Shown: posts 1 to 11 of 11. This is the beginning of the thread.
Posted by jrbecker on April 11, 2005, at 8:45:00
http://www.healthday.com/view.cfm?id=524979
Newer Antidepressants Work 2 Ways
SSRIs boost serotonin levels on two fronts, study showsBy Amanda Gardner
HealthDay Reporter
WEDNESDAY, April 6 (HealthDay News) -- New research shows that the popular, and sometimes controversial, antidepressants known as selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors (SSRIs) boost serotonin levels on two fronts.The finding could explain why these medications often take weeks to work, the scientists report in the April 7 issue of Neuron. Apparently, SSRIs kick off a two-pronged process that puts serotonin levels back into balance. Serotonin is a brain chemical that scientists believe is in short supply in depressed people.
In addition to boosting serotonin levels, this family of antidepressants apparently also "hijacks" the dopamine signaling system, causing it to affect serotonin levels as well.
The use of SSRIs, especially by children, came into question last fall following reports of increased thoughts of suicide and attempts among young, depressed patients. The U.S. Food and Drug Administration responded by mandating a black box warning on the use of these drugs in children and teenagers.
"We have known about these interrelationships," said Dr. Fred Quitkin, director of the depression evaluation service at the New York State Psychiatric Institute. "It's of interest, but no one knows what it means."
"The brain is so incredibly complicated," said Dr. Eugenio M. Rothe, director of the child and adolescent psychiatry clinic at Jackson Memorial Hospital in Miami, Fla., and an associate professor of psychiatry at the University of Miami School of Medicine. "More and more things have yet to be discovered. The brain is the final frontier."
Many of the millions of Americans afflicted with depression have a disorder in the brain's reward system, explained study author Fu-Ming Zhou, an assistant professor of pharmacology at the University of Tennessee College of Medicine in Memphis. Zhou conducted the study while at the Baylor College of Medicine.
"A large body of research indicates that the dopamine system is the most important player in the reward system," he added.
Often, however, depression is treated with medications that affect the serotonin system. SSRIs block the reuptake of serotonin back into the nerve terminals.
In a healthy person, serotonin is stored in nerve terminals and then released into the spaces between neurons. Problems occur when the neurotransmitter is sucked back into the terminal, a process called reuptake. "This limits the level or availability of serotonin near the nerve terminals," Zhou said. "There is a possibility, which remains to be proven, that the local serotonin level near these nerve terminals is abnormally low in depressed patients."
"When a patient takes an SSRI, the reuptake process is inhibited, leading to increased serotonin levels around the nerve terminal, and also restored or enhanced serotonin signaling," he continued. "This restored or enhanced signaling is often believed to be the major therapeutic mechanism of SSRIs."
Apparently, however, SSRIs affect more than just serotonin levels, as Zhou and his colleagues demonstrated in mice.
Dopamine transporters in the brain area involved in reward response normally reuptake dopamine. But because there are so many dopamine transporters, they may also pick up serotonin, albeit at a lower level of efficiency.
"Put simply: serotonin transporters are like a high-power vacuum pump that can suck back serotonin really fast," Zhou said. "Dopamine transporters may suck back serotonin very slowly, like a large sponge. This sponge is of no significance if the high power vacuum pump is working. When a patient takes SSRI, the pump is inhibited or becomes not functional. Under this condition, the large sponge becomes significant, capable of sucking in significant amounts of serotonin over a long period of time."
"We believe that these neurochemical changes contribute to the therapeutic mechanisms of SSRIs," Zhou said.
The fact that the "sponge" is not very efficient may account for why it can take several weeks for the effects of Prozac and other SSRIs to kick in, he added.
The authors also speculated that disrupting normal serotonin levels in children, while neurons are still under development, could result in problems later in life.
Although the study was done in mice, Rothe believes there is a message for humans.
"People taking antidepressants need to have regular doctor visits, and their doctor has to keep a close eye on what's going on," he said. "They should fight insurance companies that think that they can go for one visit and get five refills, and not go back for six months.
_____________from the journal Neuron...
Neuron
Volume 46, Issue 1 , 7 April 2005, Pages 1-2
doi:10.1016/j.neuron.2005.03.013
PreviewAntidepressants and the Monoamine Masquerade
David Sulzer1, , and Robert H. Edwards2
1Departments of Neurology, Psychiatry, and Pharmacology, Columbia University, Department of Neuroscience, New York State Psychiatric Institute, New York, New York 10032
2Departments of Neurology and Physiology, University of California, San Francisco, School of Medicine, San Francisco, California 94143Available online 7 April 2005.
