Synonyms
Definition
Antidepressants are drugs used to treat depression, although many have been studied in and are used to treat a wide variety of conditions, including anxiety disorders, pain disorders, and others.
Pharmacological Properties
History
Since the serendipitous discovery of the antidepressant effects of tricyclics in the 1950s, depression has generally been treated by agents that boost the synaptic actions of one or more of the three monoamines (serotonin (5HT), norepinephrine (NE), and dopamine (DA)). Acutely enhanced synaptic levels of monoamines could lead to adaptive downregulation and desensitization of postsynaptic receptors over time, a pharmacological action consistent with current aminergic hypotheses of depression, which posit that the disorder may be due to the pathological upregulation of neurotransmitter receptors (Stahl 2008a). Thus, antidepressants theoretically reverse this pathological upregulation of receptors over time. Adaptive...
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References
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© 2010 Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg
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Grady, M.M., Stahl, S.M. (2010). Antidepressants: Recent Developments. In: Stolerman, I.P. (eds) Encyclopedia of Psychopharmacology. Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-540-68706-1_362
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-540-68706-1_362
Publisher Name: Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg
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