SIMPLE CURE

As public understanding of mental illness grows, it is increasingly old news to point out that telling depression sufferers simply to "cheer up" is not an effective treatment. Most ordinary people believe that mental illness is all emotional or conscious behavior. It is more than that simple notion.

Beyond the basic understanding that depressive symptoms correspond to a chemical imbalance in the neurotransmitters serotonin, dopamine, and norepinephrine, modern science still has yet to provide a reliable solution to the multitude of undesirable psychological conditions grouped under the heading of “depression.” 

At best, pharmaceutical aids and psychological counseling can significantly alleviate depression’s effects, but the most effective treatment varies from one individual to another and is generally unpredictable (as well as time-consuming and sometimes costly). A recent study from the University of Warwick, however, suggests a more natural treatment for depression: time spent with friends.

Evidence to support this bit of advice, which isn’t as trite as it initially sounds, can be found in the Proceedings of the Royal Society B, where researchers published their peer-reviewed results.

Head researcher Edward M. Hill, a PhD student specializing in public health and infectious disease epidemiology, analyzed data from the 1994-1995 National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent to Adult Health, which surveyed respondents enrolled in grades 7-12 (roughly corresponding to ages 13-18). During in-home interviews, the respondents listed up to ten friends, five male and five female, and indicated the presence or absence of symptoms associated with depression. 

When Hill and his co-authors modeled the data 10 years later, they found that “adolescents with five or more healthy (that is, non-depressed) friends have half the probability of becoming depressed over a six-to-12-month period compared to adolescents with no healthy friends.” 

For the young respondents unlucky enough to already be exhibiting depressive symptoms, “adolescents with 10 healthy friends have double the probability of recovering from depressive symptoms over a six-to-12-month period compared to adolescents with three healthy friends.” 

In other words, healthy, happy friends were a strong influence in making a healthy, happy individual.

Fortunately, the emotional cause-and-effect seemed to be a one-way street: depressed individuals exerted no negative influence on their healthy friends. However, there is an evident paradox here, in which the individuals most likely to benefit from the cheering impact of time spent with healthy companions are also the most likely to self-segregate, thereby denying themselves an opportunity for exposure to those with more positive outlooks. 

The message, then, is not only that the depressed should seek happiness in the glow of others, but also that healthy friends should do their part to uplift their struggling loved ones, even if doing so simply entails spending more time with them. 

In LOST, one the better themes and life lessons was the power of friendship. Most of the main characters had no true friends. There were workaholics, loners, depressed individuals with no drive, dreams or ambition. We pass these type of people on the street every day. They just blend into the background. 

What friendship was in the series was various unrelated characters coming together in order to survive. In real life, true friends mean daily survival from the depressing daily routine so many people fall into these days. True friends cherish and respect their friends. Their happiness is tied to other's happiness. In a world that is now less personal (through technology that eliminates the need for one on one personal contact or interaction), friendships grow stronger when both parties open and honestly communicate with each other. As a result, this support allows both parties to thrive and overcome the demons that plague everyone at some time during their lives.

HAPPINESS AS A CURE

At various levels, many of the characters on LOST were lost in a state of depression.

Claire with an unwanted baby; Locke without a true family; Jack without the respect of his father; Hurley with abandonment issues; Kate with alleged abuse issues.

If LOST itself was one big, tortured group therapy session to end manic depression, well, there is a little science that would back up that point.

Happiness not only spreads, it could actually help prevent depression, according to a new study. 

Depression is not contagious,  according to a new study published in the journal Proceedings of the Royal Society.  Happiness, however, is more likely to spread between friends, and the results from the study may help remove some of the stigma surrounding depression.

The World Health Organization estimates that 350 million people are currently living with depression. Preliminary studies have now shown that social support and friendships may be a major factor in lifting people out of depressive states. A detailed study shows some empirical evidence that happiness is contagious, and that those who befriend depressed people are not in danger of becoming depressed themselves.

Researchers examined data from over 2,000 teenagers who had reported their network of friendships and answered questions about their levels of happiness as part of an earlier research project. Based on the survey results, the scientists classified each student into either a “low mood” (depressed) category a or “healthy mood” (not depressed) category. Then, they mapped out friendships and ran computer simulations to determine whether happiness and sadness spread between friends like an infectious disease.

The conclusion that depression is not contagious is supportive. However, some people can still be uncomfortable or get down around a depressed friend of relative. Who has not been around a party pooper?  

Meanwhile, happiness not only spreads—it may prevent (and even help people recover from) depression. The model suggests that teens with five or more happy friends have half the probability of suffering from depression over a six to 12-month period than teens without no “healthy mood” friends. And adolescents with 10 healthy friends have more than double the probability of recovering from depressive symptoms.

“This was a big effect that we have seen here,” said Thomas House, mathematics professor at the University of Manchester and coauthor on the study. “It could be that having a stronger social network [the real-life version, not Facebook] is an effective way to treat depression.”

Since the study suggests teens are not at risk of “catching” depression from their friends, and having happy friends may prevent and even pull teens out of depression, House and his colleagues stress that it is important to promote any friendship between adolescents. Friendship is a win-win, the study says—it can’t hurt, but it may be both protective and curative.

“If we enable friendships to develop among adolescents (for example providing youth clubs) each adolescent is more likely to have enough friends with healthy mood to have a protective effect,” House said in a prepared statement. “This would reduce the prevalence of depression.”

One of the true lessons of the LOST series was the importance of people finding the bonds of true friendships. It changed people's lives. It allowed them to move past the baggage of their prior lives, to set a path for a better self and better future.

