The American Psychiatric Association (not to be confused with the American Psychological Association) has released new treatment guidelines for depression. According to Medscape Today, the guidelines include:

• A clinician- and/or patient-administered rating scale for psychiatric symptoms to help with treatment strategies;
• A recommendation for the use of electroconvulsive therapy (ECT or "shock therapy") to treat depression if many other treatments have been tried unsuccessfully, along with monoamine oxidase inhibitors (MAOIs), transcranial magnetic stimulation, and vagus nerve stimulation as other potential options;
• Aerobic exercise or resistance training to improve mood symptoms, especially in older adults with other physical or mental illness; and
• Consideration of long-term maintenance treatment, especially for patients at risk for recurrence.

It's worth noting that Reuters reported that first suggestion as follows: "Doctors should use rating scales to assess their patients' conditions and tailor treatment according to the severity of symptoms. They can adjust various strategies such as medication, healthy behaviors, exercise and therapy." This implies that current treatment for depression takes a one-size-fits-all approach, which of course is not at all true. Doctors already tailor treatment to patients. The important part of this recommendation is the use of rating scales for various symptoms.

Going by the DSM-IV guidelines, if you meet more than a certain number of criteria you are diagnosed with depression. The new approach gets rid of the "has depression/doesn't have depression" binary and replaces it with scales that measure the severity of your symptoms. Some of the questions might look like this: How unhappy do you feel on an average day? How often do you have difficulty getting out of bed in the morning? How frequently do you think about suicide? Using rating scales like this, doctors can get a much better idea of what sort of treatment will be useful, and can also provide treatment to people who have a few signs of depression but would not be "diagnosable" under the old guidelines.

These guidelines hadn't been updated in over ten years, so I'm glad to see that the APA isn't waiting for the DSM-V to release this very important update that will hopefully improve diagnosis and treatment for many, many people who suffer from depression.

Toxoplasma gondii is a parasite that infects mice and makes them less afraid of cats. The fearless mice are more likely to be eaten by cats, and the parasite reproduces in the cats' digestive tract. Toxoplasma's ability to alter mouse behavior has led to a bit of evidence and a lot of theories about how human brains might be affected by the parasite. Since about a third of adult humans worldwide have toxoplasmosis, this is a pretty important question.

The most obvious starting point is behavior driven by fear or fearlessness. According to Stanford researcher Robert Sapolsky,  "Two different groups independently have reported that people who are Toxo-infected have three to four times the likelihood of being killed in car accidents involving reckless speeding." Patrick House of Slate observes that countries where rates of toxoplasmosis are higher have better soccer teams. Less obvious but perhaps more intriguing is a possible link between toxoplasmosis and schizophrenia. According to Physorg:

Evidence that T. gondii infections may be a cause of schizophrenia, while not yet conclusive, is growing, [Johns Hopkins researcher] Yolken said. A review of past studies, published last year by Yolken and Torrey, collected a variety of intriguing correlations. For example: People with schizophrenia have a higher prevalence of T. gondii antibodies in their blood. There are unusually low rates of schizophrenia and toxoplasmosis in countries where cats are rare, and unusually high rates in places where eating uncooked meat is customary. And some adults with toxoplasmosis show psychotic symptoms similar to schizophrenia.

Studies have linked a history of toxoplasmosis with increased rates of other mental changes, too, including bipolar disorders and depression. A 2002 study in the Czech Republic noted slowed reflexes in Toxoplasma-positive people and found links between the infection and increased rates of auto accidents.

A University of Maryland study last year found that people with mood disorders who attempt suicide had higher levels of T. gondii antibodies than those who don't try to take their own lives. Still, the links between schizophrenia and toxoplasmosis are not simple. For example, most people infected with T. gondii never become schizophrenic. And not all schizophrenics have been exposed to Toxoplasma.

Even seemingly clear-cut research results are open to interpretation: witness Sapolsky talking about recklessness while the Physorg article connects the auto accidents to slow reflexes. The practical question of whether the symptoms of schizophrenia can be effectively and efficiently reduced by treating toxoplasmosis--which is itself a difficult task due to T. gondii's talent for hiding and protecting itself--remains to be answered. Nonetheless, it's always interesting to see physical causes suggested for mental illness, even as we stay wary of anyone offering a simple cure.

May is Mental Health Month.

Across the country the National Alliance on Mental Illness will be hosting walks and other events to address the need for an improved mental health treatment program.

For more information on NAMI and the walks this month, visit the NAMI Website.

Thirteen people were killed and several more wounded in a shooting in Fort Hood, Texas, on Thursday.

The alleged gunman, Maj. Nidal Malik Hasan, a psychiatrist at Darnall Army Medical Center in Fort Hood, has been taken into custody.

Hasan is a licensed psychiatrist and has treated soldiers for post-traumatic stress disorder. Military officials say Hasan had recently received orders to deploy to Afghanistan.

For updates, see CNN.com.