Depression

You’ve probably seen signs outside stores for “Kratom”. Some of these stores are head shops, some vape shops, and some convenience stores. You, no doubt like millions of other passersby, have asked yourself what in the heck is Kratom?

Well, it’s a plant native to Southeast Asia and traditionally, its leaves have been used as medicine for various ailments ranging from opioid withdrawal, appetite suppression, insomnia, anxiety, depression, ADHD, fatigue, managing coughs, diarrhea and improving energy levels. 

If and when it works in those situations could be a good thing. However, it has its downsides.

It can be addictive, it can be fatal and its unregulated use has gotten to the point where states are starting to add their own regulations, because there is no scientific evidence to support its safety or efficacy for pain treatment. Not to mention that a convenience store is the last place a product touted as being able to help with depression or opioid withdrawal should be sold.

In Florida, the legislature is considering a bill that would ban the sale of adulterated Kratom products, require safety labels and dosage outlines, and prohibit any claims that the product can treat or cure medical conditions.

Similar regulatory efforts are underway in Kentucky, where a bill has been unanimously supported by a state House committee to increase regulation of Kratom, including limiting sales to those over 21 and requiring product labels to state that Kratom is not intended to treat medical conditions.

Then, there’s the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA). It's been a few years since the federal agency barged into the Kratom boardroom in a rage, but it probably will with all that's going on.

After all, it does have oversight responsibilities for dietary supplements – including Kratom – and there are calls for the FDA to enforce labeling requirements and potentially limit the potency of active ingredients in Kratom-related products.

The risks you run

Before you delve into the nation of Kratomcome, you might want to first consider all the potential side effects: Even at low doses, kratom can cause undesirable side effects like nausea, constipation, anxiety, and insomnia. At higher doses, risks include seizures, liver damage, and psychosis.

Then there’s the interaction with other substances where the reactions can spike even higher.

It’s a complex picture, but if the states and the FDA get together, there might be a way to find a safe way for consumers to buy and use Kratom.

If you are considering using Kratom, it is essential to consult with a healthcare professional who can discuss the potential risks and benefits based on your situation.

You might walk into a store and are met with an aroma that triggers pleasant memories and takes you back to a “happy place.” Researchers have now concluded that experience can be harnessed to treat depression. 

In a study published in JAMA Network Open, researchers at the University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine (UPMC) and UPMC social workers suggest that smells are more effective than words at cueing up a memory of a specific event and could even be used in the clinical setting to help depressed individuals get out of negative thought cycles and rewire thought patterns, aiding faster and smoother healing. 

The study cites “extensive evidence” that people with depression have a hard time recalling specific personal memories and that, in healthy individuals, smells trigger memories that feel vivid and “real,” likely because they directly engage the part of the brain having to do with memories.

“It was surprising to me that nobody thought to look at memory recall in depressed individuals using scent cues before,” said Dr. Kymberly Young, senior author of the study and associate professor of psychiatry at Pitt.

Young and her team presented study participants with a series of opaque glass vials, each containing a potent, familiar scent ranging from oranges to ground coffee to shoe polish, and even Vicks VapoRub. After asking participants to smell the vial, Young asked them to recall a specific memory, regardless of whether it was good or bad. 

Young said she was surprised to discover that memory recall was stronger in depressed people who responded to odors rather than words. People who were exposed to familiar smells were also more likely to associate them with positive memories.

Aromatherapy

Advocates of aromatherapy are probably not surprised by the results. According to Mount Sinai Hospital in New York, some forms of aromatherapy go back 6,000 years. 

According to the hospital, the "smell" receptors in your nose communicate with parts of your brain that serve as storehouses for emotions and memories. 

“When you breathe in essential oil molecules, some researchers believe they stimulate these parts of your brain and influence physical, emotional, and mental health,” the hospital says on its website. 

For example, some scientists believe lavender stimulates the activity of brain cells in the amygdala similar to the way some sedative medications work. Other researchers think that molecules from essential oils may interact in the blood with hormones or enzymes.

Young, meanwhile, wants to conduct further studies to determine whether using pleasant and familiar scents can not only help people improve their memory but also help people deal with depression.

The Los Angeles County Coroner's report that actor Matthew Perry died, in part from “the acute effects of ketamine” has raised awareness of this drug.

Ketamine has long been used to treat depression and anxiety and Perry was reportedly taking it in conjunction with his treatment for drug addiction. The drug has been around since the 1970s and during the 90s, was often used as a party drug.

It wasn’t until the early 2000s that scientists discovered it could be a powerful tool to promote mental health. Researchers at the U.S. National Institutes of Health (NIH) found that the drug could quickly relieve severe depression.

The problem with the drug is that it is still used recreationally. Doses administered by a health care professional are small and always administered in a clinical setting. Recreational users tend to dose at much higher levels.

According to Perry’s autopsy report, the levels of Ketamine in his blood were much higher than would have been administered by his doctor.

Overdoses are rare

Health professionals say lethal ketamine overdoses are rare. In Perry’s case, he apparently fell asleep while in a hot tub and drowned.

Since 1999, ketamine has been classified as a Schedule III nonnarcotic substance under the Controlled Substances Act. The U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration defines these drugs as having a “moderate to low potential for physical and psychological dependence.”

