Brain Images Reveal Effects Of Anti-Depressants
February 29, 2008 |20:10 | Gossips By : Kaneta Babar
When one is depressed he/she cannot understand or comprehend anything that is said to that person the reason being that he/she is so depressed that nothing feels like to be done by this particular person the only thing needed by this individual at this point of depression is to remain alone and not to talk to anyone but this effects the family at a large level being in a close knit family the others cannot let their dear one be on its own at any cost, the result is anti-depressants which are given to the person in need of them with the hope that these anti-depressants will help him/her in getting out of depression. But medically brain images have shown that there are after effects of these medicines on the brain. The experiences of millions of people have proved that antidepressants work, but only with the advent of sophisticated imaging technology have scientists begun to learn exactly how the medications affect brain structures and circuits to bring relief from depression. Researchers at the University of Wisconsin-Madison and UW Medical School recently added important new information to the growing body of knowledge. For the first time, they used functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI)--technology that provides a view of the brain as it is working--to see what changes occur over time during antidepressant treatment while patients experience negative and positive emotions. The study appears in the January issue of the American Journal of Psychiatry. UW psychology professor Richard Davidson, Ph.D., psychiatry department chair Ned Kalin, MD, research associate William Irwin and research assistant Michael Anderle were the authors. The researchers found that when they gave the antidepressant venlafaxine (Effexor(r)) to a small group of clinically depressed patients, the drug produced robust alterations in the anterior cingulate. This area of the brain has to do with focused attention and also becomes activated when people face conflicts. Unexpectedly, the changes were observed in just two weeks. "Conducting repeated brain scans in these patients allowed us to see for the first time how quickly antidepressants work on brain mechanisms," said Davidson, who also is director of the W. M. Keck Laboratory for Functional Brain Imaging and Behavior, where imaging for the study took place. He noted that the findings were surprising because patients don't usually begin noticing mood improvements until after they have been taking antidepressants for three to five weeks. The researchers also found that while the depressed patients displayed lower overall activity in the anterior cingulate than non-depressed controls, those depressed patients who showed relatively more activity before treatment responded better to the medication than those with lower pre-treatment activity. This kind of information may be extremely useful to clinicians someday, Kalin said. "We expect that physicians in the future will be able to predict which patients will be the best candidates for antidepressants simply by looking at brain scans that reveal this type of pertinent information," said Kalin, who also is director of the HealthEmotions Research Institute, where scientists concentrate on uncovering the scientific basis of linkages between emotions and health. One third of all patients treated with antidepressants do not respond to them, and of those that do, only about 50 percent get completely better, he added. Virtually all previous studies analyzing brain activity in depressed people used PET (positron emission tomography) and SPECT (single photon emission computed tomography) technology. With these imaging systems scientists were not able to obtain pictures with the same resolution as that which is now obtainable with fMRI, which provides a "working snapshot" of the brain. The Wisconsin team used fMRI's capability to capture brain activity as it occurred to record subjects' reactions as they viewed pictures designed to stimulate negative and positive emotions. "We believe that we can uncover the best indicators of treatment changes when we present research subjects these emotion challenges," said Davidson. "The pictures activate the individual circuits that underlie different kinds of emotional responses." UW emotions researchers have been using fMRIs with emotion-challenging pictures for several years in an effort to understand normal and abnormal brain responses to a range of emotions. They theorize that in depressed people, reactions to negative emotions are similar to, but more exaggerated than, reactions that non-depressed people have, and that the reactions may be more difficult to turn off. "We all experience some sadness from time to time, but in depression, the responses may be sustained and out of context," said psychiatrist Kalin.
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Yelling, crying and invoking God, the co-pilot of an Air Canada flight from Toronto to London had to be forcibly removed from the cockpit of his jetliner after suffering an emotional collapse as the plane flew over the Atlantic.Shackled by the wrists and ankles, the shoeless first officer had to be restrained by crewmembers with the help of a traveler who was a member of the Canadian Forces. Left alone in the cockpit, the captain cut short the journey of Flight AC 848 by diverting to Shannon Airport in western Ireland. Meanwhile, the first officer was crying and screaming as he was cuffed on a free seat, said a Toronto-area man whose wife was sitting near the troubled man. "It was a bit of a traumatic experience" for the woman, who was traveling with a toddler, her husband said. The co-pilot was taken by ambulance to a psychiatric ward after the plane and its 146 passengers landed on Monday morning. "At no time was safety compromised," Air Canada spokeswoman Isabelle Arthur said. Commercial pilots undergo medical checkups every year, every six months if they are over 40, said Captain Andy Wilson, president of the Air Canada Pilots Association. After his co-pilot's removal, regulations would have required the captain to don his oxygen mask and land at "the nearest suitable aerodrome," said Yvan-Miville Deschenes, a former flight controller. "It's standard procedure. When there's only one person left in the cockpit, he puts on an oxygen mask in case the cabin depressurizes," he said. "Continuing to London would have been a security breach." Passenger Sean Finucane told CBC News that the co-pilot, who said, "he just wanted to talk to God," was yelling loudly but didn't sound intoxicated. "When they tried to put his shoes on later, for example, he swore and threatened people. ... He was ... very, very distressed." His account matched those in the Irish Independent and in the online forum flyertalk.com. The Independent said the co-pilot, who was "acting in a peculiar manner and was talking loudly to himself," was held down by the crew and by a member of the Forces. "It was quite an experience! He was being restrained in 12A and the entire mini-cabin could hear the whole thing. Not for delicate ears," a writer posted on flyertalk.com. "The soldier and the doctors (who were passengers) were great." The writer added that the flight crew was "calm and professional throughout." The pilots' union also commended the crew for its handling of the incident. AC 848 was supposed to land around 8:25 a.m. at London's Heathrow Airport. However, an hour before arrival, controllers at Shannon Airport were told the flight was diverted "because of illness with a crew member," said spokesman Eugene Pratt. An employee at Ennis General Hospital, near Shannon, said the crewmember was taken to the acute psychiatric care unit.
Cheer up: Everybody's miserable - or, at some point in their lives, they will be.
