A staggering 10 percent of people living in the united states use antidepressants, putting a large demographic of the population at risk of many side effects during early treatment. In fact antidepressants like serotonin have been shown to actually cause an increase in anxiety and depression, potentially leading to suicidal thoughts and actions. This terrifying fact has lead many patients to stop treatment all together, often times before they are able to begin to reap the benefits of the drug that could have greatly improved their quality of life.
In an effort to understand why this happens, scientists from the University of North Carolina have taken to studying the effects of serotonin in mice. Their findings have shown that when serotonin is sent through certain pathways of the mice's brain it lowers anxiety as intended, but in the process of getting to the target region, it ends up activating a region of the brain associated with depression (resulting in similar side effects to those seen in humans). When the researchers added a compound to block the activity in that region, fear and anxiety previously observed in the mice was greatly reduced.
However, when it came to the human brain, the results were far less promising. Pharmaceutical companies had long looked towards these types of blockers to treat anxiety and depression related conditions, but to little effect. Still, researches hope to find an alternative to these blockers (preferably in already FDA approved drugs) that can help prevent new patients just starting their treatments from going though these side effects.
Research like this shows us yet another example of the importance of animal testing within the field of medicine, to which the countless life saving advancements in cancer treatment and oncology of the last thirty years can be attributed. While the morality of animal testing can be (and is) debated, the number of human lives that have been saved as a result, cannot.
http://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/312537.php?
This is a tough subject. This personally hits me hard and I really enjoyed reading your opinion on the matter.
ReplyDeleteI definitely agree that it is very hard for people struggling with mental illness to find a treatment plan that works for them especially considering the stigma and cost that comes along with mental health issues. I also completely see how much animal testing has done for our medical advancements, but as we advance our medicine I think we should also be searching for new, more ethical and efficient manners of testing medicine. Very interesting read.
ReplyDelete-Linnea Soderlund
This was a very interesting piece with information I had never heard before. It's really got me thinking.
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