(单词翻译:单击)
听力文本
From VOA Learning English, this is the Health Report.
Clinical depression is a serious medical condition. The word "clinical" is added to separate people who are depressed from those who simply feel sad because of life events. People with clinical depression can feel very sad, hopeless, and unimportant. Often they are unable to live in a normal way. Some people who suffer from depression kill themselves.
Clinical depression can be a difficult disease for medical professionals to diagnose, or identify. And it is difficult to treat -- what may work for one patient suffering from depression may not work for another.
Some experts estimate that medicine used to treat depression is effective in treating 80 to 90 percent of patients. But other studies suggest medication is not much better at reducing levels of clinical depression than a placebo. A placebo is an inactive substance given to patients who do not know it is not medicine.
Helen Mayberg is a researcher at Emory University in Atlanta, Georgia. She says the first treatment for depression often fails.
depression
"The problem is that whatever you get, the published numbers, even in randomized studies, is getting people well -- the remission rate is about 40 percent, which means, for most people, the first thing you are given is not likely to work."
That means doctors must try different methods of treatments until they find one that is effective.
But technology may change that. Ms. Mayberg leads a team of researchers at Emory University. They used brain imaging technology called P.E.T., or positron emission tomography to study treatment effects. The study involved 63 depressed patients.
P.E.T. uses a radioactive sugar molecule that follows brain activity. This sugar molecule "lights up" areas of the brain that become affected by stimuli. Two kinds of stimuli were used in the study -- medication or talk therapy.
The researchers found that one area of the brain -- called the anterior insula -- seemed to predict which treatment would work.
Patients with a slow-working anterior insula did best with cognitive talk therapy. Patients with a very busy anterior insula reacted well to medication -- a drug called Lexapro.
Ms. Mayberg says the anterior insula is part of a system in the brain that watches over the inner state of the body. The anterior insula is activated during times of extreme pain or suffering.
Ms. Mayberg says the insula may be a biological marker for depression. She says her team's findings could help doctors treat psychiatric disorders in the same way they treat other medical conditions.
"...where we do tests of various sorts to make management decisions all the time. Whereas in breast cancer, we do tumor markers in order to determine both that a treatment is likely to help you but also determine without a marker that certain treatments are not for you."
And that's the Health Report from VOA Learning English.
I'm Anna Matteo.
文本来自51voa，译文属可可原创，仅供学习交流使用，未经许可请勿转载
词汇解释
1.depression n. 沮丧；洼地；不景气；忧愁
Mr. Thomas was suffering from depression.
托马斯先生当时正受抑郁症折磨。
2.placebo n. 安慰剂；为死者所诵的晚祷词
The placebo has been found to work with a lot of different cases.
人们已发现安慰剂能在很多不同的病例中发挥作用。
3.remission n. 缓解；宽恕；豁免
Brain scans have confirmed that the disease is in remission.
脑部扫描已经证实疾病有所缓解。
内容解析
1.This sugar molecule "lights up" areas of the brain that become affected by stimuli.
light up 照亮；点亮；露出吃惊的表情; 露出喜色
Sue's face lit up with surprise.
苏的脸上露出惊讶的表情。
Tom will really light up when he sees his new bike.
汤姆看见他的新脚踏车时，一定十分高兴。
参考译文
这里是美国之音慢速英语健康报道。
临床抑郁是一种严重的疾病，用“临床”一词是为了将之与只是因为生活变故而感到悲伤者分开。临床抑郁者会感到悲伤、没有希望和自感渺小，通常他们无法正常生活。有的抑郁患者还会自杀。
临床抑郁对医学专家来说可能很难诊断或识别出，很难治疗，对一名抑郁者有效的疗法可能对另一名患者无效。
有专家估计过去用来治疗抑郁的药物在80-90%的患者身上有效，但其他研究表明在降低临床抑郁水平上，这些药物并不比安慰片更有效。安慰片是给患者的一种非活性药物，患者并不知道它不是药物。
海伦·梅博格是乔治亚州亚特兰大艾莫利大学的一名研究者，她说抑郁症患者的第一次治疗总是以失败告终。
“问题在于无论给什么药物，即使在随机的研究中，其缓解率是40%，这意味着对大多数人来说，得到的第一次治疗并不是那么有效。”
这意味着医生必须实验各种不同的疗法，直到发现有效方法为止。
但科技可能会改变这一切，梅博格在艾莫利大学领导一个研究者团队。他们使用名为正电子成象术(P.E.T.)的大脑成像技术来研究治疗效果，研究涉及63名抑郁患者。
P.E.T.使用一种能追踪大脑活动的放射性糖分子，这种糖分子能“点亮”受刺激物影响的大脑区域，研究中使用两种刺激物，药物或谈话疗法。
研究者发现名为“前脑岛”的大脑区域似乎能预测出哪种疗法有效。
前脑岛运转缓慢的患者在认知谈话疗法中表现最好，前脑岛很忙碌的患者对名叫Lexapro的药物反应最慢。
梅博格说前脑岛是关注身体内在状态的大脑系统的一部分，前脑岛在极端疼痛或痛苦时最活跃。
梅博格说这个前脑岛可能是抑郁症的生物学标识，她说本团队的发现能帮助医生以治疗其他疾病同样的办法来治疗心理疾病。
“我们做各种各样的测试来做管理决策，在乳癌中我们做肿瘤标记，目的是决定一种疗法可能有效，同时决定如果没有标记，那么某些疗法也会无用。”
这就是美国之音健康报道，我是安娜·马特奥。
