14 DAY TRIAL // Experts at the University of Texas in San Antonio (UT) Health Science Center (HSC) discovered in a new study that a naturally-occurring hormone, playing a role in protecting the body against diabetes, may also be useful for treating depression.
The conclusion belongs to a new study conducted on mice, HSC associate professor of pharmacology and psychiatry, and senior study author, Xin-Yun Lu, PhD, explains. He says that standard depression medication tends to increase patients' risks of developing type II diabetes.
A link between the two conditions has been suspected for a while, but thus far no study has been able to tie them together conclusively. The new study revealed that boosting levels of the hormone adiponectin, which is secreted by the adipose tissue, reduces depression in mice.
“These findings suggest a critical role of adiponectin in the development of depressive-like behaviors and may lead to an innovative therapeutic approach to fight depression,” Lu explains in the latest issue of the esteemed journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, PsychCentral reports.