Drop in Barometric Pressure and Psychiatric Depression
 

Please contact me if you have any information or understand the fact that you may know of one who suffers from depression, Also having Major Acute Attacks of Depressive Lows that coincide with the BaPressure dropping from 30.00 to 29.99 in mercury or lower.

I am devastated by depression at such a drop. Almost instantaneously with records of local Weather Archive for All Data in my area. I never watch the news so it can't be placebo.

I have tracked several weather factors in addition for a 3 month period emperically. I have spreadsheets and weather graphs hourly for said periods.
I will gladly share with and Physicians doing research on Barometric Pressure and Psychiatric conditions.

Bryan

Dear Bryan,

Have you gone to an endocrinologist to check your adrenaline and cortisone levels? Those affect moods might be affected by Barometric Pressure.

M.

you're not alone
 

Dear Bryan, I think I'm affected by barometric pressure as well. I just looked it up on the internet and saw your post and the reply. I plan to check into it.
Lois

Ditto
 

I noticed the same phenomenon after I got a watch with a barometric reading on it. In my area the high reading it 930 millibars and the low is around 900, with the reading hovering around 915-920 a lot of the time. When a low pressure system arrives I become suicidal and restless. I notice this cycle about 75% of the time or more.

Husband has same problem
 

My husband notices that when weather goes down hill so does his mental state. He will be in a wonderful mood one day and then horrible the next. He has also noticed an increase in appetite during the down episodes.

He had neck surgery a few years ago and soon after that this began happening. We have wondered if something with the anesthesia or other drugs used during his surgery may have triggered the change.

It is a very frustrating situation to be in.

:confused:hi my name is jimmy mcgrath from ireland i had lower back surgery last year but i noticed the low pressure affecting me before the op it is causing me major depression and knocking me out for 2 to 3 hours i am trying anti depressants at the moment but am still being affected

Hi ~ Barometric pressure affects me also -- especially in the pain department. I have severe spinal problems, and when the barometer goes up or down, the pain increases.

I also notice that I don't feel as "normal" when the barometer is unsteady. If it drops too much, I become more depressed. I've suffered depression since I was a child, but I'm on an antidepressant now and that seems to help with everything. I also have S.A.D. and it helps with that too.

I wish you the very best. God bless & take care. Hugs, Lee

Thank Goodness Someone Else Understands!!
 

I read your post and cried happy tears! I have dealt with this for years with no hope for ever finding anyone else who would understand. We HAVE to get the doctors to research this! It's obviously something that we all know is true and I literally get suicidal from fronts and rain usually 2 days before they arrive! My mood swings are severe and I also have fibromyalgia and have suffered from intense pain with weather changes as well. My pain started when I was 12 with the migraines and continues today - I'm nearly 39. I had ECT in my 20's which cured my bipolar onset after childbirth . Other than needing Xanax for anxiety and tramadol and lyrica for pain- I am on no meds and have stable moods except for when the weather changes. I live in Texas so this is a weekly battle and I'm so weary from fighting it without any help or understanding from doctors. Our brains tissue must swell just like our other tissues do that cause arthritis pain when the pressure drops! It's so obvious! But why is it do rare that it causes such intense mood swings like I hear you having like me? ** Would love to hear from you!

I have that problem as i have hydrocephalus and depression all the time and i can tell u when its high. i have a shunt and the pressure outside is a major factor

BaPressure
 

I have been doing alot of research on this. I have also been tracking it for about 20 years. I am unresponsive to antidepressants. Recently, I have consulted with doctors and scientists at research hospitals. New and very strong evidence is emerging that people are being diagnosed with depression when in fact, depression is just a symptom of bi product of sensitivity to various other stimuli. I suffer from SADs so badly, I can tell whether the sun is out while in a controlled environment with no access to windows. I can tell instantly when it comes out and when it goes in. Barometric pressure is the same way. It was interesting to hear about a connection with quite a few of you about a back condition. I have spondylothesis, an inherited condition that usually goes undetected unless you injure it. (IE: I strongly suggest if it runs in your family to avoid skydiving, as the only treatment is to maintain some serious back and ab muscles for the rest of your life.) I have had the condition my entire life, and my injury occurred when I was 15. I have never discussed this with doctors.

I also injured my ear when I was probably 9. I have baro-trauma where fluid leaks from the inner ear to the middle ear. When I was younger, it would cause acne like lumps behind my ears that were gross when they would drain. I have never been treated for this.

In addition, I have always had a difficult time breathing through my nose. When I am horizontal, my nasal passages completely close. It is documented that people who breath mostly through their mouth are more prone to low moods.

