Scientists have uncovered a vital clue which helps to explain how antidepressants work. It seems that it all depends on growing some new neurons.
The research, by an international team led by Dr Alexandre Surget of the Norwegian University of Science and Technology,
Scientists have uncovered a vital clue which helps to explain how antidepressants work. It seems that it all depends on growing some new neurons.
The research, by an international team led by Dr Alexandre Surget of the Norwegian University of Science and Technology, sheds light on the way the antidepressant fluoxetine, marketed as Prozac, improves mood.
The research is reported in this week's issue of Molecular Psychiatry.
Stress is an important cause of anxiety disorders and depressive illness in humans, and the same effects can be seen in mice.
Surget and his team exposed mice to unpredictable mildly stressing events on a daily basis, ranging from having their cage tilted to finding cat faeces in the cage.
The stressed mice were found to be producing fewer neurons in a place in the brain called the dentate gyrus. This is a special brain region because it exhibits neurogenesis, meaning it readily grows new neurons throughout adult life.
The mice showed overt signs of depression with weight loss and poor coat condition. They even parallelled the way depressed people lose interest in pleasurable activities: showing little enthusiasm for chocolate cookies put in their cage.
The researchers found that giving the mice fluoxetine for five weeks while they were under the st