functions while subjects were sleeping to assess sleep stages.

Compared with the delayed bedtime group, the forced awakening group had shorter periods of deep, slow-wave sleep. The lack of sufficient slow-wave sleep had a statistically significant association with the subjects' reduction in positive mood, the researchers say. They also found that interrupted sleep affected different domains of positive mood; it reduced not only energy levels, but also feelings of sympathy and friendliness.

Finan says the study also suggests that the effects of interrupted sleep on positive mood can be cumulative, since the group differences emerged after the second night and continued the day after the third night of the study. "You can imagine the hard time people with chronic sleep disorders have after repeatedly not reaching deep sleep," Finan says. However, he says, further studies are needed to learn more about sleep stages in people with insomnia and the role played by a night of recovering sleep.
http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2015/10/151030220514.htm

Feeling feverish? It might be stress

November 6, 2015
Science Daily/Taylor & Francis
Psychogenic fever is a stress-related, psychosomatic condition that manifests itself in a high body temperature. It is caused by exposure to emotional events or to chronic stress. A new review introduces recent findings from recent research and clinical experience regarding the disease.

"While this condition is known in the literature, only a few doctors in the world study it and treat patients with psychogenic fevers," says Professor Andrej Romanovsky, of St. Joseph's Hospital and Medical Center in Arizona, and the Editor-in-Chief of Temperature, "this is why we have invited Dr. Oka to share his unique experience."

According to Dr. Oka, there has been no epidemiological study of psychogenic fevers yet. Therefore, the number of affected patients is unknown. However, Dr. Oka relays that this condition is relatively widespread -- based on the available case reports and his own clinical practice. He has seen a high number of patients, especially amongst Japanese students due to academic stress. Dr. Oka explains that due to many doctors not fully understanding how stress can affect body temperature, patients with psychogenic fever are being diagnosed with cause unknown for their disabling symptoms.

Dr. Oka further describes that the complaints from patients are of the fever itself, along with the symptoms from the high temperature, symptoms from the stress, plus the symptoms from the psychiatric diseases that the patient may suffer from. "High body temperature is just one of the symptoms induced or exacerbated by stress," Dr. Oka says, "Patients ask for the treatment of fever not just their temperature be normalized, but all symptoms to be treated."

Several treatment options are currently available, but, in general, they are similar to the treatments of other stress-related diseases and not specific to psychogenic fever. However, Dr. Oka is convinced that a breakthrough in treatment will occur in the near future, as more research is conducted. He explains, "Because even their doctors did not believe the fever is caused by or related with psychological stress… Recent animal studies enable the doctors to be aware of this pathophysiology."

Instead of using the traditional term "psychogenic fever," Dr. Oka proposes to call this condition "functional hyperthermia." Using the word "functional" would prevent stigmatizing these patients, and in a clinical setting connotes both stress-related pathology and impaired functioning of the autonomic nervous system which is important to convey in treatment of the condition.
http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2015/11/151106113950.htm

Moderate coffee drinking may be linked to reduced risk of death

November 16, 2015
Science Daily/American Heart Association
Drinking coffee daily was associated with a lower risk of deaths from Type 2 diabetes, cardiovascular diseases, and neurological diseases in nonsmokers. Regular consumption of coffee can be included as part of a healthy, balanced diet.

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Drinking a second or third cup of coffee may do more than get you through a long day -- it may also reduce your risk of death from heart disease and other illnesses.

In a study reported in the American Heart Association journal Circulation, people who regularly drank moderate amounts of coffee daily --less than 5 cups per day -- experienced a lower risk of deaths from cardiovascular disease, neurological diseases, Type 2 diabetes and suicide.

The benefit held true for drinking caffeinated and decaffeinated coffee, suggesting it's not just the caffeine providing health perks but possibly the naturally occurring chemical compounds in the coffee beans.

"Bioactive compounds in coffee reduce insulin resistance and systematic inflammation," said Ming Ding, M.D., the study's first author and doctoral student at the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health in Boston, Massachusetts. "They might be responsible for the inverse association between coffee and mortality. However, more studies are needed to investigate the biological mechanisms producing these effects."

The findings are based on data from three large ongoing studies: 74,890 women in the Nurses' Health Study; 93,054 women in the Nurses' Health Study 2; and 40,557 men in the Health Professionals Follow-up Study.

Researchers assessed coffee drinking every four years using validated food questionnaires and followed participants for up to 30 years. During the follow-up period, 19,524 women and 12,432 men died from a range of causes.

