Stress hormone paradox may clarify teen mood swings – World – theage.com.au — Interesting research indeed.

THIS might help explain why teenagers act like, well, teenagers.

Researchers have discovered that a hormone produced by the body in response to stress, which normally calms adults and younger children, instead increases anxiety in adolescents. They conducted experiments with female mice focusing on the hormone THP that demonstrated this paradoxical effect, and described the brain mechanism that explains it. If, as the scientists suspect, the same thing happens in people, the phenomenon may help account for the mood swings and anxiety exhibited by many adolescents, they said.

“Teenagers dont go around crazy all the time,” said lead researcher Sheryl Smith, a professor of physiology and pharmacology at the State University of New York Downstate Medical Centre, in a telephone interview. “But it really is a mood swing where things seem fine and calm, and then the next thing is someones crying or angry,” she added. “And I think thats why people have used the term raging hormones.”

The emotional swings are not always benign, Professor Smiths team reports in the journal Nature Neuroscience.

“Responses to stressful events are amplified, and anxiety and panic disorder first emerge at this time, being twice as likely to occur in girls as in boys,” they wrote. “In addition, suicide risk increases in adolescence, despite the use of adult-based medical strategies.”