Scientists explore the mechanisms behind stress and depression
Millions of people who struggle with depression in the U.S. buy Effexor to alleviate their symptoms.
Millions of people who struggle with depression in the U.S. buy Effexor to alleviate their symptoms. There are many studies currently ongoing to better understand how stress affects an individual's mood and motivation for drugs. According to a paper published in the journal Neuron, blocking the stress cascade in brain cells could reduce depressive symptoms such as anxiety.
Lead author Michael R. Bruchas and his colleagues from the Washington University School of Medicine in Seattle studied stress and depression in a mouse model. They found that the MAPK protein appears to influence the rodents' behavior, contributing to depressive symptoms.
When activated, the protein regulates the mood regulation hormone serotonin. This compound converges with other stress-related factors in a particular brain region known as the dorsal raphe nucleus.
"When people take antidepressant drugs called selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors, or SSRIs, to relieve depression, the drugs act on a cellular pump called the serotonin transporter, and this results in more serotonin in the brain," Bruchas stated. "We think [this] represents an important finding in figuring out how it is that cells regulate depressive and addictive behaviors."
|