In general, people who frequently drank coffee were more likely to smoke and drink alcohol. To separate the effects of coffee from smoking, researchers repeated their analysis among never-smokers, and found that the protective benefits of coffee on deaths became even more evident.

"Regular consumption of coffee can be included as part of a healthy, balanced diet," said senior author Frank Hu, M.D., Ph.D., a Professor of Nutrition and Epidemiology at Harvard. "However, certain populations such as pregnant women and children should be cautious about high caffeine intake from coffee or other beverages."

The study was not designed to show a direct cause and effect relationship between coffee consumption and dying from illness. So the findings should be interpreted with caution, researchers said. One potential drawback of the study design was that participants were asked to report how much coffee they drank, however researchers found the assessment to be reliable.

Previous studies found inconsistent associations between coffee drinking and risk of total and cause-specific death. This study adds to the literature that moderate coffee consumption may confer health benefits. However, more research is needed to determine how coffee affects the body and whether different types of coffee may play a role.
http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2015/11/151116181005.htm

Weekday sleep changes may raise risk of diabetes, heart disease Study first to find link between social jet lag, metabolism

November 18, 2015
Science Daily/The Endocrine Society
Monday mornings could be harmful to your health. Even routine sleep changes such as waking up early for work during the week may raise the risk of developing metabolic problems such as diabetes and heart disease, according to a new study.

Researchers have long recognized that shift work can contribute to metabolic risk because of the continual disruption to the circadian system. Shift workers are more likely to develop metabolic syndrome, coronary heart disease and Type 2 diabetes than employees with regular daytime shifts.

Sleep disruption is among the factors that have contributed to rising rates of diabetes and obesity. More than 29 million Americans have diabetes, and 35.1 percent of American adults are obese, according to the Endocrine Society's Endocrine Facts and Figures report.
"Social jetlag refers to the mismatch between an individual's biological circadian rhythm and their socially imposed sleep schedules. Other researchers have found that social jetlag relates to obesity and some indicators of cardiovascular function," said Patricia M. Wong, MS, of the University of Pittsburgh in Pittsburgh, PA. "However, this is the first study to extend upon that work and show that even among healthy, working adults who experience a less extreme range of mismatches in their sleep schedule, social jetlag can contribute to metabolic problems. These metabolic changes can contribute to the development of obesity, diabetes and cardiovascular disease."

Researchers examined sleep patterns and cardiometabolic risk in a group of 447 men and women who took part in the Adult Health and Behavior Project Phase 2 study. The participants were between the ages of 30 and 54, and they worked at least 25 hours a week outside the home. Participants wore a wristband that measured their movement and sleep 24 hours a day for a week. The researchers used questionnaires to assess the participants' diet and exercise habits.

Among the participants, nearly 85 percent had a later halfway point in their sleep cycle -- a measurement known as midsleep -- on free days compared to work days. The other 15 percent had an earlier midsleep on free days than on work days.

Participants who had a greater misalignment between their sleep schedules on free and work days tended to have poorer cholesterol profiles, higher fasting insulin levels, larger waist circumference, higher body-mass index and were more resistant to insulin than those who had less social jetlag. The association persisted even when the researchers adjusted the measurements to account for variation in other sleep measures and health behaviors such as physical activity and calorie intake.

"If future studies replicate what we found here, then we may need to consider as a society how modern work and social obligations are affecting our sleep and health," Wong said. "There could be benefits to clinical interventions focused on circadian disturbances, workplace education to help employees and their families make informed decisions about structuring their schedules, and policies to encourage employers to consider these issues."

Other authors of the study include: Brant P. Hasler and Matthew F. Muldoon of the University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine in Pittsburgh, PA; and Thomas W. Kamarck and Stephen B. Manuck of the University of Pittsburgh in Pittsburgh. Dr. Manuck is the head principal investigator of the Adult Health and Behavior Project Phase 2 study.
http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2015/11/151118155112.htm

Bright light treatment efficacious for nonseasonal major depressive disorder

November 18, 2015
Science Daily/The JAMA Network Journals
Bright light treatment either alone or combined with an antidepressant was an effective and well tolerated treatment for adults with nonseasonal major depressive disorder in a randomized clinical trial, according to a new article.

MDD is among the leading causes of disability worldwide and is associated with impaired quality of life and an increased risk of death. Treatments include psychotherapies and antidepressants but remission rates remain low so more therapeutic options are needed. Light therapy has been effective treatment for seasonal affective disorder (SAD).

Raymond W. Lam, M.D., of the University of British Columbia, Vancouver, Canada, and coauthors conducted a double-blind and placebo-and-sham-controlled trial to test the efficacy of light treatment alone and in combination with fluoxetine hydrochloride compared with a placebo treatment involving an inactive device and a placebo pill.