Neurotransmitter transporters have long been known to recognize related compounds as substrates, resulting in the accumulation and release of so-called “false transmitters.” In this issue of Neuron, Zhou et al. show that when serotonin levels are elevated by inhibition of either serotonin reuptake or of monoamine oxidase, dopamine neurons accumulate serotonin. The results suggest that release of serotonin by dopamine neurons may contribute to the effects of multiple major classes of antidepressants.
Article Outline
Main Text
References
Main Text
Plasma membrane uptake systems have long been known to accumulate different neurotransmitters somewhat promiscuously. Indeed, the initial discovery of plasma membrane transmitter uptake, in 1958 by Barbara Hughes, a fellow in Bernard Brodie’s laboratory at the National Heart Institute (Hughes and Brodie, 1959 and Hughes et al., 1958), included evidence that the monoamine transmitters (serotonin and the catecholamines) are recognized as substrates by the same reuptake system.Hughes and Brodie examined the uptake of serotonin, epinephrine, and norepinephrine in guinea pig platelets. The uptake of serotonin was more rapid than for the catecholamines, but all were substrates for the same system, as indicated by inhibition of accumulation by reserpine, a plant extract used to treat mental illness in India that was eventually found to inhibit specifically the uptake of monoamines into secretory vesicles. Although we now know that reserpine does not inhibit plasma membrane uptake, Hughes correctly concluded that there was “an endergonic mechanism that rapidly extracts serotonin from the surrounding medium against a concentration gradient.”
An independent line of early investigation led to the so-called “false transmitter hypothesis,” which suggested that different monoamines could be packaged into the same synaptic vesicle. Once plasma membrane transporters have accumulated monoamines into the cytosol, the transmitters are either taken up into synaptic vesicles or metabolized by monoamine oxidase (MAO). The first widely prescribed class of antidepressants were MAO inhibitors, which, as might be predicted, enhanced serotonin and catecholamine levels. Clinicians noted, however, that MAO inhibitors sometimes caused hypertension in patients who had consumed red wine, beer, and cheese. Irwin Kopin (Kopin, 1968) suggested that nonneurotransmitter monoamines such as tyramine, a decarboxylated tyrosine metabolite that is normally metabolized by MAO, could act as false transmitters that would be accumulated into vesicles and then released. Tyramine, which can be produced at high levels by yeast and microbes during the manufacture of these foods, and its metabolite octopamine indeed turned out to be the culprits responsible for hypertension in cheese-eating patients (Blackwell and Mabbitt, 1965).
A molecular basis of false transmitter action became clear after the identification and cloning of most of the plasma membrane and vesicular neurotransmitter transporters in the early 1990s. The dopamine uptake transporter (DAT) is exclusively expressed in neurons that synthesize and release dopamine, the norepinephrine transporter (NET) by noradrenergic neurons, and the serotonin transporter (SERT) by serotonergic neurons, and the proximity of release and reuptake sites presumably helps to load the correct transmitter into each neuron’s synaptic vesicles. Consistent with Barbara Hughes’ early report, however, each monoamine transporter accumulates the monoamines made by other cells. For example, NET has a higher apparent affinity for dopamine than norepinephrine (Gu et al., 1994). Mice lacking DAT still self-administer cocaine (Rocha et al., 1998), suggesting that NET or SERT can contribute to dopamine’s clearance.
In contrast to the selective distribution of the plasma membrane transporters, the vesicular monoamine transporter 2 (VMAT2) is expressed by all monoamine neurons. Both VMAT2 and VMAT1 (expressed in nonneural cells) accumulate serotonin and catecholamines, as well as classic false transmitters such as tyramine. Moreover, they recognize serotonin with at least a 3-fold higher apparent affinity than dopamine, but transport serotonin more slowly (Peter et al., 1994). Although the significance of these differences in substrate recognition has remained unclear, they are conserved across species (Erickson and Eiden, 1993) and raise the possibility that serotonin might be able both to accumulate in the synaptic vesicles of dopamine neurons and to inhibit the packaging of dopamine. There are several reports of serotonin acting as a false transmitter in dopamine terminals following pharmacological interventions, as well as evidence suggesting that serotonin may normally act as a false transmitter at dopamine terminals in the intermediate lobe of the pituitary (Vanhatalo and Soinila, 1995).
