Some People Born In The Pessimistic Indeed

It sounds pathetic, but it seems some of us who are born as a pessimistic person.

People who are genetically easier to produce brain chemicals that control appetite and stress in small amounts, have a greater risk of having major depression, the researchers said.

Molecules of a substance called neuropeptide Y (NPY) regulates brain responses to negative stimuli and responses to pain.

According to researchers from the University of Michigan, these findings could be the initial diagnosis to overcome depress and other psychiatric illnesses.

"We have identified a biological marker-in this case, genetic variation associated with the high cases of depression, says Jon-Kar Zubieta, a member of the research team.

The study, published in the journal Archives of General Psychiatry is using three methods. First, the researchers classified the subject of volunteers into three categories based on its NPY expression: low, medium, and high. Then, using magnetic resonance imaging instrument (MRI), brains of volunteers who presented at several different words, there is a significant neutral (such things), there is a negative (suicide), and there is a positive (hope)-were analyzed.

As a result, a group of volunteers with low NPY showed increased activity of the prefrontal cortex (the part relating to the emotions), while the group with high NPY showed milder response.

The second experiment is to provide a sense of pain for 20 minutes, using saline solution injected into the muscles of the jaw volunteers. The result is the same: low NPY group is very affected emotionally before and after the pain.

Brian Mickey, chairman of the research team hope that this genetic marker "can be used as a foothold to overcome the risk of depression."

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