14 DAY TRIAL // The latest studies carried out by researchers from the University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center suggest that antidepressants could solved many of the socializing problems experienced by many individuals.
They found that the social avoidance that normally develops when a mouse repeatedly experiences defeat by a dominant animal disappears when it lacks a gene for a memory molecule in a brain circuit for social learning.
Mice engineered to lack this memory molecule continued to welcome strangers in spite of repeated social defeat. Their unaltered peers subjected to the same hard knocks became confirmed loners, unless the researchers treated them with antidepressants
"For both mice and men, social status is important; for mice, losing to a dominant mouse usually means that they avoid the dominant and they avoid social situations. These new findings add to a growing literature on the molecular basis of social behavior, helping us to know where as well as how social information is encoded in the brain," explained National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH) director Dr. Thomas Insel.
The results reveal neural mechanisms by which social learning is shaped by psychosocial experience and how antidepressants act in this particular brain circuit. In addition, Olivier Berton and Eric Nestler suggest new strategies for treating mood disorders such as depression, social phobia, in which social withdrawal is a prominent symptom.
The brain responds to emotionally important stimuli by releasing dopamine, a neurotransmitter, regulated by the brain derived neurotrophic factor (BDNF), which is known to play a key role in memory. Berton and Nestler found that BDNF is vital for social learning.
Obviously, you cannot talk about knocking out the gene when it comes to humans, the solution in this case being chronic treatment with antidepressants to interfere with the processes triggered by the BDNF.
The study was funded by the National Institutes of Health's (NIH) National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH).