by winstonian on Wednesday, April 8th, 2009 | Health, Life

New findings ocnducted by the Columbia University Medical Center show that there is a link that connects depression to brain thinning. This sort of flies in the face of previous understandings, which said that depression is just an imbalance of brain chemistry or neurotransmitters. What is also interesting, as reported from LiveScience, is that a loss in brain matter is observed in people with Alzheimer’s disease and schizophrenia.

Major depression affects about 10 percent of the population in most countries at some point in people’s lives.

Practically, these findings mean that medicines that are used to improve memory or help those with ADHD may be used for those with a thinning cortex (the part of the brain affected). Depression is believed to be both environmentally and genetically based, which means that determining whether or not a brain has fully developed may be deemed subjective. Stress, for example, can cause the brain to wire up in an abnormal way, so it’s possible that those with a thinner cortex may just have that part of the body underdeveloped. But for how long, who knows? Or will it ever develop normally?

Tags: brain thinning, depression, stress, thinner cortex