Depression Treatment: GABAergic Control of Critical Developmental Periods for Anxiety- and Depression-Related Behavior in Mice.

GABAergic control of critical developmental periods for anxiety- and depression-related behavior in mice.

Filed under: Depression Treatment

PLoS One. 2012; 7(10): e47441
Shen Q, Fuchs T, Sahir N, Luscher B

Vulnerability for anxiety and depressive disorders is thought to have origins in early life and is increasingly recognized to involve deficits in GABAergic neurotransmission. Mice that were rendered heterozygous for the ?2 subunit gene of GABA(A) receptors (GABA(A)Rs) show behavioral, cognitive, neuroendocrine and pharmacologic features expected of a mouse model of melancholic anxious depression, including reduced survival of adult-born hippocampal neurons. Here we embarked on elucidating the developmental substrate underlying this phenotype, focusing on the Elevated Plus Maze and Forced Swim Test as relevant behavioral paradigms. In a first series of experiments using hemizygous tamoxifen-induced genetic inactivation of a floxed ?2 genomic locus we show that reducing the gene dosage at postnatal days (P)13/14 but not P27/28 results in altered behavior in both of these tests in adulthood, reminiscent of the anxious-depressive phenotype previously described for global heterozygous mice. However, in contrast to global heterozygous mice, the behavioral changes induced by ?2 subunit knockdown at P13/14 occurred without changes in adult hippocampal neurogenesis, indicating that altered neurogenesis is not an absolute prerequisite for anxiety- and depression-related behavior in this model. In a separate series of experiments using a pharmacological approach, acute but transient potentiation of GABA(A)Rs with diazepam uncovered distinct developmental vulnerabilities for altered behavior in the Elevated Plus Maze and Forced Swim Test, respectively. Specifically, diazepam given during P10-16 but not during later weeks resulted in increased anxiety-like behavior in adulthood, while diazepam administered during P29-35 but not earlier nor later resulted in increased immobility behavior in adulthood. We conclude that anxiety-like behavior in the Elevated Plus Maze and behavioral despair-like immobility in the Forced Swim Test are controlled by separate postnatal critical periods characterized by distinct developmental sensitivity to manipulation of GABAergic transmission via ?2 subunit-containing GABA(A)Rs.
HubMed – depression

 

Negative affect mediates effects of psychological stress on disordered eating in young chinese women.

Filed under: Depression Treatment

PLoS One. 2012; 7(10): e46878
Chen J, Wang Z, Guo B, Arcelus J, Zhang H, Jia X, Xu Y, Qiu J, Xiao Z, Yang M

The bi-relationships between psychological stress, negative affect and disordered eating has been well studied in western culture, while tri-relationship among them, i.e. how some of those factors influence these bi-relationships, has rarely been studied. However, there has been little related study in the different Chinese culture. This study was conducted to investigate the bi-relationships and tri-relationship between psychological stress, negative affect, and disordered eating attitudes and behaviors in young Chinese women.A total of 245 young Chinese policewomen employed to carry out health and safety checks at the 2010 Shanghai World Expo were recruited in this study. The Chinese version of the Perceived Stress Scale (PSS-10), Beck Depression Inventory Revised (BDI-II), Beck Anxiety Inventory (BAI), and Eating Attitude Test (EAT-26) were administered to all participants.The total scores of PSS-10, BDI-II and BAI were all highly correlated with that of EAT-26. The PSS-10 score significantly correlated with both BDI-II and BAI scores. There was no statistically significant direct effect from perceived stress to disordered eating (-0.012, 95%CI: -.038?0.006, p?=?0.357), however, the indirect effects from PSS-10 via affect factors were statistically significant, e.g. the estimated mediation effects from PSS to EAT-26 via depression and anxiety were 0.036 (95%CI: 0.022?0.044, p<0.001) and 0.015 (95%CI: 0.005?0.023, p<0.01), respectively.Perceived stress and negative affects of depression and anxiety were demonstrated to be strongly associated with disordered eating. Negative affect mediated the relationship between perceived stress and disordered eating. The findings suggest that effective interventions and preventative programmes for disordered eating should pay more attention to depression and anxiety among the young Chinese female population. HubMed – depression

 

Depressive Symptoms and Posttraumatic Stress Disorder as Determinants of Preference Weights for Attributes of Obstetric Care among Ethiopian Women.

Filed under: Depression Treatment

PLoS One. 2012; 7(10): e46788
Paczkowski MM, Kruk ME, Tessema F, Tegegn A, Galea S

Mental health, specifically mood/anxiety disorders, may be associated with value for health care attributes, but the association remains unclear. Examining the relation between mental health and attributes in a context where quality of care is low and exposure to suboptimal health conditions is increased, such as in Sub Saharan Africa (SSA), may elucidate the association.We assessed whether preference weights for obstetric care attributes varied by mental health among 1006 women from Jimma Zone, Ethiopia, using estimates obtained through a discrete choice experiment (DCE), a method used to elicit preferences. Facilities were described by several attributes including provider attitude and performance and drug/equipment availability. Mental health measures included depressive symptoms and posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD). We used Bayesian models to estimate preference weights for attributes and linear models to investigate whether these weights were associated with mental health. We found that women with high depressive symptoms valued a positive provider attitude [??=?-0.43 (95% CI: -0.66, -0.21)] and drug/equipment availability [??=?-0.43 (95% CI: -0.78, -0.07)] less compared to women without high depressive symptoms. Similar results were obtained for PTSD. Upon adjusting for both conditions, value for drug/equipment availability was lower only among women with both conditions [??=?-0.89 (95% CI -1.4, -0.42)].We found that women with psychopathology had lower preference weights for positive provider attitude and drug/equipment availability. Further work investigating why value for obstetric care attributes might vary by psychopathology in SSA is needed.
HubMed – depression

 

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