The suicide rate is extremely high!300 million people suffer from this disease, but most people are misunderstood it

Recently, Professor Hu Hailan, a scientist in my country, has won the "Achievement Award for Outstanding Female Scientists in the World". This is the only award in the world to award science women globally.

The reason for the award is major discovery in social and emotional neuroscience, providing theoretical basis for innovative therapy and new drug development of depression.

Why do depression research has received so much attention? In fact, it is not exaggerated at all. Today, let's talk about depression that is often misunderstood and affecting widespread.

According to the statistics of the World Health Organization, more than 350 million people in the world are plagued by depression, which has become the fourth largest disease in the world, and is still growing rapidly.

In 2020, severe depression has increased by 28%, while the number of depression patients in my country has exceeded 95 million, and the prevalence of life has reached 6.8%. At present, depression has become the second largest killer of human beings and the second largest disease in my country.

WHO predicts that depression in 2030 will become the first disease to be buried by the global disease. Depression is related to the increase in risks such as diabetes, heart disease and stroke, which further increases its disease burden. In addition, depression can lead to suicide death.

It is estimated that in the 800,000 suicide incidents in the world, as many as 50% occur in depression, and depression patients are almost 20 times more likely to die in suicide.

Studies have shown that the social function of patients with depression disorders is obvious, but the utilization rate of health services is very low, and they are rarely treated with sufficient treatment. In my country, only 9.5%of patients who have been diagnosed with depression in the past December have received treatment from health service institutions. Because most patients with depression disorders did not seek help in professional institutions, only 0.5%of patients were fully treated.

The insufficient treatment of depression is related to the public's incomprehension of depression.

For example, many people confuse depression with depression and depression symptoms. They believe that it is not a disease or ideological problem. Therefore, patients with depression do not need to receive professional treatment, especially drug treatment. There are also diagnosis patients who refuse to take medicine because they are afraid of the side effects of antidepressant drugs, and some people think that real depression is not cured.

But this is not the case.

Depression is a mental illness. The cause of depression is very complicated, and it is the result of interaction between biological, psychological, and social factors.

In terms of biological factors, that is, in genetic, depression is not a genetic disease. It is not depression that parents have depression, and children will also have a genetic easily sensuality. If the first -level relatives have depression, the risk of depression increases 3 times.

From the perspective of social factors, temporary related stress events (usually experience some negative events in the year before the onset), such as unemployment, economic unsafe, chronic or life -threatening health issues, violence, separation and funeral, the most It often occurs in adults.

The other side is the adverse events of childhood experiences, such as physical and sexual abuse, psychological ignoring, suffering from family violence or separation from parents due to death or separation, etc., which is the cause of depression in old age.

So, how is biological, psychological, and social factors interacting?

When a living incident with major pressure or long -term chronic pressure, if the ability of individuals to deal with pressure is insufficient, a series of changes will occur.

The peripheral changes of cortisol levels and inflammation mechanisms can induce depression by destroying nerve plasticity and corresponding nerves at the cell level, and people with genetic and susceptible people are more likely to have symptoms of depression.

In 2018, Hu Hailan's team found that there was a small nuclear group in the brain, which played a very large role in mediating negative emotions. They called it the "anti -reward center" in the brain.

When the activity in the nuclear group is abnormal or enters the state of high -end power, it will overly suppress the "reward center" of the brain. The "reward center" is the source of nuclear pleasure, heart pleasure, and rewarding the relevant chemicals of dopamine and groceronicate. This may be the reason why people enter the state of depression.

The current commonly used antidepressants from clinical use mainly comes from the "classic monoamine strategy" drugs found in the 1950s and 1960s.

In recent years, as a new type of antidepressant drug, ketamine has been known as the largest discovery of the past half a century due to its rapid antidepressant effect (which can quickly improve emotions within a few hours) and significant effects. However, due to its potential addiction, ketamine is classified as psychiatric drugs, which limits its application in clinical antidepressants.

The Hu Hailan team also found that ketamine can quickly take effect because it can quickly block the excessive discharge or excessive activation state of the "anti -reward center", thereby playing a switch.

At present, the team finds that at least one molecular target and the target of ketamine play a role in the same path. After the team predicts that the target will also have an antidepressant effect, it is now available for this target. In the case, the team had started cooperation with the clinical team two or three years ago.

How to quickly check or help people around you identify depression?

You can refer to the following table. If the following "three lows" symptoms appear and last for more than two weeks, it will cause alert:

1) Low mood, lack of pleasure;

2) Slow thinking, memory, decreased attention, slow response, etc. It is manifested in studying, life/work, and phenomenon of poor memory, that is, slow thinking; 3) Decreased will, do not like to talk, do not like to move. Perce the prompt signal of early depression release: anorexia or overeating; too much sleep or insomnia;

4) Frequent impulse to get angry because of trivial matters, more lack of patience and impulse than ever before; unable to concentrate on energy and memory loss;

5) Lost interest in many things and feel lonely. Maybe you once loved to play with your friends, but those activities that once made you interesting are now tasteless;

6) I feel that my article is not worth or nothing;

7) From time to time, I feel like I want to die, and I have the idea of ​​suicide/the idea of ​​suicide;

8) panic or anxiety, persistent and unprepared panic, usually accompanied by some physical discomfort, such as too fast heart rate and sweating;

9) Pain and discomfort that cannot be explained. Depression may also affect people's body, such as headache, stomach pain, neck and back pain, and even nausea.

We should correctly look at "whether depression can be cured."

The course of depression is very different from the relief period and chronic stage. After the depression is relieved, residual symptoms and dysfunction usually exist. In addition, the rate of recurrence of depression is very high, because about 80% of patients have experienced at least once in their lives.

Environmental factors are uncontrollable, and psychological response capabilities cannot be improved overnight. Therefore, the purpose of treatment is not cure, but to reduce the painful experience and functional damage caused by depression.

How to prevent depression?

Reduce bad experiences (including ignoring and trauma) during childhood and the entire life period to reduce the incidence of depression;

Intervention at the personal level, focusing on lifestyle factors (such as smoking, drinking, lack of exercise), and other risk factors, such as intimate partner violence, stressing sexual life events (such as funeral or financial crisis).

"No two people have the same life story and situation, which ultimately forms a unique experience and different needs of each person suffering from depression." The joint chairman of the report, Vikram Patel, the professor of Harvard University Medical College in the United States, and the professor of Harvard University School of Medicine. This is a specific explanation, "Similar to cancer care, use the method of dividing stages, the form of continuous body to treat depression, and provide a framework to recommend corresponding intervention measures from the origin of the disease."

Source: Science Popularization China-Starry Sky Cultivation Plan

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