Mitochondrial Dysfunction
Brain Metabolism in Psychiatric Disorders
Mitochondria are now seen as the unifying link for psychiatric illness because, as sensors of the internal and external environment, they must react quickly to changes in it. There are many ways the function of mitochondria can be reduced or impaired. Prolonged oxidative stress can erode their efficiency and activity or damage their genes. Sluggish debris removal can disrupt or impede activity.
Whatever the cause, the result is a decrease in energy production and an increase in ROS. Reduced brain energy is a source of fatigue and of cognitive fuzziness, and it especially undermines the brain’s most energy-intensive activity, executive function , affecting attentional focus, decision-making , impulse control, emotion regulation , and memory .
A mental state of challenge, stress consumes energy. Mitochondria generate the signals that enable adaptation to stress. And just as mitochondria respond to psychosocial experiences, they shape such experiences as well. Chronic stress affects many facets of mitochondrial biology, and changes in mitochondrial energy production capacity alter social behavior, stress reactivity, and mood. Changes in mitochondria are now believed to be a major way that adversity stamps biology , setting the stage for the development of disease.
Early life trauma, such as severe or multiple adverse childhood experiences (ACEs), appears to reprogram mitochondrial energetics. Researchers find that more mutations of mitochondrial DNA in adult women with major depression who had experienced parental loss or maltreatment in childhood compared to women without depression. Early damage to mitochondrial DNA can lastingly alter many elements involved in mitochondrial energy production.
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