According to this researcher, depression isn’t just one type. In fact, there are six types of depression. And by six types, I mean biotypes, which the researcher explains at length in a recent Causes or Cures Podcast.
I was excited to do this podcast because the move towards objective tests in psychiatry will be a gamechanger. Let me share a personal experience: when I was a young medical student, I went to see the school psychiatrist. Within 15 minutes, I was diagnosed with depression and prescribed antidepressants. To this day, I have no idea if that depression diagnosis made sense. I’m leaning toward it didn’t, because I also had an eating disorder, I wasn’t happy about being in medical school, and I just felt trapped by life circumstances in general. I also had a horrible reaction to the medication, an SSRI: dry mouth; my emotions felt muted-like shoes stuck in gum- and my brain felt detached, like it was orbiting around my body, not attached to it. While recall bias is real, I think my antidepressant prescription triggered me into some form of mania or hypomania…whatever you want to call it. Anyhow, luckily I was able to bounce back from my medication side effect story, but that experience makes me understand firsthand the real need to have some sort of objective tests in psychiatry. Not to discount anyone who has benefitted from antidepressants, but I’m sure there are more people like me out there.
In this episode of Causes or Cures, I chat with Dr. Leonardo Tozzi about his research on identifying six unique biotypes for depression. He explains the current problem with the “one size fits all” diagnostic approach to depression, the development of personalized brain circuit scores, and how they led to the discovery of six types of depression. He explains how the identification of unique biotypes for depression may prove to be a gamechanger for how depression is diagnosed and treated in the future, as well as the broader impact and benefits of precision psychiatry.
Dr. Tozzi, MD, PhD is a neuroscientist and researcher who leads the Computational Neuroscience and Neuroimaging Program at the Stanford Center for Precision Mental Health and Wellness.
Despite the current lack of precision, depression is a common diagnosis today, particularly in younger and younger people. Antidepressants are commonly prescribed to treat it. Given those facts, this is an important podcast that I hope reaches a lot of people.
Listen to the six types of depression here!
If you prefer Youtube for your podcasts, you can find this podcast (and many of my other quirky health and dog videos) here.
I will be adding subscriptions to the Causes or Cures Podcast soon, to help support the endeavor because it takes A LOT of work, and right now the team is just me. I record, edit, produce, and write about the shows after my day job work…which is a lot and sometimes difficult to keep up with. But I really believe in it, enjoy doing it and bringing you these topics straight from the mouths of doctors/researchers with no industry bias…so if you like the podcast content, find it helpful, and can help support the podcast via subscriptions, thank you! It is much appreciated.
In addition to the 6 types of depression, check out some of these other Causes or Cures episodes:
Trypophobia– why do some people have an aversion to a group of small holes?!?
Is it better for your mental health to be a night owl or a morning bird? Learn more here!
Follow me on Instagram here!