Depression alters brain’s ‘wiring’, say researchers

DEPRESSION changes the way people’s brains are ‘wired’, Scots researchers have discovered.

Their study, which could help in the development of new drugs to treat the condition, involved more than 3,000 participants.

Using hi-tech brain scans, scientists at the universities of Edinburgh and Glasgow discovered changes in white matter – which enables brain cells to communicate using electrical signals – among subjects with depression.

This is a key component of the brain’s functions and its disruption has been linked to problems with emotion processing and thinking skills.

Depression affects around one in five Britons at some time in their life. Globally, there are around 350million sufferers.

Symptoms include low mood, exhaustion and melancholy.

Researcher Dr Heather Whalley, of the University of Edinburgh, said: ‘This study uses data from the largest single sample published to date, and shows that people with depression have changes in the white matter wiring of their brain.

‘There is an urgent need to provide treatment for depression and an improved understanding of its mechanisms will give us a better chance of developing new and more effective methods of treatment.

‘Our next steps will be to look at how the absence of changes in the brain relates to better protection from distress and low mood.’

‘New methods of treatment’