Nurture can beat nature when it comes to depression. A new psychotherapy study conducted by researchers at Northwestern University revealed that a month-long trip to rat "Disneyland" beats depression in rodents genetically bred for despair.
Researchers said the latest findings are important because it highlights the importance of environment in the nature vs. nurture debate of alleviating symptoms of individuals predisposed to depression.
"The environment can modify a genetic predisposition to depression," said Eva Redei, the lead researcher and professor of psychiatry and behavioral sciences at Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine.
"If someone has a strong history of depression in her family and is afraid she or her future children will develop depression, our study is reassuring," added Redei. "It suggests that even with a high predisposition for depression, psychotherapy or behavioral activation therapy can alleviate it."
For the study, researchers used rats that were bred for depression-like behavior for 33 generations. Researchers noted that all the rats exhibited extreme despair. Previous depression studies on blood biomarkers showed that the genetic rat model of depression was biologically similar to human depression.
In the experiment, researchers wanted to see if they could alter the rats' genetically-caused depression with "rat psychotherapy," which involved placing the rodents in large cages with lots of toys to chew on and places for them to hide and climb. Researchers noted that the rats were kept in this rat "Disneyland" for a month.
"We called it rat psychotherapy because the enrichment allows them to engage with the environment and each other more," explained Redei.
A month later, the rats were taken out of the "Disneyland" and placed in a tank of water, which was supposed to measure depression symptoms. Previous studies showed that healthy, control rats swam around to look for ways to escape, but depressed rats just floated hopelessly.
According to study results, going to "Disneyland" seemed to give hope to genetically-depressed rats. Instead of floating, genetically-depressed rats who received psychotherapy energetically swam around the tank looking for ways to escape.
"You don't have people who are completely genetically predisposed to depression the way the rats were," said Redei. "If you can modify depression in these rats, you most certainly should be able to do it in humans."
The latest findings were published in the journal Translational Psychiatry.
