Ok, the serotonin theory of depression may not be wrong. But it is definitely incomplete. One might ask why we use serotonergic drugs to treat depression if the theory behind it is wrong. A good question, but to this I say: because it worked. This is post four of my series on depression. For previous […]
I’ve had some sturm und drang over this post. I’ve been wanting to do a basic post on serotonin, but I’ve also been wanting to do a post on the serotonin theory of depression (and why it is at the very least incomplete). The idea of a serotonin post is a significant challenge, but the […]
Welcome to depression post three! Previously I covered the symptoms and etiology of depression, and some of the most common antidepressant medications and how they work. Now I’d like to go into some of the research behind it. After all, it’s not like we just grab a depressed person and say “here, take this and […]
In my previous depression post, I talked about the symptoms and characterization of depression. In this one, I want to talk about what’s out there to treat it.
I don’t generally miss my old blog, per se. I do kind of miss the layout, and I’ll admit my name was pretty cool. But really, when I miss anything, I miss my old basic science posts I wrote. And since basic science is one of the things I’m all about (along with weird and […]
I am an unabashed lover of Scientific American. Well, ok, I’m also a grad student. So I can’t AFFORD Scientific American. But luckily, Scientific American has podcasts! There’s a regular weekly one that is around 40 minutes long, and then there are daily ones, called ’60-second science’. 60-second science represents the latest science tidbits as […]
Welcome to part 3 of Welcome to my brain! Apparently everyone is very impressed by how hot my brain is (see parts one and two), but unfortunately, we’re almost out of pics. Today we’re covering the rest of the bits of my brain that look really awesome, which really boils down to all the ones […]
Ok, so I thought I would be able to do this brain stuff in TWO entries, but I think it might have to be three. After all, the brain is a wondrous, glorious world of awesome, and MY brain in particular is especially nice. Last time I talked about the outer features of the brain […]
Some of you may recall that I got my brain scanned in an MRI for the sake of science. Well, my lovely fellow grad student was nice enough to send me some of my baseline pictures! I think I have a lovely brain (see my new profile pic? I’m totally hot, right?), and so I […]
Over my years as a grad student, I’ve been a guinea pig for more than a few research studies. Most of the people leading the studies are fellow grad students (I’m never involved with the work at all), and it’s good to help them out. A lot of times the studies are kind of cool […]