Miscellaneous

The Boston Globe has this interesting article about the nature and etiology of depression. (Hat tip to Betsy McKenzie.) Though the article is not about the high incidence of depression in the legal community, it hints at a possible reason for the correlation:

One of the first cracks in the chemical hypothesis of depression came from a phenomenon known as the ?Prozac lag.? Antidepressants increase the amount of serotonin in the brain within hours, but the beneficial effects are not usually felt for weeks.

This led neuroscientists to wonder if something besides serotonin might be responsible. Duman, for instance, began to study a class of proteins known as trophic factors, which help neurons grow and survive. Trophe is Greek for nourishment; what sunlight and water do for trees, trophic factors do for brain cells. Numerous studies had shown that chronic stress damages the brain by suppressing the release of trophic factors. In a series of influential papers published earlier this decade, Duman demonstrated that the same destructive hallmark is seen in depression, so that our neurons are deprived of what they need.

How about it, gang. Anyone out there suffering from brain damage caused by chronic stress?