The Biology of Belief: Unleashing the Power of Consciousness, Matter & Miracles

by Bruce H. Lipton

Cole believes that isolation plays a key role, a hypothesis buttressed by a 2004 study in which Yale psychiatrist Joan Kaufman studied fifty-seven school-age children who had been removed from their homes because they had been abused. The study measured the serotonin transporter gene (SERT), which has both a long and short form, because previous studies had found that people who carry the short SERT are more likely to become depressed or anxious when stressed. The kids with the short SERT did in fact suffer twice as many mental health problems as those with the long variety. But there were unexpected results as well. When Kaufman laid both the kids’ depression scores and their SERT variants across their levels of social support (defined narrowly as contact at least once monthly with a trusted adult figure outside the house), that seemingly paltry (i.e., once a month) social connection erased about 80 percent of the combined risk of the depression-related short SERT variant. (Kaufman, et al, 2004) Science writer David Dobbs asks: “If social connection can almost completely protect us against the well-known effects of serious abuse, isn’t the isolation almost as toxic as the beatings and neglect?” (Dobbs 2013)