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Images related to stress and depression |
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Depression and depressive disorder are the main symptoms of low motivation and depression, and they cause various cognitive and psychosomatic symptoms, making daily life difficult and shaking the entire individual’s life. For this reason, unlike the past, which was lightly regarded as a ‘cold of the heart’, it is now being seriously recognized.
In Western countries such as the United States and Europe, the prevalence of depression is known to reach 10 to 17%. According to the Health Insurance Review and Assessment Service, as of 2021, the number of depressed patients in Korea was 933,481, an increase of 37 percentage points from five years ago and is showing an increasing trend every year. Since the spread of COVID-19, the number of people complaining of depression is increasing, and it is predicted that this year, the number will exceed 1 million.
Depression is often treated with antidepressant medications and psychiatric cognitive therapy. However, there are many patients with severe depression who do not respond to antidepressants. Neuroscientists have found that people with depressive disorder can benefit from seeing pictures or pictures of people smiling.
A joint research team at the University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine, Baylor School of Medicine, and Houston Veterans’ Hospital found that looking at images of smiling people as a result of simple neurocognitive training using a computer is helpful in treating patients with severe depression. The results of this study were published in the September 22 issue of the American Journal of Psychiatry, an international scientific journal in the field of neuroscience.
According to the National Institute of Mental Health, as of 2020, 21 million American adults reported symptoms of depression. It is known that approximately 9 million adults are diagnosed with depression every year, and nearly 3 million, or a third, do not take antidepressants.
The research team divided 150 adults with treatment-resistant severe depression into two groups. One group was given an antidepressant and watched a movie or YouTube music program, while the other group watched a comedy-like video featuring many smiling faces and images of people smiling for 20 minutes following taking the antidepressant.
As a result, it was confirmed that the antidepressant treatment effect was higher in patients who saw pictures or videos with smiling faces than those who simply watched the video. It is explained that depressive symptoms are weakened in people who see them smiling. This result was confirmed to be applicable to all depressive symptoms other than severe depression. The research team explained that seeing a smiling face naturally raises positive thoughts in the brain and weakens the barrier of depression, so drugs or cognitive therapy are effective.
Rebecca Price, a professor of psychiatry and clinical psychology at the University of Pittsburgh who led the study, said, “The results of this study show that simple neurocognitive training using positive words or pictures can have unexpectedly great effects in the treatment of depression.” “It shows that it is necessary to encourage people with depression to continue to think positively through the people around them or using a computer or smartphone,” he explains.
Reporter Yoo Yong-ha
– holder ⓒ Seoul Newspaper –
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