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Progress in pharmacotherapy of depression: research implications

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Frontiers in Neuropsychiatric Research

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Abstract

The relationship between the therapeutic effects of tricyclic antidepressant drugs (TCAs) and their behavioral and biochemical action in animals is, at present, not well understood. With a few exceptions, most TCAs are characterized by their ability to inhibit the neuronal reuptake of norepinephrine (NE) and/or 5-hydroxytryptamine (5-HT) (Glowinski and Axelrod, 1964; Iversen, 1965; Carlsson et al., 1969a, 1969b; Ross and Renyi, 1969). Therefore, it has generally been believed that the therapeutic action of these drugs is due to an enhancement of NE and/or 5-HT neurotransmission in the brain caused by reuptake inhibition (Schildkraut, 1965; Coppen, 1967; Lapin and Oxenkrug, 1969; U’Prichard et al., 1978). Since the prototype TCAs such as imipramine, amitriptyline and, more recently, clomipramine (Ross and Renyi, 1975) affect both NE and 5-HT reuptake in vivo and thus presumably enhance the functional activity of both amines, the relative role of NE and 5-HT in the therapeutic action of antidepressant drugs has been quite controversial. This is further complicated by their pronounced action on pre- and postsynaptic receptors.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Psychiatry, New York University School of Medicine, New York, USA

    Anastasios Georgotas, Daniel Bush, William E Hapworth & Mary Kim

  2. Department of Psychiatry, Wayne State University, Detroit, MI, USA

    Samuel Gershon

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  1. Anastasios Georgotas
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  2. Daniel Bush
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  3. William E Hapworth
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  4. Mary Kim
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  5. Samuel Gershon
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Editors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Psychiatry and Human Behavior, California College of Medicine, University of California, Irvine, USA

    Earl Usdin

  2. Department of Psychiatry, New York University School of Medicine, New York, USA

    Menek Goldstein , Arnold Friedhoff  & Anastasios Georgotas ,  & 

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Georgotas, A., Bush, D., Hapworth, W.E., Kim, M., Gershon, S. (1983). Progress in pharmacotherapy of depression: research implications. In: Usdin, E., Goldstein, M., Friedhoff, A., Georgotas, A. (eds) Frontiers in Neuropsychiatric Research. Palgrave Macmillan, London. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-349-06689-6_18

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-349-06689-6_18

  • Publisher Name: Palgrave Macmillan, London

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