Stress, antidepressant link found

LOS ANGELES, Dec 17, 2004 (United Press International via COMTEX) -- Scientists studying depression say they have found a link between how well someone handles stress and how much good antidepressants do.

Psychiatrists have long known that about half the people found to be suffering from depression also show signs of elevated anxiety and researchers have been trying to explain the correlation.

In the new study, published in the journal Molecular Psychiatry, doctors from Harvard and UCLA treated with drugs a group of 54 Mexican-Americans in Los Angeles who were both depressed and highly anxious.

They found that 60 percent of the group had a common genetic variant that helps govern the body's response to stress.

The researchers found that after being treated with antidepressants, patients with the genetic variation were far less anxious and depressed than when they began the study, said the lead author, Dr. Julio Licinio of the Neuropsychiatric Institute of the University of California.

Copyright 2004 by United Press International.

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