Depression

Alexander Shulgin, the most prolific psychedelic chemist in history, has died at the age of 88. I interviewed Shulgin and his wife and co-researcher Ann at their home in California in 1999, when I was researching my 2003 book Rational Mysticism.

A new study pinpoints the cells involved in coping with stress, which can result in the development of mood disorders

Research suggests it’s a disease of the central nervous system 

Everyone has experiences happen to them that they'd rather forget about. Every so often though, you might have a reminder of that experience: perhaps someone says something to you or you see something that jogs your memory.

Better insights into this ancient condition, with uncontrolled inflammation at its core, might reveal information about a host of other illnesses

Stress alters the expression of small RNAs in male mice and leads to depressive behaviors in later generations

Forty seconds before round two, and I'm lying on my back trying to breathe. Pain all through me. Deep breath. Let it go. I won't be able to lift my shoulder tomorrow, it won't heal for over a year, but now it pulses, alive, and I feel the air vibrating around me, the stadium shaking [...]

Adapted from When Depression Hurts Your Relationship: How To Regain Intimacy and Reconnect with Your Partner When You’re Depressed. Copyright 2014 Shannon Kolakowski

The disorder is complex and has so far eluded a simple biological explanation

A meta-analysis of 47 previously published studies concludes that there's moderate evidence for meditation offering some relief of anxiety and depression, and low or insufficient evidence for effects on other conditions. Christie Nicholson reports

 

Fighting back emotion, Tony Dorsett, the former Dallas Cowboys running back, told ESPN last fall: Its painful, man, for my daughters to say theyre scared of meits painful.

More urban myth than actual reality, the holiday season does not have the highest incidence for suicide. Though suicide is the most preventable kind of death with an average of 3,000 people dying by suicide each day – November and December actually have the lowest rates of suicide.