Depression linked to brain-circuitry gene

[emad]

May 09, 2005


By Mark Henderson, Science Correspondent

A GENE that leaves its carriers prone to depression works by weakening a critical circuit in the brain, according to new research that offers important clues to the commonest form of mental illness.

Changes in the way that the brain handles stress and negative emotion may explain why inheriting a particular version of a gene called 5-HTT doubles the risk of depression after traumatic events such as bereavement or divorce, scientists have discovered.

The link between 5-HTT and depression, which strikes one in five people at some point in their lives, was established two years ago by a team at King’s College London, but the biological mechanisms behind it were not previously understood.

The findings, by researchers at the US National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH) in Bethesda, Maryland, published today in the journal Nature Neuroscience, could have implications for the treatment of an illness recognised by the World Health Organisation as the fourth-largest cause of long-term disability. It may suggest new antidepressant drugs.

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/article/0,,11069-1604187,00.html

[havocmom]

1. Glad more is being understood.

Hope we start getting serious about mental health care in the US. Not just drugging the masses with the Rx de jour, but addressing individual's needs.

Life can be so horrid when depression rules it. It destroys individuals, families, communities, nations and the world. Look at the US under the present conditions of poor health care. People not dealing with reality voting for people who never faced their own demons = big trouble on a global scale.

It is good to understand how the brain works.

[HuckleB]

2. Another step toward understanding.

I knew I should have checked here before posting in LBN, but I've yet to feed any coffee to my own brain.

[HuckleB]

3. Recommended books on this topic:

Brave New Brain: Conquering Mental Illness in the Era of The Genome --
http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/0195167287/ref=pd_sim_b_2/002-7070178-2351221?%5Fencoding=UTF8&v=glance

The Birth of the Mind: How a Tiny Number of Genes Creates the Complexities of Human Thought --
http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/0465044050/ref=pd_sim_b_5/002-7070178-2351221?%5Fencoding=UTF8&v=glance

Better Than Prozac: Creating The Next Generation Of Psychiatric Drugs --
http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/019517979X/qid=1115651092/sr=2-2/ref=pd_bbs_b_2_2/002-7070178-2351221

The Quest for Consciousness: A Neurobiological Approach --
http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/0974707708/ref=pd_sim_b_3/002-7070178-2351221?%5Fencoding=UTF8&v=glance


Yes, the links are to Amazon. Please buy them, if you so choose, where you feel most comfortable purchasing books. I actually checked these out from the library.

[emad]

4. Only thing that works to short-circuit those damned blues wires is

regular intake of multiple orgasm.

Seems to over-ride everything else that's going on upstairs as well as downstairs so to speak...