Andi
01-20-06, 10:11 AM
January 20, 2006 2:31 a.m. EST
Yvonne Lee - All Headline News Staff Reporter
Washington, D.C.(AHN) - A new study finds that a hormone believed to be a key to weight loss may be able to help those suffering from depression.
Lepitin is thought to control hunger, but it may also play another role in the brain, reports HealthDay News.
Researchers simulated human stress in mice by exposing the creatures to electric shocks, restraints, solitary confinement, water immersion and overcrowding. By doing so, the leptin levels in mice went down.
In another test, the mice were forced to swin long distances, a task that induced a kind of hopelessness similiar to depression in humans. However, the ice that were given leptin were more likely to continue going, instead of giving up.
Leptin alters" the way brain circuits function, and they do this not in just the areas that you'd expect," said Richard Simerly, director of the Neuroscience Program at the Saban Research Institute of Children's Hospital Los Angeles.
More research needs to be done to know whether leptin will help people who have depression.
The study is published in this week's issue of the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.
http://www.allheadlinenews.com/articles/7002008109
Yvonne Lee - All Headline News Staff Reporter
Washington, D.C.(AHN) - A new study finds that a hormone believed to be a key to weight loss may be able to help those suffering from depression.
Lepitin is thought to control hunger, but it may also play another role in the brain, reports HealthDay News.
Researchers simulated human stress in mice by exposing the creatures to electric shocks, restraints, solitary confinement, water immersion and overcrowding. By doing so, the leptin levels in mice went down.
In another test, the mice were forced to swin long distances, a task that induced a kind of hopelessness similiar to depression in humans. However, the ice that were given leptin were more likely to continue going, instead of giving up.
Leptin alters" the way brain circuits function, and they do this not in just the areas that you'd expect," said Richard Simerly, director of the Neuroscience Program at the Saban Research Institute of Children's Hospital Los Angeles.
More research needs to be done to know whether leptin will help people who have depression.
The study is published in this week's issue of the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.
http://www.allheadlinenews.com/articles/7002008109