A team of international scientists announced this week that it has found that embryonic stem cells may have potential use in the treatment of psychological disorders. The experiments conducted rodents showed that stem cells may offer a cure disorders such as depression, and potentially schizophrenia. Investment by the US National Institute of Health in this area could significantly speed up the research, which is currently delayed because of lack of political support by President Bush.

Drs. Miles Cunningham and Kim Kwang-soo at Harvard Medical School and Professor Kim Dong-wook at Yonsei University differentiated embryonic stem cells into nerve cells generating dopamine and serotonin and devised a model of psychiatric disease for applying the technology. The eighty animals involved in the experiment behaved as if they had taken anti-depressant medication.

Dopamine and serotonin are well-known neurotransmitters, or the chemicals playing a key role in relaying, amplifying and modulating electrical signals between brain cells - and which are known to also play a role in schizophrenia.

More experiments are progress, but it will take a long time to apply them to human beings.

Source: Psych Central