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The WWW Virtual Library ScienceSeeker | Science News Aggregator Science Daily: News & Articles in Science, Health, Environment & Technology Watch Free Documentaries Online | Documentary Heaven Is this peptide a key to happiness? Findings suggests possible new treatment for depression, other disorders What makes us happy? Family? Money? Love? How about a peptide? The neurochemical changes underlying human emotions and social behavior are largely unknown. The finding suggests that boosting hypocretin could elevate both mood and alertness in humans, thus laying the foundation for possible future treatments of psychiatric disorders like depression by targeting measureable abnormalities in brain chemistry. In addition, the study measured for the first time the release of another peptide, this one called melanin concentrating hormone, or MCH. The study is published in the March 5 online edition of the journal Nature Communications. "The current findings explain the sleepiness of narcolepsy, as well as the depression that frequently accompanies this disorder," said senior author Jerome Siegel, a professor of psychiatry and director of the Center for Sleep Research at UCLA's Semel Institute for Neuroscience and Human Behavior.