There will be spring, there will be depression

Photo: collage PublicPost

After long and fierce battles, winter begins to retreat from Russia. It is time to talk about depression, anxiety, excitement, bursts of aggression and sexuality - in a word, about spring exacerbation. PublicPost asked the psychiatrists what would happen to us while the snow melts.

Alexey Bobrov, Dr. Med. sciences, professor, head of the department of psychotherapy and advisory psychiatry of the Moscow Research Institute of Psychiatry of the Ministry of Health and Social Development of the Russian Federation:

“Today everyone knows that the mental state of people is strongly dependent on climatic factors, including the change of seasons. This is due to the temperature, light, possibly certain electromagnetic fluctuations, the activity of the Sun. while these correlations are not studied fully enough, although some groups of associated states, such as seasonal depression, seasonal affective disorders.

From practice, we know that some forms of mental and psychosomatic diseases in the autumn-spring period intensify. I mean not only purely mental illness, but also those in the etiologies of which the nervous system plays a large role-say, certain cardiovascular diseases, stomach ulcer, rheumatism ...

So far, it is impossible to unequivocally predict whether or not one or another person has an exacerbation. But there are indications that with some diseases, seasonal deterioration of the condition is really observed. We can expect the growth of suicides, especially in the fall.

Well, in the spring, the entire social context is activated in which we exist: aggressiveness, tendency to migration, some forms of sexual behavior, increases, and activity increases. To a certain extent, this is mediated by hormonal shifts, changes in nutrition, and so on. This is a universal phenomenon known not only in people. Now it is shown that depression and anxiety can be somehow associated with melatonin (hormone-regulator of the daily rhythms of the body-publicpost), the release of which is determined by the duration of daylight hours. Of course, the activity of sex hormones, and indeed the course of metabolic processes in the body, matters. To one degree or another, this affects everyone - it is no coincidence that people often fall in love with in the spring. "

Victor Sementkovsky, doctor-therapist of the Moscow Psychiatric Hospital No. 3 named after Gilyarovsky:

“Spring and autumn are the most difficult periods for any person. During the transition from winter to summer and from summer to winter, complex metabolic processes occur in the body, it is rebuilt to another rhythm of work. Change of weather, barometric pressure, daylight hours - due to all this, the body experiences increased loads, people more often suffer from mental and somatic diseases.

To some extent, the immune system suffers, this increases the frequency of colds and other diseases. Exacerbation of hypertension, ischemia, cerebrovascular accident - in spring and autumn all this happens more often than in winter and summer. The status of the immune system is different for everyone, therefore, more often all these “spring” problems, of course, concern those who do not sleep, do not, live in poor conditions, have not been resting for a long time ... those who, due to these circumstances, are reduced. And in the spring, when the increased load on the body and its immune system begins, it can fail. That is, due to social conditions, some people are more predisposed to these "spring" disorders.

In winter, we lack daylight day, lack the sun, and by spring all this accumulates, creates anxiety, depressive mood. When the sun is closed by clouds, when darkness, it slows down the production of melanin, slows down many physiological processes. We are less joyful, the mood is gloomy, a person becomes more susceptible to various mental difficulties. After all, it is even noticed that if people are preparing to make suicide - usually in the evening or at night, but if they think and live until the morning, see the sun, these thoughts usually disappear. So in the spring, when there is a lot of light, just sunlight, it always acts favorably. The sun is a powerful factor on which our state depends. "

Alla Muravyeva, psychiatrist, head. Department of the RKPB named after Bekhterev of the Republic of Tatarstan:

"There is a whole category of patients who enter the hospital in the fall and early spring. But asthenic conditions, especially in the spring, can also develop in ordinary people, not necessarily sick. After the winter, the reserve of the body is depleted, the supply of vitamins and other things that we gained in the summer.

The development of depression is associated with very different processes, with the exchange of hormones such as melatonin, serotonin, whose products are greatly changed depending on longitude of the day and time of year. The artificial reduction in daylight hours is also affected by the abolition of the translation of the arrows. "

- This year, winter was very long and managed to get bored. Does this lead to more serious problems than usual?

