People who self-medicate — that is, to use alcohol or drugs to reduce unwanted feelings or anxiety — are at greater risk for a later substance abuse problem, according to a new study. Self-medicating also appears to up the risk for social phobia in people with anxiety. People typically self-medicate in an effort to avoid more formal treatment, whether it be with psychotherapy or medications. Canadian researchers led by Jennifer Robinson examined data collected through the National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism survey. Their study was designed to measure the occurrence of substance use disorders in individuals with anxiety...

Researchers studying mice are getting closer to understanding how stress affects mood and motivation for drugs. According to the researchers, blocking the stress cascade in brain cells may help reduce the effects of stress, which can include anxiety, depression and the pursuit of addictive drugs. A research team from St. Louis and Seattle reports in the Aug. 11 issue of the journal Neuron that in mice exposed to stress, a protein called p38α mitogen-activated protein kinase (MAPK) influences the animal’s behavior, contributing to depression-like symptoms and risk for addiction. The first author is Michael R. Bruchas, PhD, assistant...

Neuroscientists at the Centre for Addiction and Mental Health (CAMH) have developed a protein peptide that may be a novel type of highly targeted treatment for depression with a low side-effect profile. Depression affects one in ten Canadians at some time in their lives and is a leading cause of disability worldwide. The study published in this month’s Nature Medicine found that coupling between two dopamine receptors was significantly elevated in the brains of people who had been diagnosed with major depression. “We identified a potential therapeutic target for development of novel anti-depressants.” said Dr. Fang Liu,...

Patients who use anti-depressants are much more likely to suffer relapses of major depression than those who use no medication at all, concludes a McMaster researcher.  In a paper that is likely to ignite new controversy in the hotly debated field of depression and medication, evolutionary psychologist Paul Andrews concludes that patients who have used anti-depressant medications can be nearly twice as susceptible to future episodes of major depression. Andrews, an assistant professor in the Department of Psychology, Neuroscience & Behaviour, is the lead author of a new paper in the journal Frontiers of Psychology. The meta-analysis...

Problems like anxiety and depression are caused by psychological and environmental factors, and are known to be influenced by genetic proclivities. However, it is still not clear how each factor affects the brain’s functions to induce anxious and depressive symptoms. To shed light on these interactions, a team from the Centre Émotion-Remédiation et Réalité Virtuelle (Center for Emotion Remediation and Virtual Reality, CNRS / UPMC / CHU Pitié Salpêtrière) has investigated the amygdala, a part of the brain that is hyperactive in individuals suffering from anxiety and depression.   The researchers have shown that its activity...