Neuron count depression PR
From The Genes of PTSD
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Depression linked to excess neurons in brain
VA Research Currents, July 2004
Thalamus may be enlarged in Major Depression
VA researchers and colleagues have discovered a link between major depression and an increased number of nerve cells in the thalamus, part of the brain. A team at the Central Texas Veterans Health Care System, University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center and Texas A&M University System Health Science Center compared postmortem brains from patients who had been diagnosed with major depression against brains from normal subjects and those with schizophrenia and bipolar disorder. The brains from patients with major depression had about 30-percent more nerve cells in regions of the thalamus involved with emotional regulation. In addition, these regions appeared larger in the patients with major depression. A history of antidepressant use during the patient’s lifetime did not appear to affect the neuron levels.
Brain Enlargement a New Concept in Mental Health
The research, reported in the July American Journal of Psychiatry, may be the first to link a psychiatric disorder with an increased number of neurons in the brain. Earlier studies have associated psychiatric conditions such as schizophrenia and bipolar disorder with decreased, not increased, levels of neurons, said lead investigator Keith A. Young, PhD. Young added: “This represents a change in the way we think about major depression, which has been considered by most scientists and physicians to be related to neurochemical imbalances, rather than being caused by abnormal brain development and structure.”
