How Lithium Treats Bipolar Disorder and Depression

When you think of lithium do you think of it as a toxic drug prescribed for serious psychiatric conditions that can have awful side-effects, well although high-doses of lithium-carbonate are used for this purpose lithium is not really a drug it’s actually an essential nutrient that we need in our diet in small amounts. Lithium can be taken in low doses as a nutritional supplement that delivers therapeutic benefits to the brain but without the toxic side-effects. 

In this post I’ll discuss the science of the positive effects lithium has in the depressed and bipolar brain, in another post I’ll discuss how to use a low-dose lithium from lithium orotate (not lithium carbonate) to obtain therapeutic benefits from lithium without suffering the side-effects. In my practice I routinely use low-dose Lithium orotate and I take it myself to manage my own bipolar disorder.
 
You may also like:
How to Use Low-Dose Lithium Orotate to treat Bipolar and depression
Lithium Orotate Dosage
 

What Does Lithium Does in the Brain

Understanding exactly how lithium treat the bipolar and depressed brain has taken many years, perhaps what took so long is that lithium doesn’t have just one obvious main effect, the way lithium works is it produces multiple therapeutic effects on the brain which all add up together to produce its powerful effects.
 

How Does Lithium Treat the Brain?

• Lithium has positive effects on every neurotransmitter that has been studied, it positively affects serotonin, dopamine, norepinephrine, acetone choline, GABA and dampens down excessive glutamate.
• Lithium boosts neuroplasticity and this has an antidepressant for both unipolar and bipolar depression, boosting neuroplasticity also repairs brain from the damage that occurs during manic phases. By boosting neuro plasticity, you can increase the number of synapses that carry and hold serotonin and other neurotransmitters, this is a new approach that goes beyond just boosting the amount of neurotransmitters inside the synapses.
• Lithium is a powerful anti-inflammatory in the brain and we now know that inflammation drives depression and is also elevated during periods of mania.
• Lithium is one of the few substances that specifically reduces suicidality, this may be because lithium boosts neuroplasticity/BDNF and reduces inflammation.
• Lithium regulates the strength of the signals that passes inside the neurons; neurotransmitters pass a signal from one nerve cell to another across the synaptic space but once picked up by the receiving neuron it travels inside the neuron; this is called the 2^nd messenger system and lithium has the remarkable effect of increasing the strength of the 2^nd messenger signal when it is too low and decreasing by dampening down the strength of the 2^nd messenger signal when it is too high.
• One of the things that lithium does in the bipolar brain is reduce the amount of myo-inositol stored in the neurons. Myo-inositol speeds up 2^nd messenger signalling throughout the neurons, if you have depression with underactivity in your brain you can combine lithium with an inositol supplement; if you have bipolar disorder however you want to stay well away from inositol supplements.
• Lithium suppresses an enzyme called GSK 3. GSK 3 levels are elevated in the bipolar brain, this builds up plaque in the neurons which increases our risk of developing Alzheimer’s disease, elevated GSK 3 also disrupts the timing of the biological clock.

 

Lithiums Effects on Neurotransmitters

Lithiums effects on Serotonin

Lithium has positive effects on almost every aspect of serotonin, it increases the production of serotonin, the storage ready for use, the amount released into the synapses, the lifespan or length of time that serotonin persists inside the synapses and the sensitivity of the receiving neuron (the postsynaptic membrane/receptor sites).
 
For about 15 years I had to more or less continuously top up my serotonin levels to ward off low serotonin depression; I would take tryptophan and other remedies to boost my serotonin levels every second day as a preventative and sometimes I had to take serotonin boosting remedies every day. If I stopped within a week, I would slowly start drifting down into a low serotonin type depression and if I continued without treatment within a few weeks I would be back in a serious depression thinking about suicide.
 
This completely changed since I started taking lithium orotate, just 10 mg a day which is completely safe is repaired and restored the level of serotonin activity in my brain and for over 10 years now since I’ve been on lithium I have not had to boost serotonin activity my brain at all not even once.
 
