Brain Gets Bigger If You're Anxious And Depressed: Study

Previous findings have found that depression, the most common psychiatric disorder in worldwide, is related to shrinking regions of the brain.

Even when combined with fear, the second most common mental condition according to the World Health Organization, one region of the brain is "significantly" greater.

Many individuals struggle from both depression and anxiety, but several of the recent research did not involve patients with both disorders, reports Xinhua.

A recent report, released by Australian National University (ANU) researchers, showed that over time, the pairing has had a significant impact on brain regions correlated with memory and emotional processing.

The study looked at the brains of more than 10,000 people to find the effects of depression and anxiety on brain volume.

The research reveals that stress alone allows the hippocampus, a portion of the brain that is connected to memory and learning, to diminish. In the other side, as stress and anxiety arise simultaneously, it contributes to an rise in the size of the portion of the brain correlated with impulses, the amygdala.

"We found people who have depression alone have lower brain volumes in many areas of the brain, and in particular the hippocampus", said the study lead and Ph.D. researcher Ms Daniela Espinoza Oyarce.

"Anxiety lowers the effect of depression on brain volume sizes by 3 percent on average - somewhat hiding the true shrinking effects of depression," she said.

"This becomes even more relevant later in life because a smaller hippocampus is a risk factor for Alzheimer's disease and may accelerate the development of dementia."

Over the years, neuroscientists have tried to look into the connection between brain and mental disorder in order to give their patients optimism. According to Beyond Blue, a major mental well-being organisation, over a million Australian people experience depression and more than 2 million experience anxiety per year.

Ms Espinoza Oyarce emphasized on the need for future studies. "More research is needed into how anxiety lowers the effects of depression, but for the amygdala, perhaps anxiety leads to overactivity."