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Brain Research Sheds Light on the Molecular Mechanisms of Depression

posted by cmn32480 on Thursday June 18 2020, @10:41PM   Printer-friendly
from the tiny-things-big-problems dept.

upstart writes in with an IRC submission:

Brain research sheds light on the molecular mechanisms of depression:

Researchers of the national Turku PET Centre have shown that the opioid system in the brain is connected to mood changes associated with depression and anxiety.

Depression and anxiety are typically associated with lowered mood and decreased experience of pleasure. Opioids regulate the feelings of pain and pleasure in the brain. The new study conducted in Turku shows that the symptoms associated with depression and anxiety are connected to changes in the brain's opioid system already in healthy individuals.

- We found that the more depressive and anxious symptoms the subjects had, the less opioid receptors there were in their brain.

[...] These results show that the mood changes indicating depression can be detected in the brain already early on.

Journal Reference:
Lauri Nummenmaa, Tomi Karjalainen, Janne Isojärvi, et al. Lowered endogenous mu-opioid receptor availability in subclinical depression and anxiety, Neuropsychopharmacology (DOI: 10.1038/s41386-020-0725-9)

Original Submission

 
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  • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday June 18 2020, @10:51PM (1 child)

    by Anonymous Coward on Thursday June 18 2020, @10:51PM (#1009784)

    Depression is associated with decreased experience of pleasure? Well duh. Sorry, no Nobel prize for you today Mustafa.

  • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday June 18 2020, @10:56PM

    by Anonymous Coward on Thursday June 18 2020, @10:56PM (#1009788)

    Turku PET Center is in Finland, which by itself explains the symptoms of depression.