- cross-posted to:
- science@lemmy.ml
cross-posted from: https://lemmy.ml/post/1491937
Using surveys, cognitive tests and brain imaging, researchers have identified a type of depression that affects about a quarter of patients. The goal is to diagnose and treat the condition more precisely.
Almost sounds like ADHD, which can be misdiagnosed as depression/anxiety OR can lead to those two things due to such cognitive dysfunctions and emotional dysregulation. It’s interesting they mention guanfacine too, as I’ve heard that can be used to help with ADHD.
I think it’s the other way around, I think “mood” disorders with cognitive deficits tend to get misdiagnosed as ADHD. It always seems weird to me when people with bipolar get diagnosed with ADHD given cognitive deficits, particularly in memory and executive dysfunction, are very common in the disease process.
I was thinking literally the same thing. I wonder how these patients would respond to stimulant medication?
Or even non-stimulants like Atomoxetine (Strattera) that are known to be effective for ADHD. Could even try more experimental ones if you have money and a license to do whatever you want medically.
I just got put on Strattera (bipolar 2 and adhd) and i gotta say it’s been working pretty good for me
When I get my diagnosis it’s the first meds I’m trying, so hopefully it works out for me too.
Totally anecdotal, but I took escitalopram (the first depression medication mentioned in the study) for years. It worked all right for a while but I was always very low on energy, and after a while it stopped working for me. After some trial and error my doctor and I landed on bupropion (which is also used for ADHD treatment) and it made an enormous difference. I would absolutely believe there is a lot of overlap in treating the two conditions, especially for helping with the the willpower/doing things side of the symptoms (e.g. having energy to do anything in the first place, completing tasks that need to get done, overcoming executive dysfunction, and not getting “stuck” in negative thought spirals).
But of course, it depends on each person and their kind of depression. My doctor warned me that it could make anxiety worse, for example, because the added focus and energy could feed right into someone’s anxiety and make them feel mildly panicked all the time. It’s highly individual.