“Glutamatergic-based Rapid Acting Antidepressants: The Link to Synaptic Plasticity”

Since the emergence of Miltown in the 1950’s, through the development of popular drugs such as Librium and Valium, and presently with the SSRIs best exemplified by Prosac, antidepressants have been viable therapies for many with mood disorders and especially depression. Moreover, since World War II, there has been a virtual explosion in the prescription and use of such drugs. Unfortunately, no antidepressant has ever been effective for more than 50% of those diagnosed-usually the percentage is markedly lower than that, the drugs often take several weeks at least to show any signs of efficacy and long-term use inevitably leads to difficult to manage side effects. Clearly, there remains a great unmet need for truly effective antidepressant treatment.