February 21, 2012

expert reaction to study of neurotransmitters and response to financial loss as published in Molecular Psychiatry

A paper published in the journal Molecular Psychiatry suggested that the neurotransmitter norepinephrine (noradrenaline) may have a role to play in how people respond to financial loss.

Dr Alexis Bailey, Lecturer in Neuropharmacology at the University of Surrey, said:

“This is an interesting study which implies that diminished sensitivity to monetary loss, which is characteristic of risk taking behaviour that pathological gamblers have, could be due to their innate increased levels of noradrenaline transporters, and, as a consequence, lower noradrenaline levels in the thalamus of the brain.

“This is preliminary work which was carried out on normal healthy volunteers. There is a need to test if psychiatric populations of pathological gambling have higher levels of noradrenaline transporters compared to normal healthy non gamblers.
“Also there is a need to investigate if noradrenaline transporters are also increased in brain regions traditionally associated with decision making and emotional aspects of aversion such as the prefrontal cortex and amygdala. Nonetheless, this study has implications for potential treatment of pathological gambling and ADHD.

“Medication which will enhance noradrenaline in the brain, such as arousal promoting tricyclic antidepressants and/or modafinil, could potentially be effective in the treatment of pathological gambling and ADHD. Of note, modafinil is a current treatment for ADHD.

“People should, however, be aware of the adverse effect that these type of medication could have.”

Derek Hill, Professor of Medical Imaging Science, UCL and CEO of IXICO, said:

“This research uses sophisticated brain scanning to improve our understanding of the way that our appetite for risk is linked to the way that chemical messengers operate in the brain.

“It is quite preliminary work, but has many intriguing implications. For example, this sort of imaging could, in future, be used to help test drugs to treat people who indulge excessively in risky behaviour, such as gambling addicts.”

‘Norepinephrine in the brain is associated with aversion to financial loss’ by Takahashi, H. et al., published in Molecular Psychiatry on Tuesday 21st February