Although the plasma membrane monoamine transporters show some promiscuity in substrate recognition, the clinical efficacy of many antidepressants indicates that the transporters each have distinct roles. The “tricyclic” desipramine (Norpramin) is particularly selective for NE, and paroxetine (Paxil) and fluoxetine (Prozac) are particularly selective for SERT. Interestingly, selective DAT inhibitors have not emerged as effective antidepressants, raising the possibility that MAO inhibitors and serotonin-selective reuptake inhibitors (SSRIs) result in the accumulation of serotonin as a false transmitter by dopamine neurons. Consistent with this possibility, serotonin accumulation by dopamine neurons was observed in mice lacking the SERT gene and wild-type animals treated with paroxetine (Zhou et al., 2002). Serotonin uptake by catecholamine neurons was also observed in mice lacking one of the monoamine oxidase genes (MAO-A) (Cases et al., 1998).
The evidence that antidepressants induce serotonin accumulation by dopamine neurons has now been significantly advanced by a study in this issue of Neuron from John Dani’s laboratory (Zhou et al., 2005). The investigators adapted rapid electrochemical measurements of evoked dopamine and serotonin release in acute “horizontal” slices that encompass a portion of the innervating axons from midbrain dopamine neurons, and their primary target area, the striatum, where both dopamine and DAT are present at far higher levels than serotonin and SERT. To record dopamine and serotonin release evoked by electrical stimuli, they used cyclic voltammetry, in which ramp voltages are applied to a carbon fiber electrode and that to some extent differentiates the transmitters on the basis of the I-V relationships of their oxidation and reduction peaks. They further noted that the serotonin component could be identified, due to the relatively greater adsorption of serotonin to the carbon surface, simply by analyzing a later point during the signal’s falling phase.
When the investigators exposed striatal tissue to fluoxetine in the presence of nisoxetine, a specific NET inhibitor, evoked serotonin release increased, whereas dopamine release decreased. Serotonin may thus act as a false transmitter after exposure to SSRIs. The signal, however, represents the release of transmitter from hundreds of synaptic vesicle fusion events and could alternatively reflect an enhanced release of serotonin from its native terminals. They addressed this possibility by examining nonevoked spontaneous release events, which are much smaller and likely reflect transmitter release from dozens of synaptic vesicles at synaptic varicosities along the incoming dopamine fibers. Each of these smaller events likewise contained both dopamine and serotonin, further evidence consistent with corelease. Perhaps more convincingly, fluoxetine’s effect was inhibited by the selective DAT inhibitor GBR12909, as would be predicted if the serotonin was accumulated by DAT. The authors thus conclude that when SERT is blocked by SSRIs, serotonin acts as a false transmitter in dopamine neurons. Experiments in vivo suggest that the effect may require several days of administration, which could underlie the well-known delay in full therapeutic benefit of these drugs. And to bring the story full circle, they found that the MAO inhibitor clorgyline further promotes serotonin uptake and release by dopamine neurons.
The data clearly indicate that, at least under some conditions, both major classes of antidepressants cause serotonin to act as false transmitter in dopamine neurons. It is not yet known if such serotonin release by dopamine neurons contributes to the therapeutic effect of these agents, and it would be very interesting to know whether inhibition of DAT blocks the antidepressant effects of SSRIs. The Dani lab, in the meantime, can take credit for an elegant proof of a phenomenon that may underlie the effects, and perhaps the delayed response, for the many patients who take these drugs. And well in time for the 50th anniversary of Hughes’ and Brodie’s seminal discovery.