Back in the 90s there was an oversimplistic view probably pushed by the pharmaceutical industry that depression was primarily due to low levels of serotonin in the brain. This was the so-called chemical hypothesis of depression, but by 2000 we had worked out that the simplistic chemical hypothesis of depression couldn’t be right and it’s become popular to criticise this hypothesis and go on to argue that serotonin isn’t involved in depression. Well firstly it’s a bit out of date to be criticising the low serotonin chemical hypothesis of depression because anyone that knows anything about neuroscience gave up the hypothesis about 20 years ago. No one working in neuroscience today argues that’s what depression is, we have a completely new hypothesis which ties together psychological stress and the physiology of the brain in the united way that never been possible before; I’ll be making posts in the beginning of 2020 about this new hypothesis.
 
Secondly, and this is important just because the simplistic hypothesis that antidepressants work simply by boosting serotonin levels was overturned does not mean to say that serotonin is not still playing a central role in what’s causing some people’s depression. We now know that inflammation which can come from many sources including psychological distress and trauma, leaky gut and more can disrupt the manufacture of serotonin from tryptophan and end up converting tryptophan into something neurotoxic called quinolinic acid, see Don’t Take Tryptophan or 5 HTP until You’ve Read This
 
Serotonin is made from the amino acid tryptophan in some studies have shown that when healthy volunteers that have not suffered from depression are fed a diet low in tryptophan they do not become depressed. This has been used as an argument against the theory that low levels of serotonin are involved in depression but the flaw in this is using subjects that are healthy and not vulnerable to depression. When a tryptophan depleting diet is fed to people successfully taking antidepressants in the tryptophan depleting diet stopped the antidepressants working; on people taking antidepressants but also being treated with lithium then the tryptophan depleting diet did not stop the antidepressants working.
 
These results demonstrate 2 things to me:

• Firstly the brains of people with depression and bipolar depression are manufacturing and metabolising serotonin differently to people that don’t have depression, as I said for 15 years I had to take supplement extra tryptophan above what I would obtain from my diet to combat my brain’s tendency towards low serotonin activity.
• Secondly these results demonstrate that lithium treatment strengthens and normalises serotonin activity in the brain.

Which neurotransmitters are lacking in your brain?

If you have depression or bipolar depression is helpful if you can work which neurotransmitter to target to best treat the condition, i.e. does this depression involve primarily serotonin or dopamine activity.
 
There are no blood or urine tests that can accurately measure neurotransmitter activity in the brain, don’t waste your money on neurotransmitter testing. I believe however that we can work it out from the symptoms. I have had different types of depressions, in some I was totally numb and in others I was experiencing intense feelings of pain and anguish, I discovered that when I had the numb type depression and I targeted serotonin nothing would happen but then when I boosted serotonin it would antidote depression and vice versa. So for example when I would take high doses of tryptophan to feed my brain what it needed to make more serotonin it would have an antidepressant effect when I had the painful antsy type low serotonin depression but do absolutely nothing for a low dopamine depression.
 
I have some pages comparing the characteristics of depression involving primarily serotonin activity in the brain compared to low dopamine activity in the brain; briefly serotonin is soothing and calming, it anaesthetised as painful feelings and when serotonin activity is low it produces a depression characterised by intense feelings of pain, not numbness but rather intense pain and distress, they may be agitation and poor sleep because serotonin is the precursor for melatonin sleep hormone. This is distinctly different from a low dopamine type depression, dopamine gives feelings of pleasure and excitement about things we are doing and also things that are going to happen in the future, with dopamine we look forward to things, we have drive motivation towards doing pleasurable, stimulating and exciting things from meeting your friends to see the new movie through to launching a new start-up corporation. So, when dopamine levels go low we have no pleasure in life in fact we don’t really feel anything, there’s nothing to look forward to, there’s no reason for living.
 

Lithiums effect on Dopamine and Norepinephrine

Lithium has remarkable stabilising effects on dopamine/norepinephrine activity within the bipolar brain, it both increases activity when these neurotransmitters are low during bipolar-depression phases and it decreases activity when they are excessive during manic or hypomanic phases.
 
In a unipolar depressed brain you can safely boost dopamine/norepinephrine activity without the risk of it flipping you up into mania/hypomania. In a bipolar depressed brain however, dopamine/norepinephrine activity becomes excessive during manic phases and it could be argued that it’s a bad idea or too risky to boost these neurotransmitters. Bipolar is complicated, if you have bipolar type 1 with no depressions and there would never be any need to boost dopamine/norepinephrine, but if you do have depressions due to a lack of dopamine then treatments that just prevent the mania side may leave you permanently depressed; and this is the situation many of my patients find themselves in with conventional treatments. The strategy I use on my own bipolar and in my practice is what’s called a combination treatment whereby I combined a stack of remedies to prevent mania and then cautiously experiment with boosting dopamine/norepinephrine to antidote the depression. For myself and many of my patients living with bipolar type II characterised by prolonged dangerous depressions this has been a successful strategy.
 
