Popescu, Diana M. (2023) Treatment-induced plasticity in the "depressed" hippocampus mediates the mood-improving actions of antidepressants. Master's Thesis / Essay, Behavioural and Cognitive Neurosciences.
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Abstract
Major depressive disorder (MDD) is a mood disorder characterized by persistent low mood and reduced motivation. Despite decades of research, the underlying pathophysiology of MDD remains poorly understood; likewise, the mechanisms of action of antidepressants (AD). The most influential hypothesis of MDD suggests that MDD is rooted in a monoamine deficiency, and that ADs work by reversing this deficiency. However, the observed acute increase in monoamines after AD administration and the delayed clinical onset of ADs in improving mood suggest that merely increasing monoamine levels is not sufficient to improve symptoms of mood. Instead, repeated stimulation of monoamine receptors and downstream monoamine-induced gene expression may be necessary to induce changes in behaviors. A more recently proposed hypothesis of MDD states that reduced neuroplasticity/neurogenesis in the hippocampus (HC) in the presence of stress is responsible for maintaining the depressive-like phenotype. This is also supported by evidence that ADs have pro-neurogenic and neuroplastic effects in the HC, and that chronic AD treatment leads to morphological adaptations in the HC which may underlie the mood-improving actions of ADs. While mechanistically plausible, the story is more complicated. It appears that mechanisms involved in neurotransmission, stress, and neuroplasticity, interact in complex ways to support neuronal remodeling in the HC and underlie MDD recovery.
| Item Type: | Thesis (Master's Thesis / Essay) |
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| Supervisor name: | Zee, E.A. van der and Buwalda, B. |
| Degree programme: | Behavioural and Cognitive Neurosciences |
| Thesis type: | Master's Thesis / Essay |
| Language: | English |
| Date Deposited: | 31 Aug 2023 07:07 |
| Last Modified: | 31 Aug 2023 07:07 |
| URI: | https://fse.studenttheses.ub.rug.nl/id/eprint/31354 |
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