References
Blackwell and Mabbitt, 1965 B. Blackwell and L.A. Mabbitt, Lancet 62 (1965), pp. 938–940. AbstractCases et al., 1998 O. Cases, C. Lebrand, B. Giros, T. Vitalis, E. De Maeyer, M.G. Caron, D.J. Price, P. Gaspar and I. Seif, J. Neurosci. 18 (1998), pp. 6914–6927. Abstract-EMBASE | Abstract-Elsevier BIOBASE | Abstract-MEDLINE
Erickson and Eiden, 1993 J.D. Erickson and L.E. Eiden, J. Neurochem. 61 (1993), pp. 2314–2317. Abstract-EMBASE | Abstract-Elsevier BIOBASE | Abstract-MEDLINE
Gu et al., 1994 H. Gu, S.C. Wall and G. Rudnick, J. Biol. Chem. 269 (1994), pp. 7124–7130. Abstract-EMBASE | Abstract-Elsevier BIOBASE | Abstract-MEDLINE
Hughes and Brodie, 1959 F.B. Hughes and B.B. Brodie, J. Pharmacol. Exp. Ther. 127 (1959), pp. 96–102. Abstract-MEDLINE
Hughes et al., 1958 F.B. Hughes, P.A. Shore and B.B. Brodie, Experientia 14 (1958), pp. 178–180. Abstract-MEDLINE
Kopin, 1968 I.J. Kopin, Annu. Rev. Pharmacol. 8 (1968), pp. 377–394. Abstract-MEDLINE
Peter et al., 1994 D. Peter, J. Jimenez, Y. Liu, J. Kim and R.H. Edwards, J. Biol. Chem. 269 (1994), pp. 7231–7237. Abstract-EMBASE | Abstract-Elsevier BIOBASE | Abstract-MEDLINE
Rocha et al., 1998 B.A. Rocha, F. Fumagalli, R.R. Gainetdinov, S.R. Jones, R. Ator, B. Giros, G.W. Miller and M.G. Caron, Nat. Neurosci. 1 (1998), pp. 132–137. Abstract-MEDLINE | Abstract-PsycINFO
Vanhatalo and Soinila, 1995 S. Vanhatalo and S. Soinila, Neurosci. Res. 22 (1995), pp. 367–374. SummaryPlus | Full Text + Links | PDF (717 K)
Zhou et al., 2002 F.C. Zhou, K.P. Lesch and D.L. Murphy, Brain Res. 942 (2002), pp. 109–119. SummaryPlus | Full Text + Links | PDF (2826 K)
Zhou et al., 2005 F.-M. Zhou, Y. Liang, R. Salas, L. Zhang, M. De Biasi and J.A. Dani this issue, Neuron 46 (2005), pp. 65–74. SummaryPlus | Full Text + Links | PDF (384 K)
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Posted by ed_uk on April 11, 2005, at 13:04:56
In reply to Antidepressants affect serotonin in 2 distinctways, posted by jrbecker on April 11, 2005, at 8:45:00
Hi,
>The data clearly indicate that, at least under some conditions, both major classes of antidepressants cause serotonin to act as false transmitter in dopamine neurons. It is not yet known if such serotonin release by dopamine neurons contributes to the therapeutic effect of these agents, and it would be very interesting to know whether inhibition of DAT blocks the antidepressant effects of SSRIs.
I honestly doubt that serotonin release by dopamine neurons contributes to the antidepressant efficacy of the SSRIs, it might be expected to decrease it.
>........the possibility that serotonin might be able both to accumulate in the synaptic vesicles of dopamine neurons and to inhibit the packaging of dopamine.
So.... in the presense of an SSRI, less dopamine might be released. Perhaps these findings could explain why SSRIs sometimes cause apathy and amotivation. This 'anti-dopamine' activity doesn't sound all that great to me! I would expect the antidepressant effect of SSRIs to be increased (not blocked) by inhibiting DAT.
Regards,
Ed.
Posted by Spriggy on April 11, 2005, at 16:25:34
In reply to Re: Antidepressants affect serotonin in 2 distinctways » jrbecker, posted by ed_uk on April 11, 2005, at 13:04:56
Okay, well I didn't understand half of that BUT it's not wonder I wigged out so badly on SSRi's.
If something touches my seratonin.. I wig.
Therefore, it was touching it in TWo ways, therefore I REALLY wigged.
I know.. I am deep. ha!
Posted by Phillipa on April 11, 2005, at 18:03:34
In reply to Re: Antidepressants affect serotonin in 2 distinctways, posted by Spriggy on April 11, 2005, at 16:25:34
Ed, Does this mean that SSRI's damage the system in the long run so once someone has taken them for awhile they always require one, or does it mean we shouldn't take them and get off them if we're on small doses. I'm with Spriggy, I never was good at the scientific exclamation of how a drug works. Fondly, Phillipa
Posted by banga on April 11, 2005, at 19:56:04
In reply to Re: Antidepressants affect serotonin in 2 distinctways » jrbecker, posted by ed_uk on April 11, 2005, at 13:04:56
Ed wrote--
> So.... in the presense of an SSRI, less dopamine might be released. Perhaps these findings could explain why SSRIs sometimes cause apathy and amotivation. This 'anti-dopamine' activity doesn't sound all that great to me! I would expect the antidepressant effect of SSRIs to be increased (not blocked) by inhibiting DAT.
