Chap2 Depression is an Injury in the Brain from stress
Introdution
Contrary to popular belief, depression is caused by injury in the brain.This is a fact confirmed through many MRI images.
When those injuries are healed, depression in itself is also cured.
In this story, I will be going into depth as to how depression is a form of brain injury.
Brain Injury
Depression is caused by an injury in the brain. Stress makes injury in the brain. The injury is located in the amygdala of the brain, and part of the amygdala is missing.Dr. Taiju Matsuzawa, a former professor at Tohoku University in Japan, has been working with many depression patients since before 1990. And he has found the injury in the brain by MRI images. *1),*2)
If we hear the word "injury", we usually think of a linear injury, but the injury of depression is a hole-like with a dent in it, caused by the death of brain cells. Stress kills some of the brain cells and creates a hole.
Figure1: Brain Injury MRI of Depression
Figure1 below is an MRI image of the brain injury of a depression patient. It is comparing with a depressed patient and a normal person.The right side is normal, and the left side is the depression patient.
The area indicated by the red arrow is black in the image on the left. The brain cells there are dead and gone, and there is a hole.
It is the part of the amygdala called the basolateral amygdalar nucleus group. It is the part of the amygdala that occupies the center to the lower part of the amygdala and is close to the hippocampus. *2)
Figure 1: Depression Brain Injury MRI
Excerpt from the book "Mental Illness is a Brain Injury"
with the permission of the author, Mr. Takumi Tanabe.
Figure2: Brain Injury MRI of Alzheimer and Schizophrenia
Schizophrenia, like depression, has an injury in the amygdala of the brain. The location of the injury is slightly different. It is located far from the hippocampus in what is called the "medial cortical nucleus group" of the amygdala. The shape is half-moon, with a hole through it, and the injury is large. *2)In other words, there is a large loss of neurons in the amygdala and its surrounding area. Since the brain nerves that should be working are missing, brain function is impaired.
On the right side of Figure 2 below, the red arrow shows the brain injury in schizophrenia.
If you compare the injury of depression with those of normal subjects in Figure 1 above, you can see the large half-moon-shaped injury.
Dr. Taiju Matsuzawa, a former professor at Tohoku University, believed that depression worsens into schizophrenia. I support this idea.
Figure2: Brain Injury MRI of Alzheimer and Schizophrenia
Excerpt from the book "Mental Illness is a Brain Injury"
with the permission of the author, Mr. Takumi Tanabe
Dr. Taiju Matsuzawa's discovery about Brain Injury in Schizophrenia.
In the book "Mental Illness is a Brain Injury," Dr. Taiju Matsuzawa explains what schizophrenia is. He explains schizophrenia accurately. It's a bit long, but I'd like to quote it here. (2)In common sense of psychiatry, depression and schizophrenia have been considered to be completely different diseases.
At first, Dr. Matsuzawa also trusted the "common sense of psychiatry. However, as he was taking pictures every day, he noticed that there were patients who had schizophrenia but had brain holes of depression.
After re-examining, he found out that schizophrenic patients always have brain holes of depression. On the contrary, he found schizophrenic injury hole in depressed patients, and eventually I found that all of them had both injuries.
He discovered that schizophrenia always develops from depression.
To summarize the above quote with a few additions
Depression and schizophrenia arise from injuries in the amygdala of the brain. The injuries that characterize both are in separate locations.
When there is a great deal of stress, injuries created in those two locations. When the injuries become larger, depression is the first symptom.
Current Psychiatry's View of Schizophrenia
In the world of psychiatry, it is still unclear why schizophrenia occurs. Because of the current situation, coping treatments focusing on abnormalities in neurotransmitters in the brain are being used.For example, there are various theories such as the dopamine hypothesis of schizophrenia, the glutamate hypothesis of schizophrenia, and the neurodevelopmental disorder hypothesis of schizophrenia.
Although drug treatment is based on these theories, the reality is that it is far from a complete cure.
This article is dedicated to depression. I would like to write a separate article on schizophrenia further down the line.
How much is known about the brain injury of depression in the public and Psychiatric Association?
Dr. Taiju Matsuzawa has made it possible to see depression as an injury of the brain. He also proposed that brain neural stem cells are responsible for the repair of the brain. It was around 1990. I consider this to be a revolutionary discovery.About the neural stem cells of the brain will be in another story.
For the public, there are two books.
Book titled "Brain and Mind saw through the eyes" to introduce Dr. Matsuzawa's achievements NHK Publishing published in 2003.
In 2008, Takumi Tanabe, a former science reporter for the Asahi Shimbun, interviewed Dr. Matsuzawa and published a book titled "Mental Illness is a Brain Injury.
However, it cannot be said that the idea that depression is a brain injury is widespread among the public.
At my acupuncture clinic, there are many patients with mental disorders. When I ask them about their treatment at the hospital, they do not talk about "depression is a brain injury".
Dr. Taiju Matsuzawa is a specialist in radiological imaging, which is different from psychiatry. It seems that he couldn't accept that an outsider could say something innovative.
If you will excuse my abruptness story changing, and in my opinion, it is the closed nature of Japanese society. In Japan, new and innovative things are only accepted by the power from the outside like Perry Expedition with black ships.
Only one point to be issed
There is a hindrance to the spread of Dr. Taiju Matsuzawa's "Analyzing the Mind with Brain Imaging". It is a patent for a method of photographing brain injuries.Looking at the great achievements of Dr. Taiju Matsuzaw and his subsequent activity, I regret only that one point.
I will discuss this point in another blog, tentatively titled "The Great Wave of the Era is Coming. (Dramatic Changes in the Diagnosis of Depression and Schizophrenia)".
Next Story
The next story is:Chapter-3 The Stress Creates Brain Injury and Muscle stiffness.
Explain how stress creates brain injury and muscle stiffness.
I will explain the reason why it is scientifically cured by connecting the idea of ＝oriental medicine and the latest brain science to each other.
Preface
1) Book "Brain and Heart Seen by the Eye" Editor: Taiju Matsuzawa NHK Publishing 2003
Former Tohoku University professor Taiju Matsuzawa said that the combination of his MRI and his PET caused depression and schizophrenia due to damage to the amygdala, and when the injury healed, depression, It has been revealed that schizophrenia will be cured.
2) Book "Mental illness is a brain injury" Depression, schizophrenia, dementia are cured
Author: Takumi Tanabe Speaker: Taiju Matsuzawa Nishimura Bookstore 2008
Covers of the books "Brain and Mind Seen by the Eye" and "Mental Illness is a Brain Damage"
f3) Amygdala anatomy Front. Neural Circuits, 01 August 2013 |Inhibitory networks of the amygdala for emotional memory
https://www.frontiersin.org/files/Articles/58867/fncir-07-00129-HTML/image_m/fncir-07-00129-g001.jpg