A Study on the Muscle Immobility of Depression: the Weightlessness within

The aim of this study was to determine the function of bioelements in human depression. In the randomized, prospective, observational trial, 311 adult participants (188 women and 123 men) underwent assessments for hair sodium and potassium; 192 were controls (83 men and 109 women), and 119 had significant unipolar depression (40 men and 79 women). Depression was diagnosed by the DSM-IV criteria, and hair sodium and potassium were analyzed by the inductively coupled plasma atomic emission spectroscopy (ICP AES). In the subgroup of 19 controls and 24 depressed subjects who attempted suicide (the gravest form of major depression), antidiuretic hormone (ADH) was assessed by using the standard laboratory ADH diagnostic kit. Significant gender differences were observed, since men have more hair Na and K than women (Na p < .01; K p < .02; Chi square test). The depressed subjects also have increased levels of hair Na and K, what indicate the negative balance of these electrolytes, since hair growth is unidirectional (p < .01 for both K and Na, Chi square test); ADH values were decreased in the suicidal subgroup (p < .01, Chi square test). These findings on negative Na and K balance and reduced ADH in depression are similar to those seen in astronauts during brief Apollo space missions. The issue arises as to whether the reported Earthly metabolic changes of body muscles in depressed subjects are a direct result of muscle inactivity, or if depression fatigue is mediated by the failure of some hypothetical, gravity dependent muscle mobility brain control "dynamostat" that operates in conjunction with the fluid regulation center that manifests its presence when being weightless in Space.