Word: serotonin
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...families to regard food as medicine, and caregivers are instructed to use rewards and positive pressure to restore patients' weight. Use of the car and access to other activities desired by teens are offered as incentives for regularly completing meals, for example. Antidepressant medications, like Prozac, which affect serotonin levels and reduce obsessive thinking among anorexics, may later be prescribed, but not until patients have reached a healthy weight - without enough nutrients in the brain, medications can't work. (See the most common hospital mishaps...
...study published on June 16 in the Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA) now threatens to send researchers back to the drawing board. The meta-analysis of 14 prior studies concludes that the so-called depression gene - a variant of a serotonin-transporter gene called 5-HTTLPR - may not be associated with an elevated risk for depression, as many researchers had believed. "Knowing whether or not you have this gene is irrelevant," says the study's co-author Kathleen Merikangas, a genetic epidemiologist at the National Institute of Mental Health, who adds that future studies of genetic risk factors...
...JAMA study, which reviewed 14 studies involving 14,250 participants on the interaction between the serotonin-transporter gene and stressful life events, found no such association with depression risk. The study goes on to caution that any potential use of 5-HTTLPR as a screening tool for depression risk would be invalid. Currently, no such test exists, although several genetic-testing companies, including 23andME and Navigenics, do use genetic markers to tell customers which antidepressant drugs they are more likely to respond...
Since the early 1990s, science has suggested a link between antisocial behavior and a defect in the gene that codes for an enzyme called monoamine oxidase A (MAO-A). A low level of activity on the MAO-A gene results in an excessive breakdown of neurotransmitters, such as serotonin, which helps keep humans calm and happy. The defect thereby increases the urge to react aggressively to threats or fears, leading MAO-A to be referred to as the "warrior" gene. (See 20 ways to get and stay happy...
...conclusion I came to looking at all of this is that it's okay to believe and it's okay not to believe. The science is pretty agnostic about the issue. You can look, for instance, at evidence researchers at Johns Hopkins University have found about serotonin receptors sparking mystical experiences and say that it's all brain chemistry. Or you can look at that and say that it's amazing that we are so intricately wired that we have a serotonin receptor that allows us to connect with the divine. It really is a matter of belief...