Adolescent stress can become severe adult mental illness

Adolescent stress can develop into a severe mental illness due to the effect it can have on brain development.

In their experiments on mice, Johns Hopkins University researchers established a link between stress hormone and genetic changes.

The findings are reported in the journal Science. They deal with both the prevention and the treatment of schizophrenia, severe depression and other illnesses.

Stress hinders mental function in the brain. Psychiatric illness might be caused by it as well, said lead researcher Akira Sawa, M.D., Ph.D., a professor of psychiatry and behavioral sciences at the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine.

Sawa simulated social isolation. Two groups of mice were used. Both of those were going through the equivalent of human adolescence.

Healthy mice isolated from other mice for three weeks had no effect on their behavior.

Then he did the same with other mice known to have a genetic predisposition to mental illness.

They exhibited behaviors associated with mental illness, such as hyperactivity. They also failed to swim when put in a pool. It is an indirect correlation of human depression.

When the isolated mice with genetic risk factors returned to other mice, they continued to exhibit abnormal behaviors.

This suggests the effects of isolation lasted into the equivalent of adulthood.