Mental Health Archive

A new study suggests that hormone therapy might help with perimenopausal depression. But is it safe for you?

Hormone therapy has long been a controversial topic, and a new study about the role of hormones in depression is adding some fodder to the debate. A study published in the January 10 issue of JAMA Psychiatry determined that hormone therapy may help ward off symptoms of depression in women. Researchers found that perimenopausal and early postmenopausal women who were treated with hormones were less likely to experience symptoms of depression than women in the study who were given a placebo.

But while the findings of the study are important — particularly considering that a woman's risk of depression doubles or even quadruples during the menopausal transition — that doesn't mean hormone therapy should be widely used for preventing depression in women at this stage of life, says Dr. Hadine Joffe, the Paula A. Johnson Associate Professor of Psychiatry in Women's Health at Harvard Medical School, who wrote an editorial accompanying the study. "It's not a 'never,' but it shouldn't be a standard approach; in general, all of medicine has moved away from using hormones for prevention," she says.

The pandemic has been difficult for everyone, but particularly for families. Everyone is feeling so much uncertainty and stress, but one thing we can do is look for ways to create small moments of joy every day. Games, activities, creativity, being outdoors — there are simple, fun ways to be together and make memories.

A study conducted by AARP found correlation between a person’s engagement with music and their opinion of their brain health and cognitive ability. While the study did not involve any objective measure of brain health, music has been shown to activate multiple areas of the brain, and keeping brain pathways active helps keep the brain strong in older age.

The COVID-19 pandemic is affecting the mental health of people who have not been sick, and parents are being hit particularly hard. A survey of US parents found that these worsening circumstances also affect children’s behavior.

The pandemic has caused a surge in depression. If someone you care about is struggling with depression or bipolar disorder, or you have reason to think the person may be suicidal, there are ways you can help — and caring for yourself is important, too.

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Probiotic supplements containing helpful bacteria and yeast are marketed as a way to maintain a diverse mix of healthy gut microbes. Now, a review published online July 6, 2020, by BMJ Nutrition, Prevention & Health suggests that probiotic supplements may help relieve depression symptoms. Scientists evaluated seven clinical trials from the past 15 years, which tested a total of 12 different strains of helpful bacteria. One trial in the review tested a "prebiotic," a type of plant fiber that provides food for gut bacteria. Scientists concluded that 11 of these probiotics, either alone or combined with prebiotics, were potentially useful for relieving symptoms of depression, perhaps by reducing inflammation that could affect brain function. The studies were small and short-term, but taken together, they suggest a gut-based approach to maintaining emotional well-being is worth pursuing. In the meantime, talk therapy, exercise, and medications remain the most effective approaches to treat depression. To support your gut health without expensive probiotic supplements, enjoy foods that naturally contain probiotics, such as yogurt, kefir, and sauerkraut. The prebiotic powers of whole grains also may support a healthy gut.

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People who regularly worried about the future and dwelled on the past saw larger drops in cognition and had more harmful brain proteins than those who didn't.

Chronic worrying or ruminating could be bad for your brain. A study published online June 7, 2020, by Alzheimer's & Dementia linked these negative thinking patterns to brain changes that could be associated with Alzheimer's disease.

Study authors found that older adults who regularly engaged in what the authors called repetitive negative thinking were more likely to experience cognitive decline, including memory problems, than those who didn't. They also had higher levels of the proteins beta-amyloid and tau in their brains. The accumulation of these proteins, which create damaging clumps known as plaques and tangles in the brain, is a hallmark of Alzheimer's that begins in the earliest stages of the disease — even before an individual experiences visible symptoms of dementia.

The trials and challenges of this year are weighing heavily on many people, but attempting to employ positive psychology to put personal struggles in context, and accepting the ups and downs life brings, can ultimately increase positive feelings and provide perspective.

More than six months into the pandemic, it’s clear that we are going to be living with it for some time, and that expectations of life soon returning to normal are not realistic. This is a good time to assess the adjustments we’ve made and see how we can make different choices to get ourselves and our families through the challenge.

As the school year begins, plans for how learning will happen are in flux, and may change rapidly. With so much uncertainty, parents will want to limit confusion and create as much structure as they can for their children in this difficult situation.