
Predicting whether individuals are at an increased risk for depression or anxiety after stressful events can be done from a brain region that was newly discovered by a team of researchers.
The study conducted at Duke University reports a correlation between how a college student's brain responds to photos of angry or fearful faces and their ability to recover from breakups or financial emergencies months or years in the future.
Dr. Johnna Swartz, a psychology and neuroscience postdoctoral associate at Duke University, said that they found that stronger responses of the amygdala predict greater symptoms of depression and anxiety in response to stress as much as 1 to 4 years in the future.
Cognitive neuroscientist and senior author Dr. Ahmad Hariri, said that it is clear that treating mental illness is generally ineffective and, as with other branches of medicine, that the best strategy is to prevent illness in the first place and their findings contribute to ongoing efforts to develop strategies for preventing mental illness by identifying a measure of brain function that distinguishes those at greatest risk before they become ill.
The study is published in the Cell Press journal Neuron.
Source: ANI
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