Of mice and men - and depression

From our More Brain Science series.

We saw an article about a study of depression in mice in Der Spiegel and went to the source. They talk of an astonishing new approach. We found the use of astonishing astonishing.

Science magazine says in its abstract: increasing the hyperactivity of VTA DA neurons in susceptible mice completely reversed depression-related behaviors, an antidepressant effect.

For normal folks: depression seems to be characterized by a higher then normal activity of neurons (leading to a lower level of neuro transmitters) and damping this activity through meds (thus increasing the transmitters) is standard treatment. The researchers went the opposite way in mice and over-stimulated the neurons. The effect, a bit of a paradox, was that the majority of mice became less depressive.

This is great, but....

The mice we've met in our lives do not seem to get suicidal. Humans do, and they tend to act on it in the most, well, depressing and fatal ways. 

Over-stimulation has been around for a while, with old electroshock therapy the most prominent form.

The Adderall approach to treatment of ADD or ADHD looks to us like chemical over-stimulation.

We'll see if it works, and we know what too much over-stimulation does. So keep dangerous objects out of reach of the mice, and good luck.