Post #892091

2026-04-01 03:53 UTC

"What we found, again and again, was that these patients were not treatment resistant in any meaningful psychiatric sense. Their brains were being starved of blood. The sympathetic system was failing to move blood upward, or the parasympathetic system was dilating vessels at exactly the wrong moment, or both. Once you measure the two branches independently and correct the specific imbalance, the so-called depression lifts, not because we treated depression, but because we treated the physiology that was masquerading as depression" Nearly half of the study cohort (48.3 percent) had been diagnosed with long- or post-COVID syndrome, a population now recognized as a vast and troubled reservoir of autonomic dysfunction. https://www.news-medical.net/news/20260331/Treating-autonomic-dysfunction-can-relieve-symptoms-of-treatment-resistant-depression.aspx

Replies (5)

@fergabell@zeroes.ca 2026-04-01 04:56

@trendless@zeroes.ca This is huge but of course not 'newsworthy'. Sadly, any treatment based on this will never reach or be available to the growing number of people who will keep getting COVID because the lack of awareness and denial continues in the medical community itself.

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@PapyrusBrigade@cosocial.ca 2026-04-01 12:14

@trendless@zeroes.ca oh! From the article: "Note, this is why many of these patients do not receive the restorative and refreshing sleep they desire. For as soon as they lie down, their brains receive all the blood they want and "wake up and want to play," the patient wants to fall asleep. This merely exacerbates the "wired-tired" feeling most autonomic patients report."

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@PapyrusBrigade@cosocial.ca 2026-04-01 13:48

@trendless@zeroes.ca The full research article (" Is it really treatment-resistant depression? Parasympathetic and sympathetic dysfunction as a treatable contributor to depressive symptoms") is a fascinating read. 6 year study. 8128 patients. Article focuses on the 2197 who had received diagnosis of depression. I keep saying "wow" as I read it. This could be life-changing for so many. https://genomicpress.kglmeridian.com/view/journals/brainmed/aop/article-10.61373-bm026r.0024/article-10.61373-bm026r.0024.xml

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@BrambleBearSnoring@mastodon.ie 2026-04-01 20:13

@trendless@zeroes.ca "They arrived burdened not with one or two complaints but with an average of 23.2 out of 28 possible autonomic symptoms: fatigue so dense it felt architectural, brain fog that swallowed nouns mid-sentence, lightheadedness upon standing, sleep that never restored, memory lapses, gastrointestinal chaos, hormone dysregulation (especially in women's health), chronic pain, chronid headache or migraines, rashes, and sensory disturbances that made light too bright and sound too loud."

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@chiffchaff@tech.lgbt 2026-04-01 20:17

@trendless@zeroes.ca I'm not expert enough to judge the quality of this study, but I do know there are a vast array of established drugs which modulate the autonomic nervous system, so if this is the correct pathophysiology, the treatment options should be treatable in a broad population.

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