Search results for "Antidepressant"

Serotonin Heteroreceptor Complexes and Their Integration of Signals in Neurons and Astroglia—Relevance for Mental Diseases

2021

The heteroreceptor complexes present a novel biological principle for signal integration. These complexes and their allosteric receptor–receptor interactions are bidirectional and novel targets for treatment of CNS diseases including mental diseases. The existence of D2R-5-HT2AR heterocomplexes can help explain the anti-schizophrenic effects of atypical antipsychotic drugs not only based on blockade of 5-HT2AR and of D2R in higher doses but also based on blocking the allosteric enhancement of D2R protomer signaling by 5-HT2AR protomer activation. This research opens a new understanding of the integration of DA and 5-HT signals released from DA and 5-HT nerve terminal networks. The biologica…

Physical Activity and Brain Health.

2019

Physical activity (PA) has been central in the life of our species for most of its history, and thus shaped our physiology during evolution. However, only recently the health consequences of a sedentary lifestyle, and of highly energetic diets, are becoming clear. It has been also acknowledged that lifestyle and diet can induce epigenetic modifications which modify chromatin structure and gene expression, thus causing even heritable metabolic outcomes. Many studies have shown that PA can reverse at least some of the unwanted effects of sedentary lifestyle, and can also contribute in delaying brain aging and degenerative pathologies such as Alzheimer’s Disease, diabetes, and multiple s…

2018

There are two important gaps of knowledge in depression treatment, namely the lack of biomarkers predicting response to antidepressants and the limited knowledge of the molecular mechanisms underlying clinical improvement. However, individually tailored treatment strategies and individualized prescription are greatly needed given the huge socio-economic burden of depression, the latency until clinical improvement can be observed and the response variability to a particular compound. Still, individual patient-level antidepressant treatment outcomes are highly unpredictable. In contrast to other therapeutic areas and despite tremendous efforts during the past years, the genomics era so far ha…

Acute effects of fluoxetine on inhibitory avoidance consolidation in male and female OF1 mice

2001

The effects of acute administration of fluoxetine on memory consolidation using an inhibitory avoidance task were investigated in male and female OF1 mice. Several doses of this antidepressant (5, 10, and 20 mg/kg) were intraperitoneally administered immediately after the training session. The test session was carried out four days later and response latencies were measured in both sessions. The results showed that the highest dose of fluoxetine significantly increased response latencies of inhibitory avoidance compared with the lowest dose and the control group. Sex differences in this task were observed, females showing a better performance. But the drug's effects were not sexually dimorp…

Non-adherence to psychotropic medication assessed by plasma level in newly admitted psychiatric patients: Prevalence before acute admission.

2019

Aims Non-adherence or partial adherence to psychotropic medication is found in 18-70% of patients. Many previously used methods for the assessment of adherence (e.g. questionnaires, pill counts, and electronic systems), however, might underreport actual rates of non-adherence to medication. The aim of this study was to quantify adherence using plasma level. Methods We conducted a 6-week prospective study of all consecutive admitted patients at the Paracelsus Medical University of Salzburg, Clinics of Psychiatry and Psychotherapy, who had been treated with antipsychotics/antidepressants prior to admission (pre-medication dosage in 161 of 233). Plasma drug levels were determined and compared …

Roxindole, a dopamine autoreceptor agonist, in the treatment of major depression

1993

Roxindole is a potent autoreceptor-“selective” dopamine agonist originally developed for the treatment of schizophrenic syndromes. The drug also inhibits 5-HT uptake and has 5-HT1A agonistic actions. In this open clinical trial 12 in-patients suffering from a major depressive episode (DSM-III-R) were treated with roxindole for 28 days in a fixed dosage of 15 mg per day. A reduction of at least 50% in HAMD-17 total scores was observed in 8 out of 12 patients after 4 weeks (mean HAMD-17 reduction of 56% in all patients), while 4 patients did not respond to roxindole treatment. Half of the patients showed a complete psychopathological remission (HAMD-17 <8). Roxindole's onset of antidepressant…

Inhibition of antidepressant demethylation and hydroxylation by fluvoxamine in depressed patients.

1993

Bidirectional drug interactions between fluvoxamine and classical antidepressants were studied in depressed patients. A column switching technique combined with high performance liquid chromatography (HPLC) enabled automated analyses of plasma for simultaneous determination of fluvoxamine, tricyclic and tetracyclic antidepressants and demethylated and major hydroxylated metabolites in a single HPLC run. The measurements revealed that fluvoxamine inhibited N-demethylation of imipramine, clomipramine, amitriptyline and maprotiline whereas interferences with hydroxylation reactions were restricted to aromatic 8-hydroxylation of clomipramine. In patients under fluvoxamine monotherapy before com…

Subchronic Antidepressant Treatment with Venlafaxine or Imipramine and Effects on Blood Pressure and Heart Rate: Assessment by Automatic 24-Hour Moni…

1996

Venlafaxine is a new nontricyclic antidepressant inhibiting the reuptake of serotonin, noradrenaline, and, to a lesser extent, dopamine without antagonizing cholinergic, histaminergic, or noradrenergic receptors. Significantly, in a first placebo-controlled safety and efficacy study, high doses of venlafaxine increased blood pressure in some study subjects. In order to investigate further the effect of subchronic antidepressant drug treatment on blood pressure and heart rate, the effects of a conventional tricyclic (imipramine) and a structurally different phenethylamine antidepressant (venlafaxine) were compared. Sixteen inpatients with major depression (melancholic type) were treated for …

Influence of St John's wort on catecholamine turnover and cardiovascular regulation in humans

2004

BACKGROUND: St John's wort (Hypericum perforatum) is a popular over-the-counter antidepressant. Its antidepressive effect has been attributed in part to inhibition of monoamine transporters and monoamine oxidase, on the basis of in vitro studies. METHODS: In a double-blind, randomized, placebo-controlled, crossover study, 16 healthy subjects (11 men and 5 women; mean age, 31 +/- 5 years) ingested either St John's wort (300 mg three times daily) or placebo for 7 days. Imipramine treatment (50 mg three times daily) in 7 subjects served as a positive control. After treatment, physiologic and biochemical tests included cardiovascular reflex testing, graded head-up tilt testing, and plasma catec…

TheMAOA T941G polymorphism and short-term treatment response to mirtazapine and paroxetine in major depression

2006

This study investigated the possible association of the MAOA T941G gene variant with differential antidepressant response to mirtazapine and/or paroxetine in 102 patients with major depression (DSM-IV criteria) participating in a randomized double-blind controlled clinical trial. Female mirtazapine-treated patients homozygous for the T-allele had a significantly faster and better treatment response than TG/GG-patients. In males, we failed to show an association between MAOA T941G gene variant and mirtazapine response. In the paroxetine-treated group, there were no significant differences in treatment response between MAOA T941G genotype groups. Time course of response and antidepressant eff…