0
POPSRaging Hormones Of Puberty Dr. Smith and colleagues identified the site on human recombinant alpha4-beta2-delta GABA-A receptors that produced the anxiety response, and were able to mutate the site to prevent the novel effect of the stress hormone. In contrast, neither the receptor nor the necessary conditions exist for this anxiety-producing effect of the stress hormone before puberty, because the expression of the receptor is dependent upon hormonal transitions, such as those that occur at puberty. This new finding of a change in the effect of a stress hormone sheds new light on the "mood swings" of puberty.