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Digestive problems can set the brain on the development of depression
Last reviewed: 23.04.2024
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Problems with the gastrointestinal tract are often associated with depression, as they are, according to the accepted opinion, triggered by a splash of hormones behind mood jumps. Pankai Pasritz together with his colleagues from Stanford believes that a reverse mechanism can work here.
His research team conducted an experiment with rats. Young rats were given a compound that slightly irritated the gastrointestinal tract. When the rat was 10 weeks old, they were tested for signs of depression. Animals showed more signs of depression and higher levels of stress hormones in the brain compared to healthy rats.
Moreover, a violation in the transmission of clear signals coming from the nerves in the intestine did not in any way affect depression in animals. So, the pain was not the cause of the disorder. Meanwhile, blocking the receptors responsible for stress hormones in the brain, softened the severity of the effects. Scientists want to understand what role the vagus nerve plays here, which allows the intestines to connect with the brain.
However, some people are more predisposed to depression. Understanding which genes are involved in this process can explain why someone more often suffers from this mood disorder.
Jerome Breen from King's College, London, together with his colleagues, found a clear link between the genetic basis in the case of severe depression. He scanned the genome of 800 people in whose families were depressed relatives. As a result, an abnormal number of variations in the genes on chromosome 3 was detected. A similar result was obtained by American scientists from the University of Washington.
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