ANTIDEPRESSANTS GROW NEW BRAIN CELLS

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Antidepressants may help stimulate the growth of new brain cells, U.S.-based scientists said on Thursday in releasing research that may lead to the development of better drugs to fight depression.

Research on rats shows that two different classes of antidepressants can help brain cells regenerate -- and not in areas normally thought of as being involved in depression...

The study fits in with others that suggest depression can shrink the hippocampus, a brain region crucial to learning and memory but only recently found to be involved in depression. Major stress and trauma -- both depression triggers -- can also cause the shrinkage...

New antidepressants may be developed to target this process directly, said Rene Hen of Columbia University in New York, who led the study.

"The proof in humans is going to come when we extend the work into finding drugs that stimulate neurogenesis. If these drugs have antidepressant effects in humans, this is going to be proof that the process is critical in humans," Hen said in a telephone interview.

"There is a push already in the pharmaceutical industry to find such compounds." (full story)

This is good news. Only around a century ago was mental illness akin to witchcraft.

On the lighter side, would this mean that depressed people who drink are breaking even?