Better understanding of the pathways between the gut and the brain could lead to more effective treatments for both mood and gastrointestinal (GI) disorders.
Researchers experimented in mice to better map those pathways, including a nerve that serves as a highway for serotonin — a chemical that plays a key role in depression and anxiety. The experiments indicated that aiming medication for depression and anxiety toward the gut may prove more effective than the current approach of targeting the brain, according to a report in Gastroenterology.
“Right now those drugs are developed to go to the brain,” says Mark Ansorge, a Columbia University neuroscientist and co-author of the study. “It was always thought that, because brain controls the behavior, that’s where they act.”