DEPRESSION CONNECTIONS

A recent article in the Los Angeles Times reports that almost seven (7) percent of the U.S. adult population — about 17.6 million people — is diagnosed with depression, according to the National Institute of Mental Health. The national Centers for Disease Control and Prevention report that depression costs 200 million lost workdays each year at a cost to employers of $17 billion to $44 billion.

There are effective treatments for depression, including, researchers said recently, meditation. But neither talk therapy nor the existing medications work for everyone. And it can take up to six agonizing weeks for the most common antidepressants — Prozac, Zoloft and Lexapro — to work fully.

Additionally, estimates are that only about half of people with depression seek treatment.

New treatment plans are currently being studied, including:

Vortioxetine
The federal government recently approved vortioxetine for the treatment of adults with major depressive disorder. The commercial name of vortioxetine, a variant on serotonin reuptake inhibitors that are the mainstay of depression treatment, is Brintellix.

Research on rats, submitted by the drug developer to U.S. regulators, suggested the drug may improve some dimensions of memory. A trial in human subjects showed that those taking it had better cognitive function than those taking duloxetine, which is marketed as Cymbalta. The government declined to approve those claims until they were replicated and extended by additional research.

Ketamine
Ketamine is an anesthetic used in human and veterinary medicine, and its ability to rapidly reduce depressive symptoms in people who have responded insufficiently to antidepressants has generated great interest in the scientific and clinical communities. A study of 72 patients, presented last year at the American Psychiatric Assn. annual meeting, found that more than half reported fewer symptoms after one intravenous dose of ketamine.

Ketamine, a legal drug but not federally approved to treat depression, not only works quickly but its effects also can last three to five days or more, said Dr. Carlos Zarate, chief of the section on the neurobiology and treatment of mood disorders at the National Institute of Mental Health.

Those qualities mean it could be useful for patients in danger of committing suicide, Zarate said.
Ketamine's side effects include hallucinations, and several pharmaceutical companies are working on ketamine-like alternatives, he said, adding that he expects such drugs on the market by 2017.

Transcranial magnetic stimulation
TMS administers brief, magnetic pulses to the brain by passing high currents through an electromagnetic coil adjacent to a patient's scalp. The targeted magnetic pulses stimulate the circuits in the brain that are underactive in patients with depression with the goal of restoring normal function and mood. TMS can be administered on both an inpatient and outpatient basis.

TMS was cleared by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration to treat major depressive disorder in adults for whom medication did not work. For most patients, treatment is administered daily for four to six weeks, 40 minutes a session.

Cranial electrotherapy stimulation
CES involves small, hardly noticeable, electric current pulsed across the patient's head in a device that can be used at home. One on the market is the Fisher Wallace Stimulator, a portable, battery-powered generator cleared by the FDA for symptomatic relief of insomnia, anxiety and depression, and for treating chronic pain.

Deep brain stimulation
This surgically implanted, battery-operated neuro-stimulator, the size of a stopwatch and similar to a heart pacemaker, is used to treat a variety of neurological symptoms, especially those resulting from Parkinson's disease. 

 On LOST, we saw both Hurley and Jack use Clonazepam,  a benzodiazepine used as an anti-anxiety medication.  Benzodiazepines are tranquilizers and sleeping pills used therapeutically to produce sedation, induce sleep, relieve anxiety, muscle spasms, and to prevent seizures. Too much, used too often, can lead to memory loss. If used for extended periods, they can cause dependency and depression. The side effects of clonazepam are worsened when taken with alcohol.
 
Hurley's sanity was challenged when he was on the island.  Despite his use of humor, he struggled with stress; Sawyer called him "crazy" among other demeaning things, which he resented, and he continued to battle his eating disorder as the food drop tempted him. At one point, Hurley asked Sawyer if he had clonazepam in his stash because his old friend Dave reappeared and tormented him.

Off the island, Jack was plagued by visions of his father. Believing this to be a hallucination, he asked a doctor to write him a prescription for clonazepam and she did so, but advised that he seek psychiatric help for his problems.  Upon receiving his prescription, Jack apparently ingested his clonazepam together with alcohol, which is known to intensify the drug's effects.

There is an interesting connection between both Jack and Hurley: an anti-anxiety medication that has side effects of memory loss, depression and psychiatric issues. On the island, it had properties of electromagnetic energy which may have caused hallucinations in the castaways. Room 23 was the Dharma station which seems symbolic of cranial electrotherapy stimulation to brain washing. And throughout the series, mental manipulation was used as means of controlling character behavior.

These new methods of treating mental disorder have side effects similar to our characters trials both on and off the island: depression, anxiety, hallucinations, mood swings, memory loss and suicidal tendencies.

There is also the connection that both Jack and Hurley became the island guardian. Is it possible the reason that both Jack and Hurley were the final candidates was that they had been treated with drugs that altered their mental consciousness?

In the general theory that the LOST characters were not plane crash survivors but merely mental patients hooked up to various machines and medication routines is bolstered by the fact that there are startling connections between the one character known to have mental issues, Hurley, and the one person most fans view as the rock steady hero, Jack. But in a base line mental examination, both Hurley and Jack were quite similar in their neurosis profiles. Both had various levels of father abandonment or daddy issues. Both had a parental burden to improve their lives. Both had parental issues to go out and find a good woman, settle down and have a family. Both had disastrous off-island personal lives.

And what happens when Hurley and Jack stop taking their meds? There should have been serious consequences for both of them - - - but in the show, nothing adverse happened to them. One could assume that result was that they were both still taking their medications and the island events were not real. The medications were part of a treatment process and the island dream state was a side effect.

The idea that the main characters were hooked up to machines to treat their mental disorders, but somehow cross-circuited into a new collective mental realm to live out those feelings and issues is quite appealing to those who think the character-driven story promise failed to live up to expectations.