The eight-week trial randomized 122 patients: light therapy (30 minutes/daily exposure to a fluorescent light box as soon as possible after awakening) and placebo pill (n=32); fluoxetine (20 mg/daily) and placebo device (a negative ion generator, n=31); combination light and fluoxetine treatment (n=29); or placebo device and placebo pill (n=30). The change in a common depression rating scale score was the study's primary outcomes.

The authors report combination therapy and light therapy alone were superior to placebo but fluoxetine alone was not superior to placebo.

Why light therapy appears to work is still unknown but hypotheses in SAD involve resynchronizing circadian rhythms. Nonseasonal MDD also may be associated with disturbances in the circadian rhythms, according to the authors.

The authors note limitations of the study including not measuring patients' natural light exposure.
http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2015/11/151118125319.htm

Contact with nature may mean more social cohesion, less crime Human exposure to nature is linked to safer communities with better social, community interactions

November 25, 2015
Science Daily/American Institute of Biological Sciences
In a first-of-its-kind study, an international team tested social correlates of both objective and subjective contact with nature in a systematic way, revealing complex linkages between nature, social cohesion, and a variety of other factors.

Numerous studies have demonstrated the benefits of contact with nature for human well-being. However, despite strong trends toward greater urbanization and declining green space, little is known about the social consequences of such contact. In the December issue of BioScience, an international, interdisciplinary team reports on how they used nationally representative data from the United Kingdom and stringent model testing to examine the relationships between objective measures and self-reported assessments of contact with nature, community cohesion, and local crime incidence.

The results in the report, by Netta Weinstein of Cardiff University and others, were notable. After accounting for a range of possibly interfering factors, including socioeconomic deprivation, population density, unemployment rate, socioeconomic standing, and weekly wages, the authors determined that people's experiences of local nature reported via a survey could explain 8% of a measure of the variation, called variance, in survey responses about perceptions of community cohesion. They describe this as "a striking finding given that individual predictors such as income, gender, age, and education together accounted for only 3%" of the variance.

The relationship with crime was similarly striking. According to the study results, objective measures of the amount of green space or farmland accessible in people's neighborhoods accounted for 4% additional variance in crime rates. The authors argue that this predictive power compares favorably with known contributors to crime, such as socioeconomic deprivation, which accounts for 5% variance in crime rates. "The positive impact of local nature on neighbors' mutual support may discourage crime, even in areas lower in socioeconomic factors," they write. Further, given the political importance placed on past crime reductions as small as 2%-3%, the authors suggest that findings such as theirs could justify policies aimed at ameliorating crime by improving contact with nature.

Finally, the authors note that, unlike some easily measured ecosystem services (e.g., the provision of water or food), "the apparent benefits of contact with nature on social cohesion... are more challenging to tease apart and measure." However, they express the hope that their study "stimulates consideration of how best to ensure that nature, at many different levels, can continue to benefit individuals and society into the future."
http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2015/11/151125125105.htm

How anxiety can kill your social status

November 30, 2015
Science Daily/Ecole Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne
Neuroscientists have identified a brain region that links anxious temperament to low social status. The researchers were able to tweak social hierarchy in animals using a regular vitamin.
https://images.sciencedaily.com/2015/11/151130163226_1_540x360.jpg
A magnified transmission electron microscopy view of the rat nucleus accumbens neurons containing mitochondria in different cellular compartments.
Credit: Graham Knott (EPFL)

here are important differences in how individuals approach life. While some people are relaxed and calm, others often see situations as threatening, making them worried and tense. This kind of 'trait' anxiety has significant consequences on a person's social life, undermining their confidence to compete for social standing. In our competitive world, high-anxious individuals have a disadvantage and can feel overlooked and rejected; as a result this can lead to what psychologists call 'social subordination'. Publishing in PNAS, neuroscientists at EPFL have pinpointed an area of the brain related to motivation and depression that could link trait anxiety to social subordination.

Trait anxiety and low social status: chicken and egg

Both animals and humans establish social ranks through competition, which in turn determines the hierarchy of a social group. The ability to compete depends on different features including size, age, and previous social experience. Some research shows that social competition is also influenced by personality traits, but this has not been explored in depth.

There is a growing suspicion among social scientists and psychologists that when individuals present high anxiety as a personality characteristic, it might actually predispose a person to perform poorly in social competition, trapping them in a vicious cycle of trait anxiety and low social status. However, we know very little about the neuroscience behind this cycle, which could be the key to breaking it.

