美国科学家发现，人在饥饿时胃黏膜会分泌一种饥饿激素，可以减轻心理压力，预防抑郁与焦虑的情绪。这一研究成果发表在《自然—神经学》（Nature Neuroscience）上。

美国得州大学西南医学中心的科研人员完成了这一研究，该中心内科学和精神病学教授杰弗里·齐格曼博士表示，使人产生饥饿感的主要原因是胃中的激素。

在释放这种激素时，人们会对食物产生兴趣，同时，抑郁或焦虑情绪也会减轻，抵抗压力的能力会明显增强。“尽管饥饿激素可能让人们吃得多，但也会让你有一份好心情。”齐格曼说，一方面对食物的兴趣分散了我们对压力来源的注意，另一方面，这种激素会向大脑发出信号，让身体进行自我调节，“想到美味的食物，心情应该不会太差吧，热爱美食的人一般都比较乐观。”

过去研究者曾通过抑制饥饿激素的分泌，帮助减肥。目前，他们正在研究利用饥饿激素，帮助厌食者和抑郁症患者，通过增加饥饿激素，使这些人发生积极变化。

原始出处： Nature Neuroscience，doi:10.1038/nn.2139，Michael Lutter，Jeffrey M Zigman

The orexigenic hormone ghrelin defends against depressive symptoms of chronic stress

Michael Lutter, Ichiro Sakata, Sherri Osborne-Lawrence, Sherry A Rovinsky, Jason G Anderson, Saendy Jung, Shari Birnbaum, Masashi Yanagisawa, Joel K Elmquist,,, Eric J Nestler & Jeffrey M Zigman

We found that increasing ghrelin levels, through subcutaneous injections or calorie restriction, produced anxiolytic- and antidepressant-like responses in the elevated plus maze and forced swim test. Moreover, chronic social defeat stress, a rodent model of depression, persistently increased ghrelin levels, whereas growth hormone secretagogue receptor (Ghsr) null mice showed increased deleterious effects of chronic defeat. Together, these findings demonstrate a previously unknown function for ghrelin in defending against depressive-like symptoms of chronic stress.

Department of Psychiatry, The University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center, 5323 Harry Hines Blvd., Dallas, Texas 75390-9077, USA.

Department of Internal Medicine (Divisions of Hypothalamic Research and Endocrinology and Metabolism), The University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center, 5323 Harry Hines Blvd., Dallas, Texas 75390-9077, USA.

Department of Molecular Genetics and Howard Hughes Medical Institute, The University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center, 5323 Harry Hines Blvd., Dallas, Texas 75390-9077, USA.

Department of Pharmacology, The University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center, 5323 Harry Hines Blvd., Dallas, Texas 75390-9077, USA.