The docs and scientist I am working with now think this might all be connected. I am going to go have my ears, nose and sinuses worked on. They aren't sure what they are going to do, because they really aren't sure what is going on.

I am 46 and have been to numerous doctors all of my life who said there was nothing wrong with me, go to a shrink and get on an antidepressant. This infuriates me.

It will probably be March before I am able to have the work done, but I will note my calendar to come back and post the outcome!

I know how horrible feeling down, tired, paralyzed, miserable, hopeless, etc. is. I have contemplated moving to the equator to have 12 hours of daylight every day! (haha)

My sincere understanding goes out to all of you.

Barometric Treatment with Oxygen Concentrator
 

I drop in pressure is generally accompanied by low oxygen levels in the air. This can cause the body to work harder to maintain normal oxygen levels in the blood aiding all kinds of physiological processes. This can be tested with an oximeter. If you use a barometer to measure the fluctuations in the air pressure and low pressure (i.e. low oxygen levels in air), you may consider oxygen therapy when the barometer falls. An oxygen pump/concentrator may temporarily raise your blood oxygen levels and counteract the lack of oxygen in the air. Periodic breathing with an oxygen concentrator should temporary raise the oxygen in the blood back to normal barometric levels at least until the barometer rises back to normal levels.

depression
 

I have had returns of symptoms, including headache, nausea, dizziness, depression, ever since my vp shunt, which occurred more severely with a change in weather, always worse in the summer than winter. The NSG agrees, and says I just have to ride it out, that it happens. Warm weather is nice, but it sure plays havoc with my shunt!

Sounds familiar
 

I've been suffering short time depression and tiredness over 20 years. It lasts from couple of days to about 10 days. I had no idea, what caused that. I started to keep notes of my diet and feelings last year. No match. Then I found a weather station history data. MATCH! Every time, when pressure drops down quite a fast, under 1005, that's it. Tired and depressed.

But what is the mechanism? Blood pressure? Ear? Sinus?

Update:
I started to feel very tired at last sunday, even depressed momently. Pressure dropped from 1015 hpa to 990, when I checked afterwards. This mornig energy has came back. And when I checked pressure, it had raised to 1018 during last night.
And similar results during last year. The only thing now is to know, why this happens.

Chronic pain gets way worse with change in weather pressure
 

I suffer from chronic pain from a MVA in my back, head, neck, and constant pain down my left leg. I monitor how I eat, everything I do as to avoid flares. I have totally noticed my pain level goes up when the air pressure goes up. Also the real cold weather makes it worse. When pain level goes up so does depression, muddled thinking, less cognitive functioning. I usually stay in bed and try to meditate all day to get through. Stiffness gets terrible and bath hurts too bad to do. You would think water would help but it is like a torture on those days. My mom has arthritis and goes down on the exact same days I do as well as dad with parkinsons disease. We all have bad flare days on the same days. I have noticed the one common factor is the weather. Me and mom can actually feel it coming a day away. :mad: hate it.

Barometric Pressure Causing Depression
 

I have been fighting depression / bipolar ii for many years. I've been on and off anti-depressants and mood stabilizers. I've taken so many different types of supplements. I've given up gluten, alcohol, sugar, caffeine. I exercise religiously.

All this has helped but it hasn't stopped periodic 3-5 day stretches of debilitating depression. Can't get out of bed, the world is ending, it's not worth living, etc

Like many of you, I finally (recently) tied it to drops in barometric pressure. My God, how can that cause me to feel the way that I feel??

Let's work together to figure this out. Has anyone tried the oxygen therapy that another poster suggested? I plan to look into this and will post back. Please contact me if you want to discuss this offline -- nothing more important in my life than getting this figured out...

My experience with atmospheric pressure...
 

Hello friends!
Not that any of you need my comments to validate what you have been going through, but I would like to share what happened to me when the atmospheric pressure changed. I use the past tense because I have been very fortunate to have found relief from many of my symptoms since my last surgery in April of 2012. However, I greatly empathize with those of you who continue to suffer from the symptoms of hydrocephalus. May research help us all to be relieved of this condition very soon! Unlike most who have posted in this thread, I experienced depression (what I now relate to as pain because of the relief I found through potent pain relievers like oxycodone) when the barometer rose above 29.9 inches. In fact, I have a mark on our barometer at that spot because it helped me determine if what I was feeling was related to my hydrocephalus or something else. In my journal, I would record every instance of depression (pain) and the barometric readings. More than 98% of the time, my emotional state reflected a rise in the barometric readings to 29.9" or higher. I am very grateful that this issue is being openly discussed and for the confirmation brought to what we have known to be true for a long time.

