GHRL and major depressive disorder: Although the effects of centrally or peripherally administered ghrelin on mood and anxiety have so far been rather contradictory and to be dependent on many variables such as the animal’s previous stress conditions, their feeding state (Alvarez-Crespo et al. or the behavioral paradigm used [321] many results, which suggests a protective role of ghrelin against depression and anxiety, which is exerted by its binding to GHSR1a under chronic stress conditions [321,323].