Search results for "antidepressive agents"
showing 10 items of 191 documents
Stimulation of immediate early gene expression by desipramine in rat brain.
1997
The stimulation of immediate early gene expression in brain and neuronal cell culture systems has been reported after various experimental paradigms such as chemiconvulsant-provoked seizures or specific drug applications. In particular, the induction of immediate early genes by adrenergic model substances has been demonstrated by several investigators. This report demonstrates that a single dose of desipramine (10 or 25 mg/kg), a classical tricyclic antidepressant drug acting on the adrenergic system, induced c-fos and zif268 expression in rat hippocampus without affecting c-jun. The observed immediate early gene response might reflect part of a signal transduction cascade involved in long-…
Decoding the Mechanism of Action of Rapid-Acting Antidepressant Treatment Strategies: Does Gender Matter?
2019
Gender differences play a pivotal role in the pathophysiology and treatment of major depressive disorder. This is strongly supported by a mean 2:1 female-male ratio of depression consistently observed throughout studies in developed nations. Considering the urgent need to tailor individualized treatment strategies to fight depression more efficiently, a more precise understanding of gender-specific aspects in the pathophysiology and treatment of depressive disorders is fundamental. However, current treatment guidelines almost entirely neglect gender as a potentially relevant factor. Similarly, the vast majority of animal experiments analysing antidepressant treatment in rodent models exclus…
Risk of bleeding related to selective and non-selective serotonergic antidepressants: a case/non-case approach using data from two pharmacovigilance …
2014
There is increasing evidence for an association between treatment with selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors (SSRI) and an increased risk of bleeding events. The most important underlying mechanism appears to be inhibition of serotonin uptake in platelets, an effect that is also present in antidepressants with non-selective serotonin-reuptake inhibition (NSRI). Accordingly, also NSRI may be associated with an increased risk of bleeding. However, there is little data in this regard.Based on data (spontaneous reports of adverse drug reactions) from 2 pharmacovigilance databases (WHO-database/Vigibase™; BfArM/AkdÄ-database in Germany) we used a case/non-case approach and calculated reporting…
Serotonin, the Prefrontal Cortex, and the Antidepressant-Like Effect of Cannabinoids
2007
Preclinical and clinical studies show that cannabis modulates mood and possesses antidepressant-like properties, mediated by the agonistic activity of cannabinoids on central CB1 receptors (CB1Rs). The action of CB1R agonists on the serotonin (5-HT) system, the major transmitter system involved in mood control and implicated in the mechanism of action of antidepressants, remains however poorly understood. In this study, we demonstrated that, at low doses, the CB1R agonist WIN55,212-2 [R(+)-[2,3-dihydro-5-methyl-3-[(morpholinyl)]pyrrolo[1,2,3-de]-1,4-benzoxazinyl]-(1-naphthalenyl) methanone mesylate] exerts potent antidepressant-like properties in the rat forced-swim test (FST). This effect …
Hypericum Extract and Hyperforin: Memory-Enhancing Properties in Rodents
2001
Effects of a Hypericum extract in therapeutic use and hyperforin sodium salt were evaluated in rat and mouse avoidance tests. In a conditioned avoidance response (CAR) test on the rat, oral daily administration of hyperforin (1.25 mg/kg/day) or of the extract (50 mg/kg/day) before the training sessions considerably improved learning ability from the second day onwards until the day 7. In addition, the memory of the learned responses acquired during 7 consecutive days of administration and training was largely retained even after 9 days without further treatment or training. The observations made using different doses indicate that these learning-facilitating and/or memory-consolidating effe…
Chronic antidepressant treatment induces contrasting patterns of synaptophysin and PSA-NCAM expression in different regions of the adult rat telencep…
2007
Structural modifications occur in the brain of severely depressed patients and they can be reversed by antidepressant treatment. Some of these changes do not occur in the same direction in different regions, such as the medial prefrontal cortex, the hippocampus or the amygdala. Differential structural plasticity also occurs in animal models of depression and it is also prevented by antidepressants. In order to know whether chronic fluoxetine treatment induces differential neuronal structural plasticity in rats, we have analyzed the expression of synaptophysin, a protein considered a marker of synaptic density, and the expression of the polysialylated form of the neural cell adhesion molecul…
Early improvement of executive test performance during antidepressant treatment predicts treatment outcome in patients with Major Depressive Disorder
2017
Executive dysfunctions frequently occur in patients with Major Depressive Disorder and have been shown to improve during effective antidepressant treatment. However, the time course of improvement and its relationship to treatment outcome is unknown. The aim of the study was to assess the test performance and clinical outcome by repetitive assessments of executive test procedures during antidepressant treatment. Executive test performance was assessed in 209 –patients with Major Depressive Disorder (mean age 39.3 ± 11.4 years) and 84 healthy controls five times in biweekly intervals from baseline to week 8. Patients were treated by a defined treatment algorithm within the early medication c…
Antidepressant and anxiolytic effects of alprazolam versus the conventional. antidepressant desipramine and the anxiolytic diazepam in the forced swi…
1992
The antidepressant and anxiolytic effects of alprazolam were compared to those of desipramine, diazepam and buspirone in the forced swim test. Subchronic alprazolam induced a reduction in immobility similar to that of desipramine in 'non-pretested' and 'pretested' rats. In 'non-pretested' rats, the anti-immobility effect of desipramine was potentiated by diazepam and alprazolam, given before subchronic desipramine, while the anti-immobility effect of subchronic alprazolam was counteracted by diazepam. Diazepam, administered before the pretest session, counteracted, 24 h later, the anti-immobility effect of subchronic desipramine and alprazolam; alprazolam counteracted the anti-immobility ef…
Therapeutic drug monitoring of tricyclic antidepressants: how does it work under clinical conditions?
2003
Therapeutic drug monitoring (TDM) of tricyclic antidepressants (TCA) is established in the treatment of depression to optimize outcome and safety. However, there are few reports on TDM under naturalistic clinical conditions. In the present study, we investigated a TDM group (TDM) and a randomly assigned parallel group without TDM (no-TDM) while on TCA treatment. Serum levels were analyzed in both cohorts, but feedback and dose recommendation were only provided for the TDM group. Serum levels of TCA were assessed by high-performance liquid chromatography (HPLC). The outcome was measured weekly using the Hamilton Depression Rating Scale (HAMD), the Clinical Global Impressions Scale (CGI), and…
Are the effects of the antidepressants amitriptyline, maprotiline, and fluoxetine on inhibitory avoidance state-dependent?
2005
Abstract State-dependent learning (SDL) is a phenomenon in which the retrieval of newly acquired information is possible if the subject is in the same physiological state as during the encoding phase. SDL makes it possible to separate the effects of drugs per se on learning from the effects due to changes in drug state during the task. The present work was designed to investigate whether the antidepressants amitriptyline (30 mg/kg), maprotiline (25 mg/kg), and fluoxetine (15 mg/kg) produce SDL of the inhibitory avoidance conditioning in male and female CD1 mice. In three separate experiments, independent groups were used for each pharmacological treatment and for each sex using a 2 × 2 expe…