Anxious Fruit Flies Offer Path To Better Medication

The Brain





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Look into those frightened eyes. Fruit flies get nervous too. Heiti Paves/Shutterstock

Flies get anxious too. Or at least they experience something that manifests in similar behavior and can be alleviated by the same drugs that soothe us. The discovery could speed up the quest for better anti-anxiety treatments.

Vast research effort goes into the pharmacological treatment of mood disorders, but sufferers of moderate or severe anxiety have seen little progress for decades. That is despite the fact that anxiety disorders are considered the most common mental illness in the United States.