Balance is the Key
I’m writing this article as the assistant editor of “Clinical EEG and Neuroscience”, a significant journal of its own field that is committed to electrophysiology to express my gratitude to those putting their efforts in this matter.
Recently, the analyses based on the electrophysiological data I’ve been collecting in my private office are yielding really delightful and interesting results.
I’m constantly publishing the said data. For instance, I showed that the reaction given to the antidepressant named “Paroxetine” was negative in those having high gamma rhythm. On the other hand, each of the data regarding the fact that the same rhythm being high indicates a risk of suicide, that it is associated with the lack of insight in schizophrenia, and that it increases in anorexia was put down on paper. Some of them were published, some are about to be…
What these data actually show is the academic thrill of this job. We thoroughly discussed the answer to this question with dear Tamer Demiralp, Brian O’Donell and Barış Metin under the sponsorship and leadership of our esteemed rector, dear Nevzat Tarhan, in the city of Pittsburgh at the symposium we held in September 2018.
Teacher Tamer made a reference to one statement I made in one of our private conversations we had years ago. What a pleasing moment… I claimed that it was all about the excitation-inhibition balance. Back then I told that the main chemicals are GABA and glutamate, and that the others increase or decrease in order to protect the stable balance as the occasion requires.
He shared his knowledge and experiences on the fact that the fast gamma oscillation at or over 30 hertz show the impairment of the balance between the inhibitor GABA and excitatory Glutamate and that it is mainly caused by the domination of the GABA-related activity.
The significance of Erol Başar, a Turkish scientist having a special place in our hearts thanks to his contributions to electrophysiology, on this matter was strongly emphasized by all of us, particularly by O’Donell and Tamer.
Apparently, balance was really the key, and an excessively accelerated brain indicated an unbalance like an excessively decelerated delta dominant brain at 0-3 hertz.
My acquaintance with the Gamma rhythm started with Teacher Turan İtil’s claim regarding the fact that those having very IQ levels have this rhythm. I don’t how accurate it is, but the teacher would add, “extreme intelligence contains many psychiatric risks.”
After all, when it comes to mental health, I understand and believe that it is required to be adjusted to the optimum level on all fields, in other words, to keep the balance.
As a researcher psychiatrist, I am going to claim this: balance disorders can be recognized via electrophysiological measurements, and they can be corrected and monitored in line with them.
In my final words, I would like to say long live the scientific data-based psychiatry, long live the esteemed scientists who take psychiatry into consideration in this manner and work restlessly, silently and deeply throughout their lifetime. Long live the memories of Erol Başar, Turan İtil, and the new generation researchers, our sources of pride… Tamer Demiralp, Barış Metin… Thanks to many other researchers comprehending the significance of the issue, and to esteemed scientists Bilgen Taneli, Nevzat Tarhan and Ayhan Songar…
Thousands of thanks to all of them.
Briefly, if it wasn’t for the efforts by all those people concerning the biological foundations, we who put efforts on the field of mental health, including patients, physicians and researchers, would all be left in the dark.
I wish everyone will be lucky enough to reach objectivity and always stick with it…
