Washington, July 21 (Inditop.com) Some combination of biological and psychological factors was thought to be responsible for why placebos, sugar pills designed to gauge the effectiveness of the actual medication, work for some people and not for others. Now researchers have found a new explanation – genetics.
Andrew Leuchter, psychiatry professor at the University of California Los Angeles (UCLA), and colleagues report that in people suffering from major depressive disorder, or MDD, genes may modulate the response to placebos.
Placebos are thought to act by stimulating the brain’s central reward pathways by releasing a class of neuro-transmitters called monoamines, specifically dopamine and norepinephrine. These are the brain chemicals that make us “feel good.”
Because the chemical signalling done by monoamines is under strong genetic control, scientists reasoned that common genetic variations between individuals could influence the placebo response.
Researchers based their study on blood samples from 84 people diagnosed with MDD; 32 were given medication and 52 a placebo.
The research is slated to appear in the August edition of the Journal of Clinical Psychopharmacology.
