12/04/2010
Overcoming anxiety with hypnotherapy could help fight symptoms of depression and stress
by William Hobson
New research has established that anxiety and depression are linked by more than just mental association but by a biological one as well.
The Montreal Gazette reports that researchers in Canada have found a cellular link between anxiety and depression in the brain. The researchers hope that their findings will help provide a better way to treat depression, a problem experienced across the world and which affects as much as 20% of the Commonwealth country's population.
Published in the journal Nature Neuroscience this month, the study from the University of Western Ontario reveal that overcoming anxiety can have a biological impact on the neurotransmitters typically targeted by anti-depressants.
Although the doctors involved in the study have focused upon the use of pharmaceuticals in treating depression through overcoming anxiety, the link could also be significant in hypnotherapy and other NLP or cognitive behavioural treatments that target both mental conditions.
"We hadn't known the mechanism by which these two things were physically related," said Stephen Ferguson, a researcher involved in the study. "Basically, what we're finding is that there's talk between these two receptor systems in the brain and that if you activate the one receptor the other becomes sensitised."
The study took five years to complete and investigated different neurotransmitters using mice as test subjects. Another researcher involved in the study, professor Hymie Anisman of Carleton University, said that anxiety is often either a precursor to depression or can make it worse. He added that depression medication is only successful for about 60% of patients, whilst many others can find it ineffective.
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