The healing power of psychedelics
Science is one step closer to reverse the damage of chronic stress
Stress is inevitable and suffering is universal, but victimhood is optional. The choice is yours, says Dr.Eger, who survived a concentration camp during World War II and reflected on life in her book. However, it is not easy to change the brain by using the brain itself. Stress causes maladaptive plasticity within the brain’s reward circuit. The mood and anxiety disorders affect one out of every six people in their lifetime and cost the United States economy an excess of $50 billion per year.
The recent good news stemmed from new studies attempting to tune the brain’s plasticity back to normal and undoing the damaging effects of a stressful life. By undoing the harm of the stress on brain signaling and functioning, the symptoms of anhedonia (inability to feel pleasure) and social avoidance (prevalent in depressed individuals) may resolve.
Learning from animal studies
First, to understand and measure chronic stress, scientists introduced an animal model of social defeat stress. The protocol is simple, and it takes 3–4 weeks and a couple of mice to complete. You need at least two mice — one is repeatedly subjected to bouts of social defeat by a larger aggressive mouse. After a while…
