GERBILS separated from their mates show the same symptoms as depressed
divorcees, researchers at the University of Leeds claim. They believe the
rodents could provide useful models for studying the biochemistry of human
depression.
The team found that gerbils, especially females, became socially withdrawn
and had altered sleep patterns when their lifelong partners were taken away.
According to Nicola Starkey, the lead researcher, they became active when the
other gerbils were sleeping and tended to sleep when they were active. 鈥淭he
degree of sleep disturbance was quite severe,鈥� she says. She presented the
findings this month at an international conference on psychopharmacology in
M茅ribel, France.
The researchers believe that, given the difficulty of studying brain
biochemistry in living humans, and the ethical opposition to studying it in
primates, gerbils would make suitable models. Starkey says that gerbils are
鈥渞emarkably similar鈥� to humans in that they form lifelong partnerships. She
claims that by observing the chemical changes which accompany symptoms in
separated gerbils, scientists could identify new targets for drug intervention
in depressed human patients.
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