Скачать или смотреть 6 Depression and Neuronal Hyperexcitability

THE RACING MIND VIDEO SERIES -
PART 6: Depression and Neuronal Hyperexcitability 

This video discusses the mechanism by which emotional stress combines with the inherited trait of neuronal hyperexcitability to cause a person to become stuck in an emotional state of depression.

There are essentially two mechanisms by which a person can become stuck in depression. In the first scenario, an externally-driven mental or emotional stressor causes a build up of tension in the mind. This in turn stimulates circuits in the brain that are linked to those specific thoughts and feelings. As the level of electrical activity in these circuits begins to ramp up, they continually reactivate the same thoughts and feelings in the mind. If the stressor persists long enough or the brain is very excitable, the mind and the brain can become caught in a vicious cycle of mutual overstimulation that keeps the person locked in an emotionally depressed state. The other scenario in which a persistent state of depression can develop is that spontaneous hyperactivity in depressive brain circuits begins to draw the mind into negative thinking and depressive ruminations. As in the first scenario, this can cause the mind and the brain can become caught in a vicious cycle of mutual overstimulation that keeps the person locked in an emotionally depressed state. Of course, the latter is more likely to occur in persons who have higher levels of neuronal excitability. Persons with normoactive brains are relatively resistant to clinical depression because the electrical activity in their brains is relatively resistant to ramping up, thus tending to prevent the development of a vicious cycle of mutual overstimulation between the mind and the brain. Hence, the overwhelming majority of persons who develop clinical depression have inherently hyperexcitable brains. 

If stress reduction and psychotherapy alone are insufficient to break the vicious cycle of circuit-specific overstimulation between the mind and the brain, neroregulators (anticonvulsants) and other brain-calming medications are preferable to antidepressants because they target the underlying problem of neuronal hyperexcitability. In the small subset of patients who develop persistent depression in the absence of neuronal hyperexcitability, the use of an antidepressant can be safe and effective because the inherently normoactive brain is relatively resistant to the stimulating effects of the antidepressant.

References:

Binder, MR. The Multi-Circuit Neuronal Hyperexcitability Hypothesis of Psychiatric Disorders. 
AJCEM. 2019; 7(1):12-30.

Binder, MR. Introducing the Term “Neuroregulator” in Psychiatry. AJCEM. 2019; 7(3):66-70.

Binder, MR. Electrophysiology of Seizure Disorders May Hold Key to 
the Pathophysiology of Psychiatric Disorders. AJCEM. 7(5):103-110.

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