Depression is something of a black box. Its underlying causes aren’t completely understood, nor why particular medications work for some people but not others. Even worse, treatments are not fully successful in up to 60% of patients. Learning more about the molecular details of mental illness will go a long way toward designing better drugs.
With these ends in mind, a team of Portuguese researchers examined the effects of two antipsychotic medications (which can also be used to treat major depression) on the behavior and physiology of rats. Their results are published in Translational Psychiatry.
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When the researchers examined the rats’ brains, they found that stress had a detrimental impact on the growth of new brain cells (i.e., neurogenesis) as well as their survival…
Increasingly, research is showing that mental illness is a visible manifestation of molecular interactions gone awry. Identifying the physiological processes that have gone wrong and how specific interventions can reverse them will be a great help to patients who do not respond well to current medications. Hopefully, such insights will translate quickly into remedies for those who suffer from depression, schizophrenia, bipolar disorder, and other forms of mental illness.
The GLP aggregated and excerpted this blog/article to reflect the diversity of news, opinion, and analysis. Read full, original post: Depression Medication May Work by Helping Grow New Brain Cells
