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Neurophysiological and neurochemical aspects of the effects of antidepressants and mood stabilizers

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Neurophysiology Aims and scope

Abstract

To date, the mechanisms of action of antidepressants at the molecular and subcellular levels have been relatively well understood. Traditional antidepressants suppress the activity of either monoamine translocases or monoamine oxidase A. Under conditions, of chronic introduction, antidepressants provide a gradual increase in the level of monoamines in the extracellular space of the forebrain structures, which is partly due to the desensitization of monoamine receptors on somatodendrite membranes and membranes of axon terminals. Intensification of the effects of monoamines on the forebrain structures resulting from chronic introduction of antidepressants is accompanied by facilitation in the signal pathway of a secondary messenger (cAMP), activation of the gene apparatus in the neurons, and the enhancement of expression of neurotrophins; these effects lead to a trend toward normalization of the functional state of the neurons impaired in depression. Concepts on the mechanisms of the antidepressive activity of antagonists of NMDA receptors and blockers of receptors of modulatory neuropeptides are discussed. In this review, we also discuss the data on disorders in recycling of inositol; the antimaniacal effect of mood stabilizers can be based on correction of this process. A description of the regulation of activity of cerebral monoaminergic neurons and release of monoamines in their projection is also attached.

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  1. Donetsk State Medical University, Ministry of Public Health, Donetsk, Ukraine

    I. I. Abramets

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Neirofiziologiya/Neurophysiology, Vol. 40, No. 1, pp. 69–85, January–February, 2008.

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Abramets, I.I. Neurophysiological and neurochemical aspects of the effects of antidepressants and mood stabilizers. Neurophysiology 40, 64–78 (2008). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11062-008-9015-6

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