Charles Nemeroff: Understanding, Preventing, and Treating Depression in the Digital Age

Approximately 20 percent of people in the USA will experience clinical depression during their lifetime and there has been a recent surge in depression and suicide among teenagers and young adults. The early life environment plays a major role in one’s vulnerability to depression with childhood maltreatment greatly increasing the risk. Recent research suggests that use of social media is a risk factor. In this episode I talk with psychiatrist/neuroscientist Charles Nemeroff about the neurobiology of stress and depression and interventions to prevent and treat depression. He is a professor of psychiatry and behavioral sciences at the University of Texas at Austin Medical School, Director of the Institute for Early Life Adversity Research, and Director of the Center for Psychedelic Research and Therapy. Professor Nemeroff has served as president of the American Colleges of Psychiatrists and is currently president of the Anxiety and Depression Association of America.

LINKS 

Professor Nemeroff’s academic webpage with links to centers:

https://dellmed.utexas.edu/directory/charles-nemeroff

Review article on depression:

https://ajp-psychiatryonline-org.proxy1.library.jhu.edu/doi/epdf/10.1176/appi.ajp.2020.20060845

Childhood maltreatment and depression and anxiety disorders:

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC8567985/pdf/41380_2021_Article_1367.pdf

Perspective on psychedelics:

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC10963929/pdf/main.pdf