Rat revelations

The lab of Carmen Sandi at EPFL now brings biological evidence to bear upon the field. The researchers performed a series of experiments to identify the brain areas involved in trait anxiety and social competition. The experiments involved categorizing rats on a spectrum of trait anxiety, from low-anxious to high-anxious rats, which model trait anxiety.

The animals underwent several behavioral tests that required high-anxious rats to compete socially with their low-anxious counterparts, and their performance was quantified and analyzed statistically. In addition, the researchers examined the brains of the rats to identify changes in biological function.

The experiments highlighted an area of the brain known as the 'nucleus accumbens', which has been long-associated with motivation, reward and depression -- in humans too. When competing socially, most of the high-anxious rats took on a lower social status -- technically described as becoming 'socially subordinate'.

The nucleus accumbens of these particular rats showed a reduced energy metabolism. This involves the mitochondria, which are the cell's organelles that are in charge of breathing and energy production. The researchers found that the high-anxious rats showed lower mitochondrial function than more relaxed ones.

Reversing social status with drugs?

The scientists confirmed their findings with pharmacological manipulation: they gave the nucleus accumbens of rats compounds that either block or enhance mitochondria; these included vitamin B3. When rats received blocking agents, their social competitiveness dropped, taking their social status with it.

On the other hand, when high-anxious rats were given enhancers, rats performed significantly better socially, thereby achieving higher social status. But the effects were not permanent: when the drugs wore off, the rats generally returned to their original rung of the social ladder.

The study confirms that trait anxiety can actually predispose an individual to a lower social status. This could mean that pharmacological manipulation of mitochondria in the nucleus accumbens could potentially influence the social rank of a person. The study is also the first to show that the brain's energy metabolism influences the establishment of social hierarchies.

Carmen Sandi remains cautious, since the study involved rats rather than humans; after all, brain function is just one of the many elements that influence social dynamics. "Social interactions are immensely complex," says Sandi. "They involve so many factors that it is difficult to examine the impact of each in isolation. However, this is an exciting finding; it shows a brain mechanism whereby anxious personality affects social competitiveness of individuals, and it points to very promising directions in this field."
http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2015/11/151130163226.htm

Study 'opens gate' to understanding depression

December 1, 2015
Science Daily/Michigan State University
A new scientific model that incorporates the myriad drivers of depression could lead to more precise treatment for an illness that affects 350 million worldwide, report investigators.

Researchers from Michigan State University and MIT created a comprehensive model of depression that shows how the major drivers of the illness intersect. The first-of-its-kind model could lead to more precise treatment for the complex disorder.
Credit: Michigan State University

Developed by scientists at Michigan State University and Massachusetts Institute of Technology, and funded by the National Institute of Mental Health, the model provides a better understanding of depression and the foundation for creating a pioneering tool to attack the complex disorder.

A paper outlining the research team's findings is published online in the journal Psychological Medicine.

"Clinicians who treat depression tend to work on a trial-and-error basis, whereas this model could give them a more systematic and effective method for making decisions about treatment," said Andrea K. Wittenborn, associate professor in MSU's Department of Human Development and Family Studies and lead investigator on the study. "Most importantly, this model provides a method for personalizing treatment to each unique patient."

Depression is likely caused by multiple biological, psychological, social and environmental drivers, and these factors often overlap, such as cortisol hormone levels going up in response to stress from troubled relationships or economic hardship. Yet most previous research on depression focused on only one or two factors, and not how the many factors intersect and unfold over time.

Wittenborn and colleagues analyzed nearly 600 scientific articles on depression and incorporated the major drivers of depression discussed in the research into a complex model that essentially diagrams how one driver affects another. Depression drivers range from sleep problems to social isolation to inflammation of the brain.

Study co-author Hazhir Rahmandad, an MIT scholar, is an expert in a process called system dynamics that's more common to engineering and business. The team used this approach to create a comprehensive model of depression. While future research is needed to further validate the model, it's a vital first step in better understanding depression and potentially improving care for the illness.

Thanks to the findings, therapists or even patients one day could plug depression triggers into a smartphone app and receive a recommendation for the most appropriate treatment.

Despite decades of intervention, research and public awareness efforts, depression remains a remarkably destructive public health problem that costs the United States more than $210 billion a year, Wittenborn said. While psychotherapy and antidepressants help some people, response varies widely and only leads to meaningful improvement for about half of patients.

"This model opens the gate to understanding depression as it relates to the whole person and all of his or her experiences," Wittenborn said. "It helps us understand how depression varies by person - because we know depression varies widely across people, and we think that has something to do with why treatment is not always effective."
http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2015/12/151201130011.htm