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A new study from Yale University shows that depression can physically alter a person's brain, thus accelerating an aging effect that could make it more vulnerable to diseases badociated with old age.
Scientists have, in the past, found all kinds of evidence to demonstrate the impact of depression on the brain and other parts of the body. The disease has been badociated with an increased risk of headaches, muscle aches and sleeping problems, among others. And this can create a negative feedback loop: A 2004 study published in the Journal of Clinical Psychology found that "the worse the physical pain symptoms are, the worse the depression is."
With this in mind, Irina Esterlis, a researcher at the Yale School of Medicine, wanted to know more about the impact of depression on the brain, in particular. She presented her findings on Feb. 14 at the American Association for the Advancement of Science conference in Washington DC.
His work is based on a new type of brain imaging technology that allows doctors to better understand what is happening in people's skulls. She usually works out of a lab at Yale where she is experimenting with advanced positron emission tomography (PET) scanners that can detect biochemical changes in body tissue. In this case, Esterlis studied the brains of 20 people – 10 who were diagnosed with clinical depression and 10 who were judged healthy after a complete psychiatric evaluation – and found that the brains of those with symptoms of depression more severe had a lower synaptic density.
Synaptic density is important because synapses are essentially tiny bridges on which nerve cells rely to transmit their impulses from one cell to the other. Loss of synapses has been badociated with neurological disorders and has been observed in people aged 74 to 90 years.
All this to say that Esterlis research indicates that the byproduct of aging was evident in people with depression. It's certainly a small study, but the result is convincing enough to eventually trigger new research into what happens in the brain when a person is depressed.
Researchers at the University of Toronto are working on a drug that appears to be able to reverse the memory loss badociated with depression and aging. The scientists behind this work were also presented at the conference in Washington, according to the Financial Times (Paywall). This work is still in its infancy – it has only been tested on mice – but it could result in the resolution of the very problem that Esterlis' work is revealing. .
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