For more information about bipolar neurotransmitters see: Bipolar Disorder Neurotransmitters, briefly during phases of bipolar depression dopamine/norepinephrine and sometimes serotonin activity is reduced and in periods of bipolar mania/hypomania dopamine/norepinephrine and glutamate levels are excessive.
 

Lithiums effect on GABA and Anxiety

Although scientific investigations have shown that lithium has positive effect on GABA activity I have to say in my practice I have not seen this effect to be of any help to people with anxiety disorders.
 
Having said that there are times when I’m treating anxiety conditions and I do use lithium:-

• Lithium protects the brain against depression induced by anxiety. Anxiety and depression often coincide together, but we now believe happens is that the anxiety excessively over activates stress responses in the body and as I explain elsewhere over activation over activation of the bodies stress responses ramps up levels of inflammation in the brain and the inflammation then attacks key structures in the brain involved in depression and disrupts neurotransmitter formation. So when anxiety causes depression lithium can be helpful to combat depression.
• Lithium’s ability to boost neuroplasticity (see below) makes it a great remedy for including when you are recovering from the use of benzo drugs. Benzos result in the brain becoming less sensitive to GABA and lithium is useful both in the transition off the benzo drugs to protect against GABA levels falling too low and ease the transition, after that lithium is useful to shorten the recovery time by boosting neuro plasticity and self-healing in the brain.
• I now believe the best and in fact the only way to overcome anxiety condition is to rewire the anxious brain with meditation and psychotherapy type brain training exercises. When we are actively rewiring the brain we want to maximise our neuroplasticity and lithium is a great aid to this process.

Lithiums Effects and Acetylcholine

Acetylcholine is a neurotransmitter primarily involved in cognitive abilities, memory and learning; healthy acetylcholine levels makes our brain sharp. Lithiums effect on acetylcholine may make it helpful for cognitive decline and Alzheimer’s disease however the theory that Alzheimer’s disease involves inadequate acetylcholine activity has fallen out of favour to some extent; this doesn’t mean to say that lithium is not helpful for Alzheimer’s and cognitive decline because lithium has other properties including boosting neuroplasticity and combating the buildup of plaque in the brain that make useful treatment for this condition. Studies have shown even supplementation of low levels of lithium can slow down or halt the progression of these conditions.
 
Where lithiums effects on acetylcholine may be the most help is for the treatment of ADD and ADHD.
 

Lithium Repairs the Brain by Boosting Neuroplasticity treatment

Neuroplasticity is the brains ability to protect, repair and regenerate itself; beyond just being able to protect itself the brain is capable of regrowing lost synaptic connections, growing brand-new synaptic connections when we are learning something new and even growing brand-new neurons. It used to be believed that the brain was fully grown so to speak early in life and then they just progressively decline from then on, but we now know this understanding is completely incorrect. Our brain retains neuroplastic abilities throughout life and as long as the brain is not diseased we can grow new connections at any age. There are several important things to do to keep the brain healthy, we must control inflammation, avoid deficiencies of key nutrients such as D3, magnesium and omega-3 oils, maintain good oxygen levels and more; we are entering a new and exciting understanding of how to keep our brain healthy.
 

Lithium Reduces Inflammation in the Brain

Increased levels of inflammation in the brain have been found in almost all mental health problems, initially it wasn’t clear whether or not it was the mental health problems causing the inflammation or the other way around but since 2003 it has been established beyond reasonable doubt that inflammation is a major if not the major driving force behind many mental health problems.
 
Inflammation is of course a natural process, a healthy level of inflammation is required in the brain to remove or prune old synapses and dendrites clearing out clutter and facilitating the replacement of old with new. When inflammation is excessive however it can overwhelm our neuro plastic abilities, which particular structures of the most vulnerable to this attack varies genetically from person to person, so inflammation can in some people drive schizophrenia, in others OCD or bipolar depression.
 
