Wednesday, October 29, 2008

Chemical link found between suicide, depression

Chemical link found between suicide, depression
Mix of biological, social triggers at work: study

Pauline Tam
The Ottawa Citizen

People who are driven to suicide by depression have brains that are chemically different from those who die of natural causes, a new study has found.

The discovery, centred on chemical changes in certain brain cells, gives scientists a better understanding of the biological mechanisms involved in depression and points to potential ways of developing more effective anti-depressants.

It also reinforces a widely held theory among depression researchers that suggests most people who commit suicide do so because of some ill-fated mix of biological and social triggers.

Until recently, scientists had been unable to find evidence of specific neurochemical changes that would support their theory.

"We argue that it's not nature, it's not nurture, it's some combination," says Hymie Anisman, a neuroscientist at Carleton University and one of the study's co-authors. "But now, we can at least point to something and say, 'See, this is what nature does.'"

Mr. Anisman and his research partners at the University of Western Ontario and the University of Ottawa analyzed brain tissue taken from 20 people who had a known depressive disorder when they killed themselves and from 20 others who had died suddenly from other causes, such as a heart attack.

They found that in the suicide group, the genes that convert important information into chemical activity in brain cells were altered by a process called methylation, which is normally involved in regulating cell growth.

"What we basically found was that certain genes were, in fact, shut down in the suicide brain," said Mr. Anisman.

Full story here: http://www.canada.com/components/print.aspx?id=99923556-36fc-4be2-8e0f-906a9cc3d706&sponsor=

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