>That was my first thought as well--that this is bad, not good news. It implies less dopamine....I want more! I suppose it is good to know in the long run...the more we know, the further we progress towards some clearer answers (and undoubtedly more questions than ever).
B.
Posted by ed_uk on April 12, 2005, at 11:29:01
In reply to Re: Antidepressants affect serotonin in 2 distinctways, posted by banga on April 11, 2005, at 19:56:04
Hi!
>It implies less dopamine....I want more!
:-D
Ed xxx
Posted by ed_uk on April 12, 2005, at 11:29:57
In reply to Re: Antidepressants affect serotonin in 2 distinctways, posted by Phillipa on April 11, 2005, at 18:03:34
Hi P!
>I never was good at the scientific exclamation of how a drug works.....
It's all just theory!
Ed xxx
Posted by banga on April 12, 2005, at 11:48:02
In reply to Re: Antidepressants affect serotonin in 2 distinctways » banga, posted by ed_uk on April 12, 2005, at 11:29:01
> Hi!
>
> >It implies less dopamine....I want more!
>
> :-D
>
> Ed xxx
Maybe we could avoid the stigma of mental illness by renaming depression as 'dopamine deficiency' anxiety as GABA dysfunction and schizophrenia as upregulated dopamine syndrome....
Posted by jrbecker on April 12, 2005, at 15:42:45
In reply to Re: Antidepressants affect serotonin in 2 distinctways » jrbecker, posted by ed_uk on April 11, 2005, at 13:04:56
> Hi,
>
> >The data clearly indicate that, at least under some conditions, both major classes of antidepressants cause serotonin to act as false transmitter in dopamine neurons. It is not yet known if such serotonin release by dopamine neurons contributes to the therapeutic effect of these agents, and it would be very interesting to know whether inhibition of DAT blocks the antidepressant effects of SSRIs.
>
> I honestly doubt that serotonin release by dopamine neurons contributes to the antidepressant efficacy of the SSRIs, it might be expected to decrease it.
>
> >........the possibility that serotonin might be able both to accumulate in the synaptic vesicles of dopamine neurons and to inhibit the packaging of dopamine.
>
> So.... in the presense of an SSRI, less dopamine might be released. Perhaps these findings could explain why SSRIs sometimes cause apathy and amotivation. This 'anti-dopamine' activity doesn't sound all that great to me! I would expect the antidepressant effect of SSRIs to be increased (not blocked) by inhibiting DAT.
>
> Regards,
> Ed.
actually, the interplay of the SSRI's affect on dopaminergic output is much more complicated than that. In other words, because SSRIs modulate DA activity, it should not be summarily described as a "negative" or an adverse effect of these drugs....
Journal of Affective Disorders
Volume 86, Issue 1 , May 2005, Pages 37-45
doi:10.1016/j.jad.2004.12.010
Copyright © 2005 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.
Research reportDopaminergic mechanism of antidepressant action in depressed patients
Paul Willnera, Anthony S. Haleb and Spilios Argyropoulosc
Department of Psychology, University of Wales Swansea, Swansea SA2 8PP, UK
bKent Institute of Medicine and Health Sciences, University of Kent at Canterbury, Canterbury CT2 7NZ, UK
cPsychopharmacology Unit, University of Bristol, Bristol BS8 1TD, UKReceived 5 September 2004; revised 6 December 2004; accepted 8 December 2004. Available online 22 January 2005.
