Depression: An illness caused by gut bacteria?

Do you know what depression truly is? Studies show that a certain gut bacteria could cause many neuropsychiatric disorders.

By Bella Wang

Depression is an illness that changes how the patient would feel, think, and act towards a negative turn. If left untreated, this change can often cause many emotional and physical problems. With serious cases, this disorder can ultimately lead to suicidal thoughts or attempts. In fact, depression is a factor in 50% of all suicides. (If you know someone who has suicidal thoughts, call the suicide hotline number and reach out for help.)

Symptoms

Depression currently affects 264 million people worldwide. Patients diagnosed with depression may experience these symptoms:

• Feeling sad, tearful, empty or hopeless
• Angry outbursts, irritability or frustration, even over small matters
• Loss of interest in most or all normal activities, such as hobbies or sports
• Sleep disturbances, including insomnia (not sleeping) or sleeping too much
• Tiredness (fatigue) and lack of energy, so even small tasks take extra effort
• Reduced appetite and weight loss or increased cravings for food and weight gain
• Feeling anxious, agitated, or restless
• Slowed thinking, speaking or body movements
• Feelings of worthlessness or guilt, fixating on past failures or self-blame
• Trouble thinking, concentrating, making decisions and remembering things
• Frequent or recurrent thoughts of death, suicidal thoughts, suicide attempts or suicide
• Unexplained physical problems, such as back pain or headaches

A common misinterpretation is that stressful situations cause depression. This is true for some, but not all. Many factors can trigger depression, including the environment, genetics, biology, and psychological. With that being said, there is not a definite cause to depression. Symptoms and the gravity of each case varies.

Effects of Depression

Additionally, studies demonstrate that patients with chronic (long-term) depression have a significantly smaller hippocampus. The hippocampus, greek for ‘seahorse’, is part of the brain that helps form new memories. To clarify, the hippocampus was only smaller in participants with recurrent depression. This could answer why some patients have trouble remembering details.

Whereas the hippocampus helps with memory formation, PET scans show total brain activity. Brain activity is notably less in patients diagnosed with clinical depression. You may wonder, what is brain activity? You may not realize it but neurons (nerve cells) constantly pass information to your brain, even when you are asleep. Using technology like EEG (Electroencephalography), the brain activity is measured by frequency. Usually, an awake adult will have a frequency of 8 Hz or higher.

Finally, a suspect has been detected

Straying away from the many effects depression has on the brain, some studies also show that depression may be caused by certain gut bacteria. Aiming to one day create psychobiotics in stead of the general drugs patients take today, many researchers focus on treating neuropsychiatric disorders, like depression. The gut and brain are connected in much more ways than we can fathom. In the gut, species of microbes live by the thousands (the microbiota), and within them 20 million genes (the microbiome). They could easily play a part in controlling bodily functions and our behavior. But, what does that have to do with depression? Depression, as well as other mental illnesses may be due to inflammation. The immune system requires a good mixture of gut bacteria, so when there’s something wrong, negative changes can arise.

How can we prevent ourselves from getting depression?

We do not yet know the definitive cause(s) of this illness. It could be from gut bacteria passed between people and in some cases, researchers have concluded that an irregular sleep schedule may contribute. People who have an irregular waking time would be in a lower mood than those who didn’t. Advanced wearable technology allowed the researchers to understand the connections between sleep, daily mood, and the long term risk of depression, better.

Though many of the symptoms to depression are very significant, some are common in other situations as well. Take, for say, stress. When we are under stress, we may experience feelings of doubt, anger, or sadness. We see change in sleeping patterns, weight, and daily activities. Often times, we lose confidence and think negatively, have difficulty concentrating or making decisions. All of these symptoms are alike to those of depression, so it is important that you don’t use articles such as these to self diagnose, but rather, to talk to a doctor or specialist about any inquiries you may have.

Conclusion

Depression can exist without the person knowing. Whether it is in a dormant stage within the gut or not, it is best to keep a positive outlook on life and have hope, especially during hard times like now, with the pandemic. What keeps us going is knowing that many people have went through similar events as you have and are going through similar problems, and that you are not alone.