This is a very promising result, which suggests that it may be possible to treat patients safely and effectively for high risk and challenging impulsive behaviours.
- Laura Hughes
Around 16,000 people in the UK are estimated to be affected by frontotemporal dementia (also known as Pick’s disease). Patients are often affected at a young age, 50-65 years old. The disease affects the frontal and temporal lobes of the brain, at the front with both shrinkage and loss of important brain chemicals like serotonin. As a result, symptoms of frontotemporal dementia include changes in personality and behaviour, and difficulties with language.
One of the key symptoms is disinhibition – impulsivity and impetuous behaviour. This is partly a result of a deficiency in serotonin, an important chemical within the brain which is responsible for maintaining normal behaviour as well as mood.
A team led by Dr James Rowe from the University of Cambridge and the Medical Research Council (MRC) Cognition and Brain Sciences Unit at Cambridge looked at whether citalopram, a commonly-prescribed antidepressant, might restore the brain function – and potentially alleviate the symptoms of disinhibition. Citalopram is known to restore levels of serotonin, even in patients who do not have depression; this increase in serotonin helps the brain activity needed make decisions about what to do, and what not to do.
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Image:Brain coral
Credit: NOAA's National Ocean Service
Reproduced courtesy of the University of Cambridge
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