{"id":84,"date":"2011-11-16T14:29:09","date_gmt":"2011-11-16T14:29:09","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/therapytoronto.ca\/news\/?p=84"},"modified":"2011-11-17T15:03:02","modified_gmt":"2011-11-17T15:03:02","slug":"mental-illness-early-life-depression-and-anxiety-changes-structure-of-developing-brain","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/therapytoronto.ca\/news\/2011\/11\/mental-illness-early-life-depression-and-anxiety-changes-structure-of-developing-brain\/","title":{"rendered":"Mental Illness: Early-Life Depression and Anxiety Changes Structure of Developing Brain"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>From the Society for Neuroscience press release:<\/p>\n<blockquote><p><img loading=\"lazy\" class=\"alignright\" title=\"brain\" src=\"http:\/\/therapytoronto.ca\/images\/blogpics\/Brain.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"215\" height=\"215\" \/>New research identifies the brain chemicals and circuits involved in  mental illnesses like schizophrenia, depression, and anxiety, giving  potential new directions to their treatment. In addition, research with  children shows that <strong>early-life depression and anxiety changes the  structure of the developing brain<\/strong>.<\/p>\n<p>The findings were presented at Neuroscience 2011, the Society for  Neuroscience&#8217;s annual meeting and the world&#8217;s largest source of emerging  news about brain science and health.<\/p>\n<p>One in 17 Americans suffer from a serious mental illness, such as  schizophrenia, major depression, or bipolar disorder, making it one of  the leading causes of disability. Yet science is only beginning to  understand the underlying physical causes of these diseases.<\/p>\n<p>New findings show:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Childhood anxiety and depression alter the way the amygdala  connects to other regions of the brain. This finding may help explain  how <strong>early life stress can lead to future emotional and behavioral issues<\/strong> (Shaozheng Qin, PhD, abstract 927.06, see attached summary).<\/li>\n<li>In animal studies, a link between two factors associated with  schizophrenia, prenatal infection and impaired function of a molecule  important in memory (Melissa Burt, abstract 763.11, see attached  summary).<\/li>\n<li>Researchers have identified a brain chemical important to  antidepressant response in mice. The findings may help in the design of  therapies for major depression (Maha Elsayed, abstract 904.10, see  attached summary).<\/li>\n<li>The connections between two specific areas of the brain &#8212; the  prefrontal cortex and the dorsal raphe nucleus &#8212; may contribute to  depression. Stimulating these circuits in rats had an antidepressant  effect (Melissa Warden, PhD, abstract 306.15, see attached summary).<\/li>\n<li>An enzyme called STEP is elevated in the brains of people with  schizophrenia. Mice lacking this chemical did not develop  schizophrenia-like behaviors (Nikisha Carty, PhD, abstract 238.03, see  attached summary).<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>&#8220;If we can fully understand the roots of mental illness in brain  circuitry and systems, we may be able to develop better treatment  targets for the millions suffering from these diseases,&#8221; said press  conference moderator Carol Tamminga, MD, of the University of Texas  Southwestern, who is an expert on schizophrenia.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<!-- AddThis Advanced Settings generic via filter on the_content --><!-- AddThis Share Buttons generic via filter on the_content -->","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>From the Society for Neuroscience press release: New research identifies the brain chemicals and circuits involved in mental illnesses like schizophrenia, depression, and anxiety, giving potential new directions to their&#8230; <a class=\"read-more-link\" href=\"https:\/\/therapytoronto.ca\/news\/2011\/11\/mental-illness-early-life-depression-and-anxiety-changes-structure-of-developing-brain\/\">Read more &raquo;<\/a><!-- AddThis Advanced Settings generic via filter on get_the_excerpt --><!-- AddThis Share Buttons generic via filter on get_the_excerpt --><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[5,10,6],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/therapytoronto.ca\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/84"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/therapytoronto.ca\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/therapytoronto.ca\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/therapytoronto.ca\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/therapytoronto.ca\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=84"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/therapytoronto.ca\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/84\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":86,"href":"https:\/\/therapytoronto.ca\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/84\/revisions\/86"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/therapytoronto.ca\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=84"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/therapytoronto.ca\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=84"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/therapytoronto.ca\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=84"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}