"Judging by our patients, such a trend exists. This is connected, to a certain extent, with unfulfilled hopes, with delayed expectations and plans. It is difficult to say what is the role of biological or psychological factors. It is known that a non -reach of expectations can create a serious stressful environment. People have prepared to change their clothes, and to get in the house, and the wheels with the car are used to change the wheels and so the wheels of the car. Further.

-These stresses in the team are worried in different ways. Often we are actively talking about all this, share, but at the same time we create the background of continuous discussion of a negative situation. Wherever you come - groans, oh and ahi everywhere. What effect does this behavior give?

It all depends on the team. A number of such stresses proceeds in the form of inconspicuous psychological epidemics. Previously, it could be an epidemic of hiccups, when the whole village is "infected" and begins to hiccup. Or everyone begins to experience visions - they used to see saints, now aliens ... but there are both erased, subclinical epidemics, and collective reactions to the expectation of spring, and its inappropriation can be considered as one of these forms.

But the genesis of such states is mixed, and it is very difficult to clearly separate one factor from another today. We do not have enough tools for this, and there is no request from society to conduct such research yet. ”

Victor Sementkovsky, doctor-therapist of the Moscow Psychiatric Hospital No. 3 named after Gilyarovsky:

- And how to get through this difficult period with the least loss?

"First of all, I recommend reducing the load on the body-any physical and mental. Full. Full. After all, some are now holding a post. In ancient times, he appeared, in my opinion, because the supply of products cooked for the winter has ended. Now we have no such need to limit itself, and it is better to eat fully and versatile. Eat at least five different types of fruits per day-let us allow, tangerine, pendar, pendar. Plum, apple and so on.

Talking about vitamin deficiency is no longer accepted. Avitaminosis develops in more severe conditions, when people went somewhere at the North Pole and ate only canned food. Nowadays, ordinary people have practically not only vitamin deficiency, but even hypovitaminosis. It is often recommended to take vitamins, but this, apparently, is simply beneficial from a commercial point of view. With full nutrition, the body and so gets everything necessary.

Still, of course, you need to recommend a full sleep. Even the translation of the shooter that we still had is always a test for the body, and even the "ambulance" noted an increase in the number of challenges ... although this is more for people with a painful psyche, it all depends on the individual nature and type of nervous activity. Most people are simply rebuilt. Man is a very difficult mechanism. "

Alla Muravyeva, psychiatrist, head. Department of the RKPB named after Bekhterev of the Republic of Tatarstan:

"True depression is not cured so quickly, they require therapy for six months at least, and preferably a year. Antidepressants of a new generation, such as serotonin inhibitors, or balanced drugs acting on dopamine receptors and melatonin, are effectively operating.

But such drugs are recommended, of course, already seriously ill people. If we talk about the easier subdepressive states in those who do not suffer from severe mental disorders, then getting out of them, of course, is easier. The fact is that melatonin is released at night, and serotonin - on the contrary, is better produced in light. Therefore, it is recommended in such a situation and surround yourself with bright, bright colors, and try to wear light tones, and in general there is more to be in the light. This, in principle, knows that in such an environment even mood becomes better.

We also recommend polyvitamins or just B vitamins, ascorbic acid. If asthenia is accompanied by increased irritability, you can think about other drugs such as glycine, phenybut, apobobazole and other drugs with a soothing, anti -alert effect.

It is important and proper nutrition, with a sufficient number of products rich in serotonin - cheese, bananas, cottage cheese, well -known chocolate, bright fruits, especially citrus fruits: it is believed that even their bright smell and color in themselves already improve the mood. "

"Of course, you can recommend everything related to taking vitamins, proper physical activity, the correct regime of the day, adequate relations with loved ones and colleagues ...

Well, the main recommendation is one: you need to admire the weather that is. Do not go to extremes, surrender to constructive motives that appear in us in any season, and realize these motives. Eat pleasure, realizing that life is short. "