Targeting opioid dysregulation in depression for the development of novel therapeutics.

ABSTRACT: Since the serendipitous discovery of the first class of modern antidepressants in the 1950's, all pharmacotherapies approved by the Food and Drug Administration for major depressive disorder (MDD) have shared a common mechanism of action, increased monoaminergic neurotransmission. Despite the widespread availability of antidepressants, as many as 50% of depressed patients are resistant to these conventional therapies. The significant length of time required to produce meaningful symptom relief with these medications, 4-6 weeks, indicates that other mechanisms are likely involved in the pathophysiology of depression which may yield more viable targets for drug development. For decades, no viable candidate target with a different mechanism of action to that of conventional therapies proved s

SUBMITTER: Browne CA 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC6859062 | biostudies-literature | 2019 Sep

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature