Safety Can be Learned - and Helps Combat Depression

Monday, December 15, 2008 - 15:07 in Health & Medicine

(PhysOrg.com) -- Learning a feeling of safety activates cellular and molecular processes that act against depression. This has been analysed using a new animal model that helps examine and explain the relevant cell biology processes more effectively. The findings now published in the journal Neuron show that "learned safety" can have an anti-depressive effect comparable to pharmacological antidepressants but that this effect is controlled by other molecular processes. The project supported by the Austrian Science Fund FWF was carried out by the Howard Hughes Medical Institute at Columbia University in the U.S.

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