Long-Term Anti-Anxiety Drug Use Affects the Brain

Vince

Super Moderator
The study suggested that the anti-anxiety drug was not acting on nerve cells directly but on microglial cells (cells of the brain’s own intrinsic immune system that can gather around nerve cells and their connections, the synapses) and that the movement of microglial cells was interfering with dendritic spines (small protrusions from the neurons at the tip of which the synaptic connections to other nerve cells are located).

“This observation is important because long-term use of anti-anxiety medication is thought to contribute to an acceleration of dementia and how that might occur was not known,” said co-author ANSTO Prof. Richard Banati.

 

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