Hyperactive Brain Cells May Explain Why Some Patients Don ’t Respond to SSRIs

Not everyone with depression responds to treatment with selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors (SSRIs), and now areport inMolecular Psychiatry provides a possible explanation: brain cells in people who do not respond to SSRIs may become hyperactive in the presence of serotonin in a way that the brain cells of people who respond to SSRIs do not.“This is a promising step toward understanding why some patients don’t respond to SSRIs and letting us better personalize treatments for depression,” said senior author Rusty Gage, M.S., Ph.D., of the Salk Institute in astatement.SSRIs acutely increase serotonin levels in the brain by binding to serotonin transporters of a neuron and blocking serotonin reabsorption, or “reuptake.” Following SSRI treatment, serotonin concentrations increase in target brain regions, but it remains unclear what other effects might contribute to SSRI resistance in depressed patients.For the study, Gage and colleagues examined how a group of 803 patients with major depressive disorder responded to eight weeks of treatment with the SSRIs citalopram or escitalopram. From this group, they selected three patients who achieved complete remission of their depression symptoms with the SSRIs (SSRI responders) by eight weeks and three patients who did not experience symptom improvements (SSRI nonresponders).The researchers isolated skin cells from these patients and from three individuals with no history of depression (control subjects). They used stem cel...
Source: Psychiatr News - Category: Psychiatry Tags: hyperactivity Molecular Psychiatry neurons non-responders to antidepressant treatment personalized treatment Ph.D. Rusty Gage Salk Institute SSRIs Source Type: research