2003 issue 3

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Volume 19, issue 3

Article

The perspectives of pharmacotherapy of depression

Janusz Rybakowski1
1. Klinika Psychiatrii Dorosłych Akademii Medycznej w Poznaniu
Farmakoterapia w Psychiatrii i Neurologii, 2003, 3, 5-19
Keywords: depression, pharmacoteraphy, antidepressants

Abstract

In this review, the perspectives of the development of new antidepressant drugs based on previous and novel pathogenic concepts of depression have been discussed. Most antidepressant drugs introduced so far act mainly on serotonergic or/and noradrenergic neurotransmission. The directions for introducing new antidepressant drugs have been presented, related to other neurotransmitters’ concepts, and, due to the knowledge of new pathogenic mechanisms of depression, drugs acting on the disturbances of stress system, other endocrine axes, and on neurotrophic and neuroprotective processes.