J. R. DePriest    :EA DATA. SF:1d ago
trendless

"What we found, again and again, was that these patients were not treatment resistant in any meaningful psychiatric sense. Their brains were being starved of blood. The sympathetic system was failing to move blood upward, or the parasympathetic system was dilating vessels at exactly the wrong moment, or both. Once you measure the two branches independently and correct the specific imbalance, the so-called depression lifts, not because we treated depression, but because we treated the physiology that was masquerading as depression"

Nearly half of the study cohort (48.3 percent) had been diagnosed with long- or post-COVID syndrome, a population now recognized as a vast and troubled reservoir of autonomic dysfunction.

https://www.news-medical.net/news/20260331/Treating-autonomic-dysfunction-can-relieve-symptoms-of-treatment-resistant-depression.aspx

Treating autonomic dysfunction can relieve symptoms of treatment-resistant depression

Consider a house with the water main half shut. The faucets sputter. The toilet runs all night. The garden wilts. You could call a plumber for the faucet, a landscaper for the garden, a different plumber for the toilet, and every one of them would fix something while fixing nothing.

News-Medical
Apr 1 at 3:53amWeb
Show threadFergabell 😷 🌱1d ago
@trendless This is huge but of course not 'newsworthy'. Sadly, any treatment based on this will never reach or be available to the growing number of people who will keep getting COVID because the lack of awareness and denial continues in the medical community itself.
Show threadPapyrusBrigade1d ago

@trendless oh! From the article:

"Note, this is why many of these patients do not receive the restorative and refreshing sleep they desire. For as soon as they lie down, their brains receive all the blood they want and "wake up and want to play," the patient wants to fall asleep. This merely exacerbates the "wired-tired" feeling most autonomic patients report."

Show threadNilaJones1d ago

@PapyrusBrigade @trendless

This happened to me just last night!

Show threadPapyrusBrigade1d ago

@trendless The full research article ("
Is it really treatment-resistant depression? Parasympathetic and sympathetic dysfunction as a treatable contributor to depressive symptoms") is a fascinating read.

6 year study. 8128 patients. Article focuses on the 2197 who had received diagnosis of depression.

I keep saying "wow" as I read it. This could be life-changing for so many.

https://genomicpress.kglmeridian.com/view/journals/brainmed/aop/article-10.61373-bm026r.0024/article-10.61373-bm026r.0024.xml

Is it really treatment-resistant depression? Parasympathetic and sympathetic dysfunction as a treatable contributor to depressive symptoms

Is it really treatment-resistant depression? Parasympathetic and sympathetic dysfunction as a treatable contributor to depressive symptoms

Genomic Press
Show threadGurre Vildskägg1d ago
@PapyrusBrigade @trendless
By the gods, this could unlock so much quality of life for millions. Science, F yeah!
Show threadChris Goss1d ago
@PapyrusBrigade @trendless Thank you for sharing this link. Very interesting.
Show threadM.Paola1d ago
@trendless @salixsericea "That matters enormously in a population running on empty; a single night of restorative rest can shift the entire horizon of what feels possible. " oh, goodness: yes!
Show threadBrambleBearSnoring1d ago

@trendless

"They arrived burdened not with one or two complaints but with an average of 23.2 out of 28 possible autonomic symptoms: fatigue so dense it felt architectural, brain fog that swallowed nouns mid-sentence, lightheadedness upon standing, sleep that never restored, memory lapses, gastrointestinal chaos, hormone dysregulation (especially in women's health), chronic pain, chronid headache or migraines, rashes, and sensory disturbances that made light too bright and sound too loud."

Show threadkæt1d ago
@trendless I'm not expert enough to judge the quality of this study, but I do know there are a vast array of established drugs which modulate the autonomic nervous system, so if this is the correct pathophysiology, the treatment options should be treatable in a broad population.