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30 August 2008 04:17 BST

Adolescent mood hormone found

Monday, 12 Mar 2007 12:33
Teenagers' bad moods could be all down to one hormone

Health In Focus 

Mood swings during the troubled years of adolescence could be down to a specific hormone in the brain, US scientists have discovered.

Researchers from New York State University's medical centre believe that their discovery is potentially the first to identify the cause of teenage angst.

They found that THP, a hormone normally released in response to stress, reverses its effect during puberty and instead increases anxiety.

Writing in the journal Nature, the team describes how THP usually acts as a tranquiliser in parts of the brain that 'calm' brain activity, known as Gaba A receptors. These receptors are the targets for sedative drugs.

In adults this helps them to cope with stress, taking effect about half an hour after a stressful event.

But in tests on adolescent mice, THP was found to dramatically increase part of the Gaba A receptors in the section of the brain that regulates emotion. This produced a state of increased anxiety in brain activity.

In further tests the researchers found the site of the human Gaba A receptor that produced the anxiety response and were able to change it to prevent the newly-identified effect of THP.

Future studies are now needed to determine whether THP has the same effect on Gaba receptors and anxiety in humans.
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