Antidepressant drugs activate the cAMP signal transduction pathway through a variety of monoamine neurotransmitter receptors. Recently, molecular studies have identified a role for cAMP response element-binding protein (CREB) in the mechanism of action of chronically administered antidepressant drugs. However, the function of CREB in the behavioral and endocrine responses to these drugs has not...

Research suggests no difference in efficacy be tween tricyclic and related antidepressant drugs. The British National Formulary (1993) lists 21 different antidepressants. Reviews of antidepres sant treatment suggest that choice of antidepres sant should be made on the grounds of previous drug exposure and side effect profiles of different drugs. At present there are no clinical guidelines to in...

PURPOSE Among antidepressants, selective serotonin reup-take inhibitors (SSRIs) have enjoyed great popularity among clinicians as well as generally wide acceptance and tolerance among patients. A potentially overlooked side effect of SSRIs is the occasional occurrence of extrapyramidal symptoms (EPS), which could be a concern when SSRIs are used with antipsychotics. This study was designed to e...

Major depressive disorder is a common, recurrent and disabling psychiatric disorder associated with significant morbidity and mortality. For half a century, the field of neuro psychopharmacology of depression has been dominated by the monoaminergic hypothesis, especially regarding the development of antidepressant drugs. However, the mono aminergic antidepressants have significant limitations: ...

In a consecutive series of 208 patients with tricyclic antidepressant self poisoni ng, urinary catec holami ne excretion was measured, and the catecholamine level compared with that in ten patients having taken an overdose of other drugs. In both patient groups the electrocardiograph was monitored continuously for a minimum of 48 hours to detect cardiac arrhythmias. Urinary noradrenaline excret...

Human models of emotional processing suggest that the direct effect of successful antidepressant drug treatment may be to modify biases in the processing of emotional information. Negative biases in emotional processing are documented in depression, and single or short-term dosing with conventional antidepressant drugs reverses these biases in depressed patients prior to any subjective change i...

An important new area of antidepressant drug development involves targeting the nicotinic acetylcholine receptor (nAChR). This receptor, which is distributed widely in regions of the brain associated with depression, is also implicated in other important processes that are relevant to depression, such as stress and inflammation. The two classes of drugs that target nAChRs can be broadly divided...

Punarnavine (20 and 40 mg/kg) and fluoxetine (20 mg/kg) per se administered orally for 14 successive days significantly decreased immobility periods of both unstressed and stressed mice in forced swim test. These drugs also significantly decreased sucrose preference in both stressed and unstressed mice as compared to their respective controls, indicating significant antidepressant-like activity...

Selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors (SSRIs) are the most commonly used class of antidepressant drugs, but the cellular and molecular mechanisms by which their therapeutic action is initiated are poorly understood. Here we show that serotonin 5-HT1B receptors in cholecystokinin (CCK) inhibitory interneurons of the mammalian dentate gyrus (DG) initiate the therapeutic response to antidepressa...

Although depression is a common disorder that is often resistant to pharmacotherapy, its pathophysiology has remained elusive. Since the early 1950s, when the first antidepressants were introduced, i.e., the non-selective MAO inhibitors and tricyclic drugs, a number of hypotheses describing ethiopathogenesis of depression and antidepressant drug action have been formulated. The Institute of Pha...