COVID & dietary supplements: maybe clutching at straws?
Last updated on 11th April 2020
I was intrigued to see the recent paper by Ghazizadeh-Hashemi et al - "Palmitoylethanolamide as adjunctive therapy in major depressive disorder: A double-blind, randomized and placebo-controlled trial" - with its abstract reading: "Experimental studies provide evidence for antidepressant effects of Palmitoylethanolamide (PEA) in animal models of depression. We aimed to evaluate the efficacy and tolerability of PEA add-on therapy in treatment of patients with major depressive disorder (MDD). Methods In a randomized double-blind, and placebo-controlled study, 58 patients with MDD (DSM-5) and Hamilton Depression Rating Scale (HAM-D) score ≥ 19 were randomized to receive either 600 mg twice daily Palmitoylethanolamide or placebo in addition to citalopram for six weeks ...
I'm running a workshop today on "Biological treatments for psychological disorders: an overview & update for therapists". You can download the 100 plus slides by clicking here. The overall outline of the day is illustrated in this slide:
Last year I was intrigued by a paper - "Zinc in depression: A meta-analysis" - from Toronto University's "Neuropsychopharmacology Research Group" where the authors brought together 17 relevant studies and concluded "Depression is associated with a lower concentration of zinc in peripheral blood.
"The truth is rarely pure and never simple" Oscar Wilde
I wrote a post a couple of days ago entitled "Twelve recent research studies on diet, psychological symptoms & wellbeing (1st post): overall dietary quality & depression". I said that glancing back over recent research studies that I have noticed & downloaded to my personal database, I was struck by a whole series on the effects of diet on psychological state. I've listed twelve that caught my eye in the last several months - the first post gave half a dozen on overall dietary quality & depression, whereas this post focuses more on specific dietary components.
Glancing back over recent research studies that I have noticed & downloaded to my personal database, I was struck by a whole series on the effects of diet on psychological state. I've listed twelve that caught my eye in the last several months - this first of two posts details studies that focus more on overall dietary quality. The second post in the series focuses more on specific dietary components & psychological disorder. There are obviously lots of interesting developments in this important area.
The future is already here - it's just not very evenly distributed.
- William Gibson
Yesterday we had the twelfth & final session of this "Life skills" evening class. There was scheduled to have been a bit less than a three month gap since the last - eleventh - session. However the heavy winter snow we'd experienced had resulted in this last session being postponed.
Watchful like a man crossing a winter stream, yielding like ice about to melt, simple like an uncarved block of wood, hollow like a cave. - Lao Tzu