According to the Alcohol and Drug Foundation, ketamine is a dissociative drug, which means it “causes people to feel separated or detached from their body or physical environment. Dissociatives are similar to psychedelics, they can cause hallucinations and other changes in thoughts, emotions and consciousness.”

Ketamine is generally considered safe when administered in a clinical setting. But the American Addition Centers discussed potential adverse effects here.

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has been busy in recent weeks. After approving the first over-the-counter contraceptive and the first postpartum depression drug, the agency is taking action in the fight against respiratory syncytial virus (RSV). 

The FDA has officially approved a vaccine, Abrysvo, for pregnant women during weeks 32 through 36 of pregnancy that would help protect their babies from RSV. 

“RSV is a common cause of illness in children, and infants are among those at highest risk for severe disease, which can lead to hospitalization,” said Dr. Peter Marks, director of the FDA’s Center for Biologics Evaluation and Research. “This approval provides an option for health care providers and pregnant individuals to protect infants from this potentially life-threatening disease.” 

Safety of the vaccine

Abrysvo was approved for protection against RSV in adults over 60 back in May. To test the efficacy in infants, researchers conducted two clinical trials, the first of which included 3,600 pregnant women who received the Abrysvo vaccines and 3,600 who received a placebo. The second trial cut down the participants to 100 women in each group. 

There were a few side effects that emerged in both clinical trials. Many of them were common for any vaccine: muscle pain, headache, pain at the injection site, and nausea. 

However, some of the side effects posed health risks to the women and their pregnancies. The studies found that preterm births occurred in 5.7% of the women who received the Abrysvo vaccine, compared with 4.7% of women who received the placebo, though it still is unknown if this is in direct correlation to the drug. 

There was also a higher risk of jaundice, low birth weight, and preeclampsia in women who received the vaccine – 1.8% of these women developed the high blood pressure condition, compared with 1.4% who received the placebo. 

Researchers found that administering the vaccine in the latest weeks of pregnancy – weeks 32-36 – is likely to lower the risk of preterm birth. 

Vaccine efficacy

Based on these two studies, the researchers found that Abrysvo was effective at lowering infants’ risk of developing severe RSV within three months and six months of birth. 

One group of study participants included 3,000 pregnant women between 32 and 36 weeks, half of whom received the Abrysvo vaccine, while the other half received a placebo.

Compared to those who didn’t receive the vaccine, the risk of severe lower respiratory tract disease (LRTD) – an infection caused by RSV – decreased by 90% in the first three months of life, and by 76.5% in the first six months of life. 

Similarly, the risk of respiratory tract disease was nearly 35% lower in the first three months for those who had been vaccinated, while the risk was over 57% lower in the first six months. 

More work will continue to be done on the drug to better understand some of the health risks, including preeclampsia. 

Loneliness, sadness, depression, anxiety – Google searches for these terms are off the chart.

It’s not because it’s Mental Health Month either, although that would be a nice excuse. Ever since COVID-19 strode into the U.S., everyone has been affected: 86% of teens, who knows how many senior citizens, even the Surgeon General says there’s an epidemic of sadness and loneliness.

And, since we live in a time where an app can do anything, well, why not let an app get us all out of our funk?

Despite a mental health app’s good intentions, Mozilla’s latest *Privacy Not Included study shows mental health apps are failing to protect user privacy and security – a factor that could make us wring our hands even more if a hacker gets possession of our private information and starts leveraging it to their benefit.

Fifty-nine percent of the top apps studied were given *Privacy Not Included warning labels, while 40% have gotten worse over the last year.

'I’ll be your very best friend…'

Of concern to Mozilla’s researchers were the apps that pretend to want to cuddle up with a user a little too much.  They found many apps that were jam-full of tracking code, with the app Cerebral installing 799 trackers onto a person’s phone within the first minute of download. 

There were also apps that wasted no time collecting information – before even asking for consent. The researchers said that Talkspace, Happify, and BetterHelp all pushing consumers into taking questionnaires up front without asking for their permission or showing their privacy policies first.

One app that freaked out Mozilla’s team was, what else but an AI app? “Replika: My AI Friend” which wants to be your virtual reality best friend is one of the worst apps Mozilla said it’s ever reviewed and voted by users as the 10th “most creepy.”

“It’s plagued by weak password requirements, sharing of personal data with advertisers, and recording of personal photos, videos, and voice and text messages consumers shared with the chatbot,” the researchers said.

Others in the Top 10 of the apps users voted the “most creepy” include (in order) Pride Counseling, Better Stop Suicide, Pray, Cerebral, Better Help, TalkSpace, The Mighty, 7 Cups, and Youper.

“The worst offenders are still letting consumers down in scary ways, tracking and sharing their most intimate information and leaving them incredibly vulnerable,” said Jen Caltrider, Mozilla’s *Privacy Not Included Lead. 

But it can be done the right way, too

On the other hand, Caltrider praised a handful of apps that handle data responsibly and respectfully, proving that it can do things the right way. One that found itself in the “most creepy” category – Youper – is trying to turn its life around and is running for “most-improved app” for significantly strengthening both its password requirements and privacy policy. 

Another is Woebot which has improved its privacy policy to explain that all users now have the same rights to access and delete their own data. When ConsumerAffairs investigated Woebot on the Play Store, it also says that no data is shared with third parties, the data is encrypted in transit, and a user can request that data be deleted – all a definite positive.