Compounds found in grapes, dark chocolate, coffee, and blueberries can be used to treat depression
Two compounds found in red wine, dark chocolate, coffee, grapes, and blueberries can be used to treat depression, according to a study published by Neuroscience Assistant Professor Georgia Hodes.
“Our hope is that we can develop a new treatment for depression that directly modifies physiological targets we know are altered in depressive patients and by animal models,” Hodes said. “All current treatments for depression were discovered by chance. They were testing them for other purposes and found out that they made people feel better. Here we are creating a new treatment that is based on what we know goes wrong in humans and animal models in both the brain and the body.”
“This is a new way of thinking about treating depression,” Hodes said. “The compound we developed works by targeting inflammation in the body and plasticity in the brain. We took this approach because these are factors that we know are altered by depression in humans. This is one of the first compounds that was developed to directly alter identified molecular mechanisms of depression.”
