From: Colin Hales (colin@versalog.com.au)
Date: Thu Apr 04 2002 - 21:05:45 MST
Michael M. Butler....
> Subject: Fascinating: hemispheric specificity of depression!?
> http://www.medscape.com/viewarticle/430189
<snip> ...
> Researchers have uncovered evidence that illnesses, such as depression,
> are associated with one half of the brain and that by activating the
> brain's healthier other half, a person's condition may improve. The
> report appears in this month's Neuropsychiatry, Neuropsychology, and
> Behavioral Neurology.
>
> "If you activate the healthier hemisphere, you may help the person.
> If you activate the hemisphere where the troubles were, you make
> it worse," Fredric Schiffer, M.D., an associate attending
> psychiatrist at McLean Hospital, told MHW.
>
I can personally attest to the apparent relation between creativity and
depressive episodes. Lets look at this:
The left hemisphere: logical, analytic, quantitative, rational and verbal
The right hemisphere: conceptual, holistic, intuitive, imaginative and
non-verbal.
1) Left side inactive (depressed) = right hemisphere dominance? manic
creative
2) Right side inactive (depressed) = left hemisphere dominance? manic
retentive
I assume 'stimulation' means, to each hemisphere, presumably more of what it
does?
Assume Hitler = 2, Van Gogh = 1
According to the above researchers:
Hitler needed to block his right eye and paint pictures.
Van Gogh needed to block his left eye and do some racial cleansing and
marching in neat lines.
When I look back, my personal history is of swinging between the two more
severely as I get older. Therefore I have to pick which way the swing is
going and wear a different eye patch/pick the appropriate activity? Hmmm
tricky.
anyone else think it pans out like the above, or have I got my lefts and
rights all mixed up?
cheers,
Colin
*anti-depressant pill reduction regime starting next week, kinda
interested!*
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