The dystopian novel Brave New World by Aldous Huxley, written in 1931, talks about pills (drugs) "soma" that change a person's mood and act as modern antidepressants. Two decades after the book was published, scientists began developing real antidepressants. But why are these drugs really effective? What effect do they have on the human brain?
How antidepressants appeared
For the first time, the connection between depression and brain function was discovered by scientists only in 1951. A New York City medical team found unexpected changes in the mood and behavior of tuberculosis patients after they were given a drug called iproniazide. People who were in severe pain suddenly became happy.
Scientists quickly realized that there was a link between depression and brain function, and they developed drugs to help manage depression and apathy. Since then, millions of Americans have become addicted to antidepressants. For example, one of the most popular, released for sale in 1998, is Prozac.
How antidepressants work
To find out exactly what effect these drugs have on the human brain, scientists from Yale and Manchester Universities decided to study how antidepressants change connections between different regions of the brain. According to scientists, antidepressants should strengthen connections in the area responsible for attention and emotions, and weaken those in the area that is responsible for clinical depression, apathy and "self-absorption."
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To test their hypothesis, the researchers conducted an experiment. They reviewed the MRI data of depressed patients one week after starting antidepressants. Then, using machine learning, the connections of the whole brain were analyzed, as well as the connections of specific areas of the cortex and subcortical structures with each other.
Indeed, as soon as patients took antidepressants with serotonin for the first time, the drug strengthened the connections between the brain networks responsible for attention. At the same time, he weakened the connections between the areas of passive work of the brain. In the case of placebo, this effect was not achieved. Interestingly, changes in bonding were observed even before the patients' mood improved.
The weakening of ties is shown in blue, red - gain.
According to experts, since the processes in the brain begin to occur before the therapeutic effect of antidepressants appears, MRI can help determine whether a particular drug works to suppress depression in a particular person. Scientists plan to investigate the work of popular antidepressants, since it is with the help of a picture of brain connections that you can find out whether they are really effective.
Decades of research have shown that there is a link between serotonin and autism. About 10 years ago, this led scientists to test antidepressants that increase serotonin levels by blocking its spread in neurons as a possible cure for autism. However, in several studies, antidepressants like fluoxetine (Prozac) have been shown to be ineffective in reducing the manifestations of autism.
Alexander Bogdanov