The key understanding here is that reducing inflammation in the brain removes one of the central driving elements of the mental health problem and furthermore reducing inflammation is essential if you want to stimulate healthy neuro plastic regeneration.
 

Lithium Helps Protect Against Recurrent Depression Relapses

If you suffer from prolonged chronic depression or relapsing remitting depression including recurrent bipolar depression consider lithium supplementation. Lithium is not a particularly fast acting antidepressant and therefore not the first thing to turn to during an acute depressive phase however when taken long-term it is an excellent prophylactic (protection) against future relapses.
 
It’s very common to see people develop recurrent relapsing bouts of depression after they have had their first depressive episode. Sadly a single bout of depression can change brain structures making it more likely you will suffer from depression again. What may explain this effect is the loss of synaptic connections and brain volume in parts of the brain that control mood/depression (particularly in the hippocampus and cortex) that occurs during the first bout of depression may not have fully repaired and regrown after the initial bout of depression has passed.
 
This leaves the structures that control mood/depression in a diminished and weakened state such that it only takes a little drop in neuroplastic integrity before the function in the structures become sufficiently compromised to cause another bout of depression; a period of psychological stress or unhealthy living/poor diet could be all that it takes these we can structures to break down again.
 
The combined ability of lithium to boost neuroplasticity/BDNF and dampen down inflammation in the brain that compromises neuroplasticity makes it an excellent protective strategy against relapsing depression. Lithium carbonate does this but with the risk of side-effects, I use low-dose lithium orotate instead.
 

What really causes depression?

The new understanding of what causes depression is that when levels of inflammation and other destructive elements overwhelm our brain’s neuro plastic ability then we lose synaptic connections more quickly than we can replace them. The result is a loss of synaptic connections in key structures of the brain involved in depression, the loss of synaptic connections and dendrites in these structures including the hippocampus and parts of the cortex results in them losing volume and shrinking. Now before you get more depressed at the thought of parts of your brain shrinking the good news is that the neurons themselves are still alive it’s just that they have had their branches trimmed and the branches called dendrites can regrow.
 
The model we had in the 90s that depression was due to a lack of neurotransmitters inside your synapses has given way to a new understanding that depression is not so much a lack of neurotransmitters inside your synapses but rather a lack of synapses left to hold and transmit neurotransmitters in the first place.
 
One of the ways lithium boosts neuroplasticity is it increases the production of a chemical called BDNF (brain derived neurotrophic factor), BDNF stimulates the regrowth of lost synaptic connections I began developing treatments to boost neuroplasticity to combat depression and other mental health problems in 2012 and lithium is one of the central remedies of that treatment program.
 
In addition to growing new dendrites another aspect of neuroplasticity is the health of the synapses themselves. The common situation I see in my practice is when people have taken drugs with recreational prescription such as benzos the receiving membrane in the synapses (synaptic membrane loses the receptor sites that the neurotransmitter attaches to. When you because these are also sources stop taking the drug you’re left with desensitised synapses and low levels of the neurotransmitter activity; this is what causes the often terrible drug withdrawal effects. Lithium promotes regeneration of healthy synapses this is called synaptic plasticity and in my practice I regularly use low-dose lithium orotate supplements for this purpose.
 

A new treatment approach to depression

To obtain maximum results in my practice I target and eliminate any and every possible source of inflammation, reduce oxidative and nitrosated stress and use techniques that boost neuroplasticity. Success requires following a low inflammation diet, completing an intensive course of brain training to change the way the brain processes stress responses, eliminating chronic infections, leaky gut and other sources of inflammation; along with using a stack of anti-inflammatory supplements. Eliminating chronic inflammation in the brain paves the way for the other half of the treatment which is to use neuroplasticity boosting supplements, specific dietary and exercise practices.
 
In my practice I use both techniques to target and directly boost neurotransmitters, but also a new approach of boosting neuroplasticity. The great thing about boosting neuroplasticity is that the self repairing systems in the brain ‘know’ where they are needed so they restore and rebuild whichever structures and networks in the brain are under functioning; lithium is one of the most powerful neuroplasticity boosting remedies I have in my medicine chest however to produce a strong effect it should be combined into a stack of other remedies also boost plasticity and a high flavonoid diet to match.
 
If you are interested in trying this treatment approach I’m available for consultations either at my London practice or throughout the world via Skype/video consultations, to make a booking contact me by email.
 