Kindest Regards,
Lon
(Diffie)
facebook.com/diffie

me and depression & drop in baromet pressure
 

yes yes--
I have been suffering with depress. and bipolar much stronger the last 8 years. I always felt some correlation between the sunshine and a rainy day.!!!! I'm sad/angry with rain every thing goes wrong. sunny day up beat feeling , in the zone, every thing goes right!!!
just recently I notice the day BEFORE RAIN - my mood would drop! still sunny out but feeling off. it struck me when the weather is bad the baro pressure goes down.!!!!! I also think the baro pressure goes down just before a storm etc.!!! people have barometers in homes to predict weather. "brain storm"(no pun intented) suggestion -- IRON LUNGS ARE TO MAINTAIN GIVEN PRESSURE!

An update...
 

Hello, my Internet Friends,

I am posting this as an update to my previous post. In April of 2012, I had my 6th surgery (performed by Dr. Daniele Rigamonti at Johns Hopkins) related to my hydrocephalus. The purpose of the surgery was to fenestrate (create openings) in the interpeduncular cyst which was causing the blockage of the flow of my cerebrospinal fluid. Since that operation, I have experienced absolutely no problems with changes in barometric pressure. I can no longer tell you if the pressure has risen or fallen, and neither I nor my wife (who has always been able to judge my pain by my mood) can tell when the barometric pressure has shifted. I have no doubt that for me, my bouts of depression were directly related to the shifts in barometric pressure. My wish for all of you is that research provides the same relief for you that it has for me.

Kindest Regards,
Lon
(Diffie)

byran you still there? i just read your blog but it is 4 years old! i think barometric "depression" is yes effecting my depression. let me knowif you still there and if any
progress.
planejane

Barometric low's
 

I have suffered on a mild level the same thing. I am a repiratory therapist and understand the physics of the atmosphere. I need to explain that it may not be due to a depressive order per/se. I feel it has lot to do with highy sensitive people. For me I can tell you when the low is coming before the weather channel. My symptoms are feeling of being spacy and that is due to a drop in the partial pressure of oxygen related to the drop in the atmospheric pressure. From the highly sensitive side, I get a feeling that something is about to happen that is nothing more than the flight/fight response. To be honest something is happening and that is the drop in pressure. That triggers the anxiety. So I must say I do not take medications for it because I understand the phemenon. Many doctors just prescribe. I feels when one understands the affect there are other ways to cope. Try googling " highly sensitive people". We in this group sense things so readily it keep you in the flight or fight syndrome which can exhausting leading to feeling the blues.
Paul

hello to fellow suffering persons
BRAVO TO ALL
BRAVO

My husband is a scientist whose research involves atmospheric science (i.e. meteorology but they don't like being called meteorologists thanks to the weather man/woman on TV). I asked one of his colleagues if she knew of any research that could help me understand some of the cognitive changes I experienced when storms rolled in when I was having problems with my shunt over draining. She said that she has spoken with some reputable researcher in other countries that do think "there is something there" but have found it difficult to measure. She did mention that a fascinating discussion with a colleague about the possibility that the change could be due to electrical fields rather then the change in pressure. My dog goes totally crazy during thunderstorms and will start pacing several hours before the storm starts but only if it is a thunderstorm. He doesn't do it with just rain or snow storms so I think there might be something to that. My Accuweather app gives me a migraine forecast so :Scratch-Head:

I live in HK and I noticed my depressions always got worse in Spring of every year and I heard that the air pressures in Spring was not stable, so I bought a barometer connected to a computer in Feb 2016. I plotted the air pressure daily and noticed that every day, the air pressure follows a sinuous curve (falls around midnight and go up again at around 5am and down again at 10am and then up again at 5pm)
Whenever the air pressure stays below 1008 hPa for several hours or the air pressure falls from its intraday high for more than 4 hPa or the fall is too rapid, my depression got worse (feeling very low in energy, want to lie down without stamina.I will feel very sleepy and have more bad dreams. I will also be more irritable). I am sharing my experience here, hoping to find other depression patients to reconfirm my findings. If the low pressure worsens my depression, I guess it is because it lowers the saturation of oxygen in air, so I am currently taking some high altitude medicine to boost the oxygen saturation in my blood. It might be working so far but I need more time to reconfirm its efficacy. Pls share you experience if any.

