Testing for Depression, and Doing Something About It

The Stanford University researchers used saliva (spit tests) to measure the telomeres of DNA. Shortened telomeres predicted stronger reactions to stress and development of depression as the girls matured. These finding suggest a very simple test for risk of depression, just collect a saliva sample (it's not even necessary to draw blood, and it's not necessary to take a battery of psychological tests) and within a few hours the doctor will know whether the patient is at risk for major depression.

Of course, an even easier way to know a patient is at risk for major depression is to look at family history. In this study, girls whose mothers had had major depressive episodes were at greater risk for depression. Depression isn't just transmitted from mother to daughter. People who have immediate family members (mother, father, brother, sister) who have major depression are about 3 times as likely to develop major depression as people who do not. When one twin has major depression, about 40-50% of the time the other twin eventually develops major depression. Environmental factors determine the timing and severity of the disease, but the propensity to the disease seems to be related to the genes.

If you know you or a family member is at high risk for depression, what can be done? Here are some possibilities:

• Exercise. Aerobic exercise, especially high-intensity aerobic exercise and dancing, reduce depression. Strength training has other benefits but has not been shown to reduce the severity of depression or to prevent relapses after a major depressive episode.
• Eat your veggies, but avoid sweets. Diet has an effect on depression in most people. Eating fewer vegetables is associated with fewer bouts with depression, while eating sugary sweets is associated with more, although there is some question whether eating sweets causes depression or eating sweets is an attempt to self-medicate depression.
• Avoid diet drinks, but drink coffee. A study of depression in older Americans found that drinking aspartame-sweetened soft drinks such as Diet Coke increased the frequency of depression, but drinking coffee reduced it. Adding artificial sweeteners, such as Splenda or Sweet n' Low, to coffee and tea was associated with more frequent depression, but not adding sugar or honey. Presumably the amounts of sugar or honey added to beverages is not so great as to cause its own problems. Small amounts of sugar, up to about 25 grams (less than an ounce) a day in total, seem to help some people overcome depression.
• "Mindfulness meditation" seems to help both depression and anxiety, although most clinical studies of the use of meditation have been conducted in Western countries. Most Western psychotherapists attempt to train their patients to be "in the moment" and "open to experiences" to relieve depression. Patients are encouraged to observe and describe their feelings and experiences, to act with awareness, but not to judge emotions or inner reactions as either bad or good.

See Also: Treating Depression Lowers Your Risk Of Heart Disease

Prescription medication may also help prevent relapses of depression, but no single medication seems to work for everyone, and it may take several months to get the right dosage of the right drugs to feel better. Do not use both St. John's wort and antidepressants; the cumulative effect can cause severe physical and emotional hyperactivity.