Can science solve mental health problems?
According to the Lancet report, One Billion people worldwide are living with a Mental Health Condition. This translates to one in eight people globally. The report also says that one in seven people aged 10 to 19 years are living with a mental health condition, which is really disturbing. People living with the mental health condition experience a double threat. One of the threats is the impact of the mental health condition, and the other revolves around the damaging social consequences of stigma and discrimination.
Though a large proportion of people worldwide experience mental health conditions, science’s role in understanding and alleviating mental health issues seems unclear to many. According to Wellcome Global Monitor study, less than one-third said science can explain a lot about how feelings and emotions work (27%) or can do a lot to help treat anxiety or depression (31%).
But then new research shows our genes influence the way our brains communicate making some of us more vulnerable to a range of mental health conditions in later life.
Mental health and Neurochemicals
Many researchers who study the brain believe that the development of most mental disorders is caused, at least in part, by an imbalance of chemicals within the brain, or neurochemicals.
Adrenaline/ Epinephrine – Too much of this hormone can lead to chronic stress, difficulty concentrating, dizziness, and fatigue, as well as anxiety and anxiety disorders.
Dopamine – Dopamine is a neurotransmitter that helps control the brain’s reward centers. Too much may be related to attention disorders, autism, mood swings, and psychosis, a symptom commonly associated with schizophrenia.
Norepinephrine – Norepinephrine is a hormone that helps mobilize the brain and body for action. Too little of this hormone may be related to a lack of energy or focus, symptoms commonly associated with attention disorders and depression. Too much may be related to anxiety, hyperactivity, and stress.
Serotonin – Serotonin is a neurotransmitter that helps regulate mood and social behavior, appetite and digestion, sleep, memory, and sexual desire and function. Too little of this neurotransmitter may be related to fluctuating hormones, high stress, and insufficient nutrients. Too much may be related to anxiety and anxiety disorders, depression, and obsessive actions and thoughts, a symptom commonly associated with obsessive-compulsive disorder, or OCD.
Can you Inherit a Mental health illness?
Studies looking at the connections between genetics and mental illness are ongoing. Researchers suggest that mental illness is most probably caused by a combination of genetic and environmental components, especially bipolar disorder, schizophrenia, attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) and depression — which are more closely tied to genetics than other disorders. Several genetic factors are found across all four of these disorders, including CACNA1C and CACNB2 (genes that regulate the activity of calcium on neurons). Besides these, researchers found that people with all four disorders had variations in chromosomes 3 and 10, though it’s still unclear how these genetic variations influence disease progression.
What Other Factors leads to Mental Illness?
There are many risk factors and triggers in addition to genetic factors and neurochemicals like
Environment: Living in a stressful environment can make you more likely to develop a mental illness. Things like living in poverty or having an abusive family put a lot of stress on your brain and often trigger mental illness.
Childhood trauma: Even if you’re no longer in a stressful environment, things that happened to you as a child can have an impact later in life.
Stressful events: Like losing a loved one, or being in a car accident.
Negative thoughts: Constantly putting yourself down or expecting the worst can get you stuck in a cycle of depression or anxiety.
Unhealthy habits: Like not getting enough sleep, or not eating.
Drugs and alcohol: Abusing drugs and alcohol can trigger a mental illness. It can also make it harder to recover from mental illness.
Mental health and research
With a better understanding of the genetics of mental illness, clinicians and researchers will be better equipped to develop new treatments for Mental illness. The EU Commission has granted £8.4m for Youth-GEMS, the largest ever study to identify genetic and other risks affecting mental health in adolescence.
To uncover the genetic factors driving mental illness, the Broad Institute of MIT and Harvard have partnered with collaborators around the world to launch Stanley Global, an initiative that seeks to collect a more diverse range of genetic samples from beyond the US and Northern Europe and train the next generation of researchers around the world.
Hope this research and studies would lead to drugs that could cure depression, anxiety, and other ailments. Till then let’s support our friends and relatives struggling with mental health problems by being there for them all the time they need.