How stress causes depression

When our brain responds to psychological stress and trauma it increases levels of inflammation in our body and brain. Signals are sent to the adrenal glands to release cortisol by the HPA axis and the balance of our autonomic nervous system is changed, initially this actually reduces inflammation and prepares us for fighting or flighting; but when stress responses or chronically overproduced we become desensitised to cortisol and background levels of inflammation in the brain go up.
 
In addition to low-dose lithium orotate there are numerous other things that I use to repair the brain and also strengthen one’s resilience to stress, including specific meditation brain training, specific dietary practices and supplements. I myself have a highly strung and nervous system and probably poor work neuroplastic abilities such that I suffered from years of continuous depression including bouts of very serious life-threatening depression, today however I have radically altered both the neuro plastic ability of my brain to protect and repair itself and I also trained my brain to respond differently to stress and furthermore improve the inbuilt resilience of my system to stress; these changes have been key components of how I recover from and keep my bipolar disorder completely under control.
 

Lithium Reduces Suicidality

Lithium is one of the few substances that have been identified as capable of reducing suicidality; even at very low doses lithium reduces suicidality. Numerous studies from all around the world have looked at the levels of lithium contained in the drinking water and the risk of committing suicide. Almost all the studies showed that the higher the level of lithium in the drinking water the lower the number of suicides in that area.
 
In one study the rates of suicide in 27 Texas counties was found to be significantly higher in counties whether drinking water contained little or no lithium[i] ; a subsequent study in 2013 compared the suicide rate from 226 counties and confirmed the original findings[ii] . Multiple studies around the world have found the same results [iii] .
 
The dosage of lithium in the drinking water that made a difference for sometimes as little as half a milligram, this dose is so low it is completely safe and if you have a history of suicidal depression or bipolar depression, why not consider taking a little lithium continuously, it may just save your life.
 
Depression and bipolar disorder are serious and life-threatening illnesses, I myself have attempted suicide multiple times in the past due to my bipolar illness; depending on the studies bipolar disorder carries a lifetime mortality risk of between 11 to 13%. As I’m writing this there are just 12 days left in this decade and unless I suddenly become suicidal during these 12 days this will be the first decade since 1970 and my bipolar disorder did not try to kill me from suicide. I began to get good control of my bipolar disorder about 15 years ago and for the past decade I’ve managed to keep it completely stable and under control using only natural remedies and low-dose lithium orotate is an invaluable component of my daily regime.
 
A study published in 2017 followed 51,000 patients over an 8 year period showed a 14% reduction in suicide -related events in patients treated with bipolar compared to patients being treated with other drugs; this more or less brings the risk of death from suicide amongst people with bipolar down to the same level as the general population.
 
Post-mortem studies of people that have committed suicide have found low levels of BDNF in their brains, this coupled with other research suggests to me that one of the priorities when a person is suicidal is to boost BDNF levels as quickly as possible. In my practice I have specific stacks of natural remedies that are used to boost BDNF levels.
 
If you are currently living in a suicidal state please take drastic measures to combat the depressive illness, you have an illness that is trying to kill you, I know from my own personal experience how real it feels that those suicidal thoughts are the illness messing with your perception of reality.
 
Eliminating suicidality but not depression
A strange phenomenon that I and many of my patients have experienced is that when you are suicidally depressed and you take lithium and I believe other remedies to boost BDNF suicidal ideation goes away but not the depression! It feels strange when this happens because you think well I’m suicidal because and depressed but then the suicidal ideation goes away before the depression; it’s strange to discover that the suicidal ideation can be targeted and removed independently from the depression. I don’t have the science to back it up but from personal and clinical experience it really does seem very clear to me that there is a distinctly specific and separate mechanism involved in suicidality, like there’s some self-destructive switches thrown and everything and researched and experienced point me towards believing that elevated inflammation and low levels of BDNF are involved in throwing that switch. There’s even an emerging evolutionary theory that the brain recognises inflammation as meaning that we are carrying an infection and we have evolved to socially withdraw and even self-destruct to protect our community from the infection were carrying. When I first discovered this theory I thought how amazing evolution and biology is to reduce the spread of infections in the plague but it sucks that this social withdrawal and destructive mechanism is misfiring and being activated in my brain when I’m not infected with the plague; I’m suffering from ‘black-dog’ not the black-death!
 

