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Dr. Bob is Robert Hsiung, MD,
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Posted by freedom2001 on August 7, 2003, at 22:55:38
Health - Reuters
Antidepressants Grow New Brain Cells - U.S. Study
Thu Aug 7, 3:47 PM ET Add Health - Reuters to My Yahoo!
By Maggie Fox, Health and Science Correspondent
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Antidepressants may help stimulate the growth of new brain cells, U.S.-based scientists said on Thursday in releasing research that may lead to the development of better drugs to fight depression.
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Research on rats shows that two different classes of antidepressants can help brain cells regenerate -- and not in areas normally thought of as being involved in depression.
"This is an important new insight into how antidepressants work," Dr. Thomas Insel, director of the National Institute of Mental Health, said in a statement.
The study fits in with others that suggest depression can shrink the hippocampus, a brain region crucial to learning and memory but only recently found to be involved in depression. Major stress and trauma -- both depression triggers -- can also cause the shrinkage.
"We have known that antidepressants influence the birth of neurons in the hippocampus. Now it appears that this effect may be important for the clinical response," Insel said.
New antidepressants may be developed to target this process directly, said Rene Hen of Columbia University in New York, who led the study.
"The proof in humans is going to come when we extend the work into finding drugs that stimulate neurogenesis. If these drugs have antidepressant effects in humans, this is going to be proof that the process is critical in humans," Hen said in a telephone interview.
"There is a push already in the pharmaceutical industry to find such compounds."
The new study may also help explain why it can take weeks for antidepressants to give patients relief.
"If antidepressants work by stimulating the production of new neurons, there's a built-in delay," said Hen. The stem cells that give rise to new cells need time to divide, to differentiate into neurons, move to their new homes and link up with other neurons.
To make sure that the new brain cells in the hippocampus was the source of the lifted depression, Hen and colleagues at Yale University and in France worked with genetically engineered mice, using X-rays to kill newly growing cells in the hippocampus.
These mice did not respond as they normally would to antidepressants. Mice which were given fluoxetine, an antidepressant sold under the brand-name Prozac by Eli Lilly and Co., and were then given X-rays did not resume grooming as would be expected.
Mice who received no X-rays and were killed after being dosed for 11 or 28 days with fluoxetine showed significant growth of new brain cells.
A drug in a different class, the tricyclic imipramine, also stimulated the growth of neurons, Hen's team reported in Friday's issue of the journal Science.
"Besides finding drugs that target this process, the other basic research challenge for me is to find out what the function of these new neurons is," Hen said.
Experts say that 16 percent of Americans -- more than 30 million people -- will suffer major depression at some point in their lives.
The NIMH says major depression is now the No. 1 leading cause of disability around the world.
Posted by Bill L on August 8, 2003, at 8:45:25
In reply to NEW RESEARCH ON DEPRESSION , posted by freedom2001 on August 7, 2003, at 22:55:38
Same is true for ADD. Those people tend to have smaller parts of the brain before treatment.
Posted by freedom2001 on August 8, 2003, at 10:12:26
In reply to Re: NEW RESEARCH ON DEPRESSION , posted by Bill L on August 8, 2003, at 8:45:25
> Same is true for ADD. Those people tend to have smaller parts of the brain before treatment.
What about the brains of OCD people?
Posted by Bill L on August 8, 2003, at 12:07:33
In reply to Re: NEW RESEARCH ON DEPRESSION » Bill L , posted by freedom2001 on August 8, 2003, at 10:12:26
I don't know. That's a good question. Depression and OCD very often go together. So my guess would be that people with OCD would also have smaller parts of the brain, especially if they also have depression. If I remember the article correctly, I think that during antidepressant therapy, the brain tissue gets larger.
> > Same is true for ADD. Those people tend to have smaller parts of the brain before treatment.
>
> What about the brains of OCD people?
Posted by linkadge on August 9, 2003, at 0:07:25
In reply to Re: NEW RESEARCH ON DEPRESSION, posted by Bill L on August 8, 2003, at 12:07:33
With the positive research that is available on the usefulness of this drug in preventing hippocampal shrinking and depressive relapse, I am wondering when/if this drug will come to North america
Linkadge
Posted by Shawn. T. on August 10, 2003, at 18:29:44
In reply to Re: NEW RESEARCH ON DEPRESSION » Bill L , posted by freedom2001 on August 8, 2003, at 10:12:26
Research on size abnormalities in the brains of people with OCD has led to many contradictory findings. Based on the current evidence, the only reliable conclusion that can be made is that OCD is a heterogeneous disorder. While some studies suggest dysfunction in the caudate nucleus, others do not. I think that it's safe to say that in some people with OCD, regions such as the caudate nucleus are dynfunctional (perhaps due to excessive glutamate activity); however, note that the finding probably doesn't apply to everyone with this disorder. There are several other regions that have been studied as well; the caudate nucleus is probably one of the most examined, however.
See http://www.neurotransmitter.net/ocdimaging.html for several abstracts on OCD neuroimaging studies.
Shawn
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