With its wide range of symptoms and variable severity, depression might seem hopelessly complicated. But a spate of recent studies published in Nature suggests that this complexity is resolvable at the brain circuit level.
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Despite clinical boundaries between autism, schizophrenia, and bipolar disorder, a new study in Archives of General Psychiatry suggests they have shared roots.
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Desperate times may call for desperate measures, and in the awful world of treatment-resistant depression, one such measure—inserting two electrodes deep into the brain and running electricity through them—appears safe and effective, according to a study published in the Archives of General Psychiatry.
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A single dose of ketamine can relieve depression in as little as two hours, but finding out how it works is less than straightforward, with recent studies pointing to diverse mechanisms.
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A recent report in Nature links hyperactive synapses in the lateral habenula to learned helplessness in rats — a model for human depression. What’s more, applying deep brain stimulation, a protocol that alleviates depression in humans, to the lateral habenula also reduced learned helplessness in rats.
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Winter blues, spring fever—most of us take seasonal changes in mood for granted. A study in Journal of Neuroscience suggests that the seasons may tinker with levels of dopamine, a chemical messenger in the brain involved in motivation, pleasure, movement and learning.
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A diet deficient in omega-3 fatty acids interferes with normal brain function, according to a report in Nature Neuroscience. Mice chronically deprived of these essential lipids not only showed abnormal brain signaling, but were also prone to anxious and depression-like behaviors.
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A physical interaction between two types of dopamine receptor appears enhanced in human depression, and interfering with this coupling has antidepressant-like effects in rats, according to a new report in Nature Medicine.
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