Antidepressants need new nerve cells to be effective, UT Southwestern researchers find

Researchers at UT Southwestern Medical Center have discovered in mice that the brain must create new nerve cells for either exercise or antidepressants to reduce depression-like behavior.

In addition, the researchers found that antidepressants and exercise use the same biochemical pathway to exert their effects.

These results might help explain some unknown mechanisms of antidepressants and provide a new direction for developing drugs to treat depression, said Dr. Luis Parada, chairman of developmental biology and senior author of a study in the Aug. 14 issue of the journal Neuron.

In animals, it was already known that long-term treatment with antidepressants causes new nerve cells to be generated in a part of the brain called the dentate gyrus. Exercise, which can also relieve the symptoms of depression, stimulates the generation of new nerve cells in the same area.

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Mental Health: Exercise Is Found Not to Affect Depression

Many people are sure that exercise improves their mood, and studies have suggested that exercise is almost as effective as antidepressants in relieving symptoms of depression. But a new study has found that even though people who exercise are less likely to be depressed or anxious, it is probably not because they exercise.

Dutch researchers studied 5,952 twins from the Netherlands Twins Registry, as well as 1,357 additional siblings and 1,249 parents, all 18 to 50 years old. They recorded survey data about the frequency and duration of exercise and used well-validated scales to uncover symptoms of depression and anxiety. The study was published Monday in The Archives of General Psychiatry.

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Mood lifting - Growing evidence suggests that exercise is as good for your mental health as it is for your physical well-being

Monday mornings, Theo Baars's exhausting depression often tries to seduce him into just staying in bed. But then, he says, a staffer at Appleton House, a residence for people with psychotic disorders at McLean Hospital, comes into his room and says, insistently, "You want to go work out."

So Baars, a 22-year-old surfer and musician, drags himself to McLean's new gym and sweats through a half hour of presses and curls. And then, he finds, he doesn't want to go back to bed. And more: His confidence is pumped up. His thinking tends to be less delusional, more reality-based.

"Working out helps me get my self back," he said.

Baars's personal experience reflects longstanding wisdom that is now gaining the added heft that comes from carefully conducted research. Exercise, the studies increasingly suggest, may be as good for your brain as it is for your body, whether you are mentally ill or not.

As Cambridge psychiatrist and author Dr. John Ratey puts it, if exercise could be bottled, it would be the greatest blockbuster drug ever. "Exercise is medicine for the brain," he said.

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An active ingredient in treating mild depression

Study supports findings that exercise can help beat the blues and might reduce need for medication.

This fall, we ran a series of articles called Healthwatch that examined the latest medical studies making the news. The series provoked a lot of discussion, and readers asked for more, so medical journalist Evra Taylor Levy and emergency physician Eddy Lang are back, helping to make sense of sometimes contradictory medical research. Healthwatch runs every other week as a regular Gazette feature. The writers invite you to join them in their online forum. See details on Page D3.

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It's no secret that the holidays and transition into a new year spell depression for many people experiencing loneliness, difficult life events or loss. With this, our end-of-the-year edition of Healthwatch, we bring you an uplifting study that looks at a way of beating some kinds of depression without medication.
Worldwide, depression is the leading cause of years lived with disability. During their lifetime, about five to 12 per cent of men and 10 to 25 per cent of women will have at least one major depressive episode. Interestingly, mood disorders often begin in adolescence, making early diagnosis especially important to offset years of unhappy, impaired living. Additionally, Canadian winters mean reduced sunlight and shorter days, which have been implicated in an increased prevalence of depression at this time of the year.

Symptoms of depression

It has been reported that half of the people who have clinical depression don't know it, so recognizing its symptoms is essential and the first step toward treatment. While not a complete list, symptoms include: persistent sadness; pessimism; feelings of guilt; loss of interest and pleasure in activities; helplessness or hopelessness; difficulty concentrating; insomnia or oversleeping; apathy; anxiety; thoughts of suicide or death.

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Newly-identified Exercise Gene Could Help With Depression

Boosting an exercise-related gene in the brain works as a powerful anti-depressant in mice--a finding that could lead to a new anti-depressant drug target, according to a Yale School of Medicine report in Nature Medicine.

"The VGF exercise-related gene and target for drug development could be even better than chemical antidepressants because it is already present in the brain," said Ronald Duman, professor of psychiatry and senior author of the study.

Depression affects 16 percent of the population in the United States, at a related cost of $83 billion each year. Currently available anti-depressants help 65 percent of patients and require weeks to months before the patients experience relief.

Duman said it is known that exercise improves brain function and mental health, and provides protective benefits in the event of a brain injury or disease, but how this all happens in the brain is not well understood. He said the fact that existing medications take so long to work indicates that some neuronal adaptation or plasticity is needed.

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