Relieve the pressure
As fault lines in the global economy and international tension come to the fore again, here's a run down on what you need to know, as well as some guidance and inspiration on how to get through.
Schools are back in session here in New Zealand, and our middle daughter starts school after her 5th birthday, which is coming up shortly.
What a weird time warp Covid has wrought.
She has spent almost as much time living in a Covid world as she has not. And our youngest is turning 3 soon, meaning that she has spent by far the majority of her life seeing people in face masks and being unable to travel.
Her grandparents in London have still not met her.
This makes me sigh. But we are where we are, and my duty as a parent and as a son is to keep both these generations as safe as possible, and not to put them in harm’s way through my decisions and behaviour. So, we live this holding pattern, trying to take each day as it comes, in this testing winter that seems to have no end. But as Fernando Sabino* once said,
"No fim, tudo dá certo. Se não deu, ainda não chegou ao fim."
"In the end, everything will be ok. If it's not ok, it's not yet the end."
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No evidence that low serotonin causes depression
The idea that depression is the result of abnormalities in brain chemicals, particularly serotonin (5-hydroxytryptamine or 5-HT), has been taken as read for decades, and provides an important justification for the use of antidepressants.
Prescriptions for antidepressants have risen dramatically since the 1990s, with one in six adults in England and 2% of teenagers now being prescribed an antidepressant in a given year.
Studies show that as many as 85-90% of the public believes that depression is caused by low serotonin or a chemical imbalance.
But, after decades of study, there remains no clear evidence that serotonin levels or serotonin activity are responsible for depression, according to a recent major review. This overview of existing meta-analyses and systematic reviews suggests that depression is not likely caused by a chemical imbalance, and calls into question what antidepressants do.
Our view is that patients should not be told that depression is caused by low serotonin or by a chemical imbalance, and they should not be led to believe that antidepressants work by targeting these unproven abnormalities. We do not understand what antidepressants are doing to the brain exactly, and giving people this sort of misinformation prevents them from making an informed decision about whether to take antidepressants or not - Professor Joanna Moncrieff, Lead author, Professor of Psychiatry, UCL
The researchers caution that anyone considering withdrawing from antidepressants should seek the advice of a health professional, given the risk of adverse effects following withdrawal.
Could a UBI and better job protection protect us from conspiracy theories and mental health disorders?
Here’s a brief write up of an interesting study examining why conspiracy theories and psychiatric disorders historically tend to peak during periods of social crisis and stress.
Stress increases the rigidity of the beliefs underlying psychiatric disorders, prejudices and conspiracy theories. Therefore measures aimed at reducing social stress—a basic income or better job protection—could be the most effective approach for tackling problems such as depression, psychosis, discrimination and conspiracy theories.
This is another piece in the evidence puzzle adding to our understanding that countering information solely through providing “facts” is largely ineffective. Actually addressing the lived experience of vulnerable people might go some way to reducing their vulnerability to both severe mental health disorders and mis/disinformation and conspiracy theories. You can find the original paper here.
“I’ve been meeting with the same group of men for 36 years – here’s what they’ve taught me”
David Spiegelhalter is known chiefly for being a knighted Professor of Public Understanding of Risk as well as numerous other accolades, and his columns and public communication during the pandemic have been required reading.
But in this article, he focuses on something much more personal: coming across an ad for a “Men’s Group” by chance, back in 1986.
The notice caught my eye because I was, to be honest, struggling with being a man. I had recently separated from my wife after eight years together and our marriage counselling had uncomfortably shown that my upbringing, although supportive, had given me no training in expressing my feelings, or even knowing what they were. We didn’t argue, as I avoided all confrontation, dreading the late-night remark – “We should talk.” But I didn’t know how to talk, and/or how to listen.
It’s both vulnerable and revealing - an excellent read.
It has been a huge privilege to follow the events of the lives of the men in the group – both important and trivial – through the years, sharing their disappointments, joys, sadnesses and anger. Being able to discuss topics that would be difficult even with one’s partner, and being confident about being treated kindly – and confidentially.
Russia is out of the ISS from 2024
Regular readers will know that I have been watching For All Mankind and have found it fascinating, both as a fictional alternate timeline space race, but as a radically different social history too. So this news this week was expected, but still not good.
Russia will pull out of the International Space Station after 2024 and focus on building its own orbiting outpost, the country’s new space chief said Tuesday amid high tensions between Moscow and the West over the fighting in Ukraine. The announcement, while not unexpected, throws into question the future of the 24-year-old space station, with experts saying it would be extremely difficult — perhaps a “nightmare,” by one reckoning — to keep it running without the Russians. NASA and its partners had hoped to continue operating it until 2030.
Would living on Mars time help you to appreciate life more?
Granted, it’s not something you’d do in everyday life, but this excellent comic tell the story of how one NASA engineer - Nagin Cox - found that adapting the the rhythm of exploration on Mars helped her appreciate time differently.
There’s an 11-minute audio interview accompanying this art work too.
A bigger fraud than Theranos?
Critical elements of one of the most cited pieces of Alzheimer’s disease research in the last two decades may have been purposely manipulated, according to a report in Science.
In August 2021, Matthew Schrag, a neuroscientist and physician at Vanderbilt University, got a call that would plunge him into a maelstrom of possible scientific misconduct. A colleague wanted to connect him with an attorney investigating an experimental drug for Alzheimer’s disease called Simufilam. The drug’s developer, Cassava Sciences, claimed it improved cognition, partly by repairing a protein that can block sticky brain deposits of the protein amyloid beta (Aβ), a hallmark of Alzheimer’s. The attorney’s clients—two prominent neuroscientists who are also short sellers who profit if the company’s stock falls—believed some research related to Simufilam may have been “fraudulent,” according to a petition later filed on their behalf with the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA).
Schrag’s detective work drew him into a different episode of possible misconduct, leading to findings that threaten one of the most cited Alzheimer’s studies of this century and numerous related experiments.
Read it all here. It’s disturbing stuff, potentially meaning were have wasted years and billions in research funding.
Reading, listening, watching
Reading: I have just finished Life after Life by Kate Atkinson. So satisfying. And the final scene takes place in a pub in a street in London where I’ve been to every pub in that street - which helps in visualising it all. Apparently the TV adaptation is good - I’ve been avoiding all coverage of it. Have you seen it? Can you recommend it?
Watching: We finished watching Sherwood - a tragic tale, but very well told and an excellent cast of actors. Well worth watching.
Listening: A couple of contrasting tracks that sum up the past week
*Often attributed to John Lennon, but it doesn’t look like that was true.
Holding Pattern, maybe we need to not see our current situation as holding us up. Maybe we should see it as a new beginning!?
Another cracking collection Sarb. Life after Life is very very good on the telly. I haven’t read the book yet, but loved the series. The star is from Aotearoa, Thomasin McKenzie.