Seasonal depression
 

Is what my shrink refers to as
It has always been a huge factor
And I recognized it at a young age
And always aware of it

The other thing that tis body experiences
I too can tell what the weather may be like
As the barometric pressure crushing on the bones
very painful

I is so important to do like you did
Log what's is happening
I believe you got it right
Me

If you don't have a barometer connected to computer, you can start by going to the weather observatory web site of your location and save the barometric pressure chart at the end of each day to your computer. That way, you can keep a chart for each day and cross reference your mood and joint pain with each day's fluctuations in pressure.

By the way, do you mean bone pain or joint pain? I assume low air pressure will makes the joint fluid exert outward and cause pain in your joint, not bones.

By the way, in Hong Kong, today's air pressure drops again to 1007 hPa (but in a slow pace) but I don't feel very tired/weak. I suppose it is because the drop in air pressure is slow, so it allows my body to adjust to it and the bad effect is less serious. Or I am less affected today because of today's high humid (at 97%). I need more observation to discern whether it is high humidity or slow pace of drop that alleviate my problem.

I watch the television news and weather updates
 

Hello friend
Yes to both
And many other spine vertebrae and nerve problems
I also feel the pressure in my head
If that should make any sense to you
I have always been aware of such things as that
Maybe I should have done something in science
I always loved science
I remember my grammer school teacher
Mr. Leone
Enjoyed his teaching
Back to seasonal depression
I am interested in anymore info you may have
on a personal level
Such as what kind of changes does your body feel
I not only have joint pain
But I also have pain in my shins
Face
Fingers

My nerve related issues
Are not addressed and am masked
With opioid medicine for the mechanical pain
Especially where the hardware in my neck
I have spurs in the area
And extreme lower back problems
Both spine and nerve
I feel in my lower back is the spot
And oddly enough
the base of my skull hurts something fierce
When at my worst it puts me in laying position
Basically bed ridden
Past couple of days from clear drier
sunny days in the 60's by 2:00 P.M.
and then
snow
Thanks for sharing
Me

I have symptoms of low mood and energy, irritability, fog brain when pressure drops below 30. Did the high altitude medicine help?

Hi BaroMeter

Welcome to NeuroTalk :).

This thread is fairly old so you might not get much response here.

You could think about posting in the General Health Conditions forum (https://www.neurotalk.org/forum2/); you might get more support and helpful ideas from other members there.

Best wishes.

Bryan, you are not alone! This past summer, where I live, we had a rain front roll in every evening. I thought I was being taken off to a torture chamber. I eventually had a nervous breakdown from it. I quickly got back on my antidepressant. With the fall coming in I have felt a lift in the nerve/muscle crushing pain. It is a real thing. You are not crazy.

Hi Bryan
Your post was a few years ago - I wonder if you’re still on this site. You listed your location as “HK”. With my very limited knowledge of proper geography, I’m guessing Hong Kong, but feel I’m more likely to be wrong than right in this guess.
I’m in Massachusetts (almost 2 years living here now. I’m from coastal California.), it’s springtime here (March 18), and I’m about to lose my marbles! Your post rang so true for me. My symptoms flare up hugely before the final snow even melts. There is literally no green sprouting yet - and I’m feeling punched in the face from the changes. My muscles feel weak (I’m an athlete in good condition), I’m crying for no reason, migraines, ears popping, sinuses throbbing, having trouble with balance and maintaining proper blood sugar levels even tho my habits are very healthy and regular - and I was fine for the entirety of the winter! My body is whacked, overnight. The time change has just happened - and I’ve even seen the first bug of the season (an ant) in my kitchen. Whatever is causing the rest of nature to change, or respond to the impending change - I am swept up in its cycle.

Another poster talked about electrical fields. I’m on the hunt, same as you for ideas to study the raw data in my environment for clues to stay ahead of this (by moving to a more ideal environment).

Since it’s been several years since you’ve written about this, have you had any breakthroughs in coping mechanisms? Or put yourself in any new environments? What do you do in spring? And summer?

I made us move to MA from California because we lived in an inland area that got too hot. 9 months of the year it was above 90 degrees. I struggle in any temp over 75. But living in MA is worse! I’ve had a year of doctors appts trying to find out why I was falling over, couldn’t use my hands, or feel my face. It may be Reynauds, vestibular migraines or related to a factor I don’t even know about. I also have Ehler danlos.

Does anyone have a location they love?
In CA I was obsessed with temp charting. In MA it’s barometric pressure. Is there a unicorn location that has steady pressure, doesn’t get too hot and is sunny? Thanks everybody :)

Hi Sanfrancalifornia

Welcome to NeuroTalk :).

This is a fairly old thread so your post may not get much attention here.

If not you could introduce yourself in the General Health Conditions forum (https://www.neurotalk.org/forum2/); you might get more responses there.

Best wishes.