Fear, Anxiety, Depression: One Puzzle Piece

Current therapies for depression and anxiety disorders are less than perfect. When the potential for new and effective therapies for mental health disorders appear, it is cause for hope and scrutiny. Acid Sensing Ion Channel protein (ASIC1a) plays a key role in the experiencing of fear, prolonged anxiety, and depression. Researchers in Iowa have studied this protein for over two years, and earlier demonstrated that disrupting ASIC1a blunts the "fear response" of mice. Now, the Iowa researchers have demonstrated an anti-depressant effect in mice by blocking the ASIC1a protein.

The UI research team found that disrupting ASIC1a -- an ion channel protein found in the brain -- produced an antidepressant-like effect in mice. The effect was similar to that produced by currently available antidepressant drugs, but the team also showed that ASIC1a's effect arose through a new and different biological mechanism. _PO

This approach to the study of anxiety and depression promises to bring about entirely new therapies for these disorders. Several years are likely to pass before ASIC1a-based treatments are on the market, but given the growing costs of mood and anxiety disorders to health care systems around the world, useful leads for researchers to follow can only help.

In the meantime, large numbers of pharmacological and non-pharmacological treatments for anxiety and depression are available.