Study finds brain chemical linked to grief
By Michael Kahn Wed Oct 15, 11:36 AM ET
LONDON (Reuters) - Scientists have pinpointed a key brain chemical involved in dealing with the sudden loss or long-term separation of a partner, they said Wednesday.
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The finding in a type of rodent called a prairie vole could lead to potential treatments for people suffering severe depression-like symptoms after losing a partner, Oliver Bosch of the University of Regensburg in Germany and his colleagues said.
"Here we have a change in the activity in a part of the brain linked to behaviors such as anxiety and depression," Bosch said in a telephone interview. "This could mimic what you find in humans after an unplanned separation or loss."
The team, which also included researchers from Emory University in Atlanta, studied prairie voles because, unlike 95 percent of all mammals, the furry creatures form long-lasting bonds with their mates.
Other studies have linked losing a partner to increased risk of depression and disease but Bosch and colleagues wanted to find a biological explanation for why this might be so.
In their study, they separated groups of voles from either their mates or siblings and left the remaining ones together to gauge the response of the animals.
The separated voles all showed higher anxiety levels but only ones that had lost a mate exhibited signs of depression, the researchers reported in the journal Neuropsychopharmacology.
Further tests demonstrated that a brain chemical known as "corticotropin releasing factor," a neurotransmitter involved in the stress response, was elevated in all the voles which had bonded with a partner.
Voles given a compound which blocks the chemical from signaling in the brain showed no evidence of these symptoms, suggesting that drugs could do the same in people struggling to overcome the loss of somebody close, Bosch added.
"It might be possible to potentially ease this bereavement and in the future use these blockers to treat patients that are really suffering from losing a partner," he said.
(Reporting by Michael Kahn; Editing by Will Dunham and Opheera McDoom)
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MLynn said
It sure would be great to have a "real" medication to ease the at-random anxiety attacks and dislexia I've been experiencing since late February. I even have anxiety attacks in my sleep.
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deity said
There are natural remedies to help- melatonin is a hormone you can get for less than $5 at most discount stores, (target, walmart), which will help calm nerves, and help you get sleep.
There's also something that I've been very successful with- Mind/Body therapy. Based on Neuro-linguistic programming, you start to ask your body questions as to why it's responding the way it does in situations. For instance- If you get IBS attacks, (which is how I learned about this), and you get panic attacks, sit quietly someplace...
Ask yourself, "What triggered this reaction?" Then when you get an answer...and most of us with logic will get something, "I saw someone who looked like my late friend/lover/etc, and it brought a flood of emotions." Then ask yourself, "what emotions?"
Then, respond as best you can, in this instance, I'll say, "fear of being alone".
"What does it mean to be alone?"
"It means I can't talk to ---"
"What would you say if you could talk to ---"
"I would tell him/her how much I loved and cared."
"How would he/she respond?"
"S/he would tell me to stop worrying so much about things, and get through it"..
Ask yourself as many questions as it will take to get you to a place of calm...
As you're asking these questions, Take a BIG breath in, and as you respond, a BIG breath out.
Harvard Medical School and the Deaconess Hospital in Boston both use this type of rational speaking to help patients get through chemotherapy, pain management and yes, in my case, IBS.... and it's a process of turning irrational response into rational thought. When you are sure of your surroundings, and your ability to "talk yourself down" as it were, you start to feel a sense of control, and a sense of self again.
There are books on this, and I've recommended them here before. The Mind/Body Response is on Amazon, and you can get the tape version- which is VERY soothing to listen to.. and it helps. Some places even offer these as part of grief therapy- Ironically, Atheists can use Family Services in most cities, to find these at United Way funded therapists. United Way is considered a "church" based charity, but they allow ALL people to use their services because they are partially funded by governmental programs.
Never let lack of money prevent you from seeing a professional who can help you get through rough patches. It's illegal for hospitals to turn people away if they have no ability to pay- as Bush pointed out- and most publicly funded services are available to ALL of us- Atheist or not. You may need a prescription anti-depressant, or anxiety med- and NOTHING is wrong with asking for this. NOTHING. It's your right to be of sound mind and body, so never be afraid to ask for that right to be upheld.
We all have deserved and earned our pursuit of happiness.
deity
