Cortical GABA and emotional processing in young people at risk of depression

有抑郁风险的年轻人的皮质 GABA 和情绪处理

• 批准号: G0600179/1
• 负责人: Philip Cowen
• 金额: $ 37.9万
• 依托单位: University of Oxford
• 依托单位国家: 英国
• 项目类别: Research Grant
• 财政年份: 2006
• 资助国家: 英国
• 起止时间: 2006 至 无数据
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://gtr.ukri.org/projects?ref=G0600179%2F1
• 关键词: Cortical; GABA; emotional; processing; young

Clinical depression is a common and often a life-long condition that causes much distress and incapacity for sufferers and their families. Although there are some helpful treatments for depression it would be better to design interventions that could act at an early stage of the illness to prevent depression becoming chronic and disabling. For this we need to understand more about the factors that make people vulnerable to recurrent depression in the first place.We have made some progress in this area by taking advantage of a new method of brain imaging called magnetic resonance imaging, which can measure the chemistry and functional activity of the brain by using strong magnetic fields. We have found for example, that people recovered from depression continue to have exaggerated responses in the brain to fearful facial expressions and that they have lowered levels of an important brain chemical messenger called GABA. However, we do not know if these changes pre-date the onset of the depressive illness or instead might be a consequence of the depression and its treatment. The present study aims to answer this question by carrying out the same investigations in young people (aged 16-19 years) who have not been depressed themselves but who are at increased risk of depression through having a parent with depression. Magnetic resonance imaging lends itself to studies in young people because it is regarded as safe and non-invasive. If we find that young people at risk of depression have low brain GABA levels and increased brain responses to fearful facial expressions it will mean that these changes might be important in predisposing to the development of depression. We would then plan to find treatments that could resolve these changes in the hope that we might be able prevent or at least lower the risk of clinical depression occurring subsequently.

临床抑郁症是一种常见的，往往是一个终身的条件，造成很大的痛苦和能力，为患者和他们的家人。虽然有一些有用的治疗抑郁症的方法，但最好是设计干预措施，可以在疾病的早期阶段采取行动，以防止抑郁症成为慢性和致残。为此，我们首先需要更多地了解使人们容易复发抑郁症的因素。我们已经在这一领域取得了一些进展，利用一种新的大脑成像方法，称为磁共振成像，它可以通过使用强磁场来测量大脑的化学和功能活动。例如，我们发现，从抑郁症中恢复过来的人，大脑对恐惧的面部表情的反应会继续放大，而且他们的大脑中一种重要的化学信使GABA的水平会降低。然而，我们不知道这些变化是否早于抑郁症的发作，或者可能是抑郁症及其治疗的结果。本研究旨在回答这个问题，在年轻人（16-19岁）中进行同样的调查，他们自己没有抑郁症，但由于父母患有抑郁症，他们患抑郁症的风险增加。磁共振成像适合年轻人的研究，因为它被认为是安全和非侵入性的。如果我们发现有抑郁症风险的年轻人大脑GABA水平较低，并且大脑对恐惧面部表情的反应增加，这将意味着这些变化可能在诱发抑郁症的发展方面很重要。然后，我们将计划找到可以解决这些变化的治疗方法，希望我们能够预防或至少降低随后发生临床抑郁症的风险。