The condition may cause depression

Mar 17, 2009 15:15 GMT  ·  By
The true influence of stress on the human brain has not yet been fully understood
   The true influence of stress on the human brain has not yet been fully understood

Research on animal models has evidenced the fact that average, work-related stress, as well as posttraumatic stress disorders (PTSD) have the potential to cause depression and force the brain to function at much lower parameters than it would normally do. In other words, stress is capable of inducing modifications in the behavior of an individual, as it promotes changes at a neural level. The very structure of nervous cells is affected by prolonged exposure to stressors, factors that are associated with stress.

“The importance of our findings is derived from the well-known fact that synapses have a great potential for rapid changes, which may underlie sudden mood swings. More importantly, it is feasible to restore hippocampal synapses in a very short period of time (hours or even minutes), which opens up exciting new avenues for developing rapid-acting antidepressants that may provide immediate relief from depressive symptoms,” Yale University researcher Tibor Hajszan, who has led the investigation team behind the new find, says.

Despite the fact that PTSD sufferers exhibit a reduction in the volume of their cortices, researchers warn that it's still premature to conclude that this reduction also affects the number and the make-up of synapses. Rather, they stress, the post-mortem analysis of human brain could yield some insight into how stress affects the physical make-up of it.

“Settling this issue could help us to better understand recent epidemiological data suggesting that most of the adjustment problems of soldiers returning from Iraq and Afghanistan with mild traumatic brain injury (TBI) or post-concussive syndrome are attributable to PTSD,” the journal Editor of Biological Psychiatry, Dr. John Krystal, who is also affiliated with the Yale University School of Medicine and the VA Connecticut Healthcare System, adds.

“We have tended to think of PTSD and mild TBI as unrelated at the neural level. However, with growing evidence from animal studies that PTSD may be associated with loss of neural connections, it may turn out that PTSD and mild TBI are two distinct, but interacting, ways that soldiers might be affected by their combat experience,” Krystal concludes.