Mark Lithium Regulate the Intensity of Nervous Transmission in the Brain

Neurotransmitters transfer signals between nerve cells across the synaptic gap but then the nervous signal passes along inside the nerve cell, this is called the 2^nd messenger system. There are a number of things that influence the 2^nd messenger system, during mania/hypomania the 2^nd messenger system may be producing excessively strong signals and during periods of depression whether bipolar depression or unipolar depression 2^nd messenger transmission may be weak or diminished.
 
Lithium has a remarkable ability regulate the 2^nd messenger system back into a normal range, both dampening down hyperactive transmission strength and boosting week underactive transmission strength. This may need to do with the way that lithium affects mio-inositol activity within the neurons see next section.
 

Lithium Treat Bipolar by Reducing Mio-Inositol Levels in the Neurons

Inositol is a B vitamin that is involved in carrying signals within neurons, increased levels of inositol have been observed in bipolar brains during manic phases and decreased levels of inositol have been observed in the frontal cortex of bipolar brains during depression phases. Several studies have shown that supplementing inositol at relatively high doses of 12 g a day for several weeks has an antidepressant effect[iv].
 
It is believed that one of the mechanisms whereby lithium acts as a mood stabiliser is that it decreases excess inositol in bipolar mania.
 
You can combine lithium and inositol for depression and during bipolar depression phases however you must not take inositol during manic phases or if rapid switching into mania is a significant part of your bipolar condition.
 

Lithium reduces the enzyme GSK 3

You may not have heard of glycogen synthase kinase-3 but GSK 3 modifies over 40 different proteins throughout the body and plays a significant role in depression, bipolar disorder and schizophrenia; the understanding that GSK 3 is involved in psychiatric problems is fairly recent dating back to 1996. In the brain and nervous system GSK 3 is involved in remodelling synaptic connections, neuroplasticity, synthesising proteins, inflammation, the running of the biological clock/sleep cycles and more.
 
Exactly how GSK 3 works is complicated and not fully understood however in bipolar and depression there is overexpression of GSK 3 and lithium along with some other mood stabilising drugs such as valproate inhibit GSK 3 activity. Even fairly low doses of lithium have been shown to positively inhibit the overexpression of GSK 3. Long-term overexpression of GSK 3 may contribute to the buildup of amyloid beta and tau proteins involved in Alzheimer’s disease which is something I would like to avoid so if anyone ever read about another safe natural or nutritional supplement that helps to control excess GSK 3 please write and tell me about it.
 

Lithium grows grey matter

In the diagram to the left you notice how the white line between the outer grey matter and in out white matter on the left-hand side has more or less disappeared after lithium treatment on the right-hand side. The white line between the outer grey matter and in a white matter is the result of the grey matter having shrunk and pulled away from the white matter leaving a gap so to speak[v] , this is probably just an effect from increasing neuroplasticity.[vi]
 
Lithium enhances the effectiveness of antidepressant drugs
Both animal and human trials have shown that
 
Lithium Enhances the Effectiveness Of Antidepressant Drugs
Several studies have shown lithium can augment the effectiveness of antidepressants so if  have treatment resistant depression  or you are not responding well to antidepressant treatment you could try supplementing lithium^[vii][viii].
 
REFERENCES

• Anti-Bipolar Therapy: Mechanisms Of Action Of Lithium PMID: 10208444  DOI: 10.1038/Sj.Mp.4000494
• Https:/Doi.Org/10.1176/Appi.Ajp.2017.16050542
• The Underlying Neurobiology Of Bipolar Disorder Husseini Et Al.
• Nutritional Lithium A Cinderella Story By James Greenbelt And Kay Grossmann
• Lithium And Cognitive Enhancement: Leave It Or Take It? Tsaltas
• Four Weeks Lithium Treatment Alters Neuronal Dendrites in the rat Hippocampus
• That Inhibiting GSK-3β Exerted A Rapid Antidepressant Effect In Mice.
• Another Team At Howard Hughes Medical Institute In Pennsylvania Showed That Feeding Mice Chow Laced With Low-Dose Lithium For 15 Days Produced A Dose-Dependent Antidepressant Effect.
• Lithium Induced Gene Transcription In The Hippocampus, Amygdala And Hypothalamus. All Areas Implicated In Depression, Anxiety, Bipolar Disorder, Autism And Schizophrenia.