Clues to who will beat the blues

Discusses the biological clues which will provide information of who will benefit from antidepressant drugs according to a research conducted by Texas Health Science Center. Significance of their study; Implications.

By Peter Doskoch, published on July 01, 1997

Some brains simply don't listen to Prozac--or to Zoloft, Paxil, or othercommon antidepressants. In fact. about one in four depressed individuals fails to improve when given medication. Trouble is, there's no way to predict who these unlucky folks are.

But researchers at the University of Texas Health Science Center at San Antonio report that a part of the brain called the cingulate gyrus may provide the first biological clue as to who will benefit from antidepressant drugs. Neurologist Helen Mayberg, M.D., and colleagues used PET scans to measure activity levels in the brains of depressed patients who were about to receive medication for six weeks. In patients who later failed to benefit from the drugs, researchers found, the cingulate was unusually quiet. But among those who did improve, the cingulate was actually more animated than it was in nondepressed individuals.

The finding doesn't mean that an overly active or subdued cingulate causes depression; a revved-up cingulate may simply be trying to compensate for problems elsewhere in the brain. In any event, depressed people shouldn't go running out for PET scans just yet. "We're not at a point where diagnostic tests will change the way we treat patients," says Mayberg. Eventually, however, such tests may tell doctors who is likely to overcome depression with a simple course of drugs or therapy--and who will need intense supervision or hospitalization.

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