Could Anxiety Levels Be Determined By a Brain Molecule?

Much of mental health, including anxiety disorders, is greatly influenced by various genetic components in the brain.

A recent study conducted by researchers at Rockefeller University in New York City found that stress is oftentimes explained by excessive mental damages.

For the study, researchers studied mice exposed to unpredictable periods of cage tilting, altered by dark-light cycles, confinement in tight spaces and other stressful conditions.

Next, the researchers tested to the mice for signs of anxiety and depression. Findings revealed that close to 40 percent exhibited higher levels of certain behaviors, such as preferring darker spaces or losing interest in sugar water. Yet another 60 percent of the mice coped well with stress, revealing that the difference between stressed and resilient mice was evident even before they were exposed to added hardships.

Further analysis also revealed that highly stress-susceptible mice carried less of the mGlu2 molecule in their hippocampus--a compound that's often found in a stress-related region of the brain. Furthermore, they discovered that lower levels of mGlu2 were produced by epigenetic changes that affect the expression of genes.

"The brain is constantly changing. When stressful experiences lead to anxiety and depressive disorders the brain becomes locked in a state it cannot spontaneously escape," the study authors concluded, in a news release. "Studies like this one are increasingly focusing on the regulation of glutamate as an underlying mechanism in depression and, we hope, opening promising new avenues for the diagnosis and treatment of this devastating disorder."

More information regarding the findings can be seen via the journal Molecular Psychiatry.