5:59 v originále: Top US scientist on serotonin, anxiety and depression

An estimated 5 percent of adults suffer globally from depression. In the post pandemic world, many countries are struggling with mental health crises, with depression, anxiety and stress on the rise. Scientists are striving to find and identify treatments for brain disorders, yet they still have many questions regarding the onset of mental illnesses. Professor of psychiatry, chemistry and biochemistry Anne M. Andrews in 5:59 podcast on her research of the connection between serotonin level in the brain and anxiety, stress and depression.

The Covid pandemic has disrupted the lives of societies for many months. Shortly thereafter, the Russian invasion of Ukraine followed, bringing the fear of a major war back to Europe. These were two stress-filled events for both their direct and indirect participants. They are also events that experts believe contribute to the number of depressions among people.

Listen to the full interview with Anne M. Andrews for the 5:59 podcast in the English version:

Rozhovor s českým dabingem si můžete poslechnout zde.

„The systems that we have in our bodies to respond to stress are actually quite good. They're quite responsive. But from an evolutionary standard they were designed to respond mostly to physical types of stress or short lived stresses. (…) We're now taxing this evolutionary system in a way that it maybe wasn't designed and hasn't been able to evolve fast enough to catch up,“ says Professor of Psychiatry, Chemistry, and Biochemistry Anne M. Andrews from the University of California, Los Angeles, referring specifically to the war and the pandemic.

In an interview for the 5:59 podcast, she points out that many stressors we experience today can be of psychological nature, they can be persistent and chronic. „And so when we activate this fight or flight or stress system in a chronic way, we never give it time to recover. We don't have a lot of physical outlet to try to reduce these hormone levels. Then those elevated hormone levels can begin to damage our bodies and our brains,“ explains the scientist.

According to Andrews - who spoke at the Brain Awareness Week in Prague this week, organized by the Czech Academy of Sciences - there is a growing need to seek treatment for depression and other mental illnesses: „It's becoming even more important than it was in the past for sure.“

Sensors to uncover more about serotonin

For years, scientists researching depression have focused on neurotransmitters, chemical substances that transmit signals between neurons. Particularly notable among these is serotonin, a neurotransmitter that has been long thought to cause depression once its levels dropped to low. In 2022 a new scientific review concluded, however, that there is „no clear evidence“ that low serotonin levels cause depression.

Anne M. Andrews agrees that simplifying this relationship is not possible. „I still think there's a strong connection between the serotonin system and depression and anxiety, both in terms of what we think of as the psychiatric disorders and in terms of normal behavior. But those connections and what's really happening is not very clear to us,“ points out the scientist.

She and her team are working on the design of new tools for neuroscience and are engaged in development of sensors for neurotransmitters.

„What we've been trying to do most recently, is to develop tools that will allow us to study serotonin signaling with high resolution. This is what we've been lacking and that's really why we don't understand what's happening with the system,“ explains professor Andrews.

Her team is developing brain implants, currently utilized in laboratory animals, as well as sensors that could be worn directly on the body. According to professor Andrews these sensors could be used also for other signaling molecules in the body, such as cortisol, the main stress hormone.

How exactly would newly designed sensors work? What sort of data could they collect? And how much do we actually know about the brain and its systems? Where is the latest science headed in its efforts to bring effective treatment to brain disorders? Listen to the audio at the top of the article.