Abstract
Clinical studies have not yet determined a common mechanism of action for antidepressant drugs, which have primary sites of action on a variety of different neurotransmitter systems. However, a large body of evidence from animal studies demonstrates that sensitisation of D2-like dopamine receptors in the mesolimbic dopamine system may represent a ‘final common pathway’ in antidepressant action. The present study aimed to determine whether, consistent with data from animal studies, the clinical antidepressant action of selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors (SSRIs) is reversed by acute administration of a receptor antagonist selective for D2-like receptors in the mesolimbic dopamine system. The participants were patients diagnosed with major depressive disorder (n=8) who had been treated successfully (Hamilton Depression Scale<10) with selective serotonin uptake inhibitors (fluoxetine, citalopram or paroxetine); and age-matched, non-depressed, untreated volunteers (n=10). They attended a psychiatric research ward on an out-patient basis, and received double-blind acute administration of either placebo, or a low dose of the selective dopamine D2/D3 receptor antagonist sulpiride (200 mg), in a counterbalanced order. Mood and psychomotor effects were assessed using visual analogue scales and the Fawcett–Clark Pleasure Capacity Scale. Sulpiride slightly improved subjective well-being in the control group, but in the antidepressant-treated patients, sulpiride caused a substantial reinstatement of depressed mood. These data are consistent with the hypothesis that sensitisation of D2-like receptors may be central to the clinical action of SSRIs.Keywords: Antidepressant; SSRI; Dopamine; Sulpiride; Depressed patients; Volunteers; Mood
Article Outline
1. Methods
1.1. Participants
1.1.1. Patients
1.1.2. Controls
1.2. Instruments
1.2.1. Visual analogue scales
1.2.2. Fawcett–Clark pleasure capacity scale
1.3. Procedure
1.4. Drug
1.5. Statistical analysis
1.5.1. Visual analogue scales
1.5.2. Fawcett–Clark pleasure capacity scale
2. Results
2.1. Antidepressant treatment
2.2. Effects of sulpiride on overall mood scores
2.3. Treatment–emergent side effects
3. Discussion
References
Antidepressant drugs have traditionally been assumed to exert their clinical effects via interactions with serotonergic and/or noradrenergic systems. In support of this assumption, it has been demonstrated that serotonin depletion blocks the action of serotonergic antidepressants and noradrenaline depletion blocks the action of noradrenergic antidepressants. However, serotonin depletion does not block the action of noradrenergic antidepressants, or vice versa (Miller et al., 1996 and Salomon et al., 1993). Therefore, if there is a common pathway for antidepressant action, it must lie downstream of both the noradrenergic and serotonergic systems where antidepressants exert their primary action.A substantial body of preclinical literature now demonstrates that chronic antidepressant treatment increases the responsiveness of postsynaptic D2/D3 dopamine receptors in mesolimbic terminal regions (Maj, 1990, Willner, 1989 and Willner, 2002). In animal models of depression, acute treatment with D2/D3 antagonists reverses the ‘therapeutic’ effects of chronic treatment with a wide variety of antidepressants (reviewed by Willner and Papp, 1997 and Willner, 2002). In the present study, we have adopted the same methodology to investigate the role of D2/D3 receptors in the clinical action of antidepressant drugs. Specifically, we have asked whether the antidepressant effect of selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors (SSRIs), in patients, would be reversed by acute treatment with a low, sub-threshold dose of the specific D2/D3 receptor antagonist sulpiride.
1. Methods
1.1. Participants
Participants were 8 depressed patients [4 male, 4 female; mean (±SEM) age=43.5 (±4.1)], and 10 non-depressed controls [5 male, 5 female; mean (±SEM) age=42.3 (±2.6)]. They provided written informed consent.1.1.1. Patients
All patients were diagnosed as suffering from major depression according to DSM-IV criteria assessed by the SCID, with a minimum 17-item Hamilton Depression Rating Scale (HDRS) score of 20 at pre-treatment baseline. None were bipolar or had a known bipolar family history, had psychotic depression, or had previously received either ECT or antipsychotic drugs. None had a history of drug abuse or positive urine drug screening at baseline, co-morbid psychiatric or medical conditions, or abnormalities on biochemical, endocrine or haematological screening. None were first episode and all had responded to antidepressant treatment in previous episodes. All had a normal ECG at baseline and after 2 weeks of antidepressant treatment. Three patients were smokers. Patients were told that they would be given on one occasion a single dose of an antipsychotic drug which was sometimes used in smaller doses as an antidepressant and that we would be assessing effects on psychological functioning. They were shown an information leaflet on sulpiride approved by the local Ethics Committee.The patients were treated with one of three SSRIs (fluoxetine, 20 mg, n=5; citalopram, 30 mg, n=2; paroxetine, 30 mg, n=1). Patients were invited to participate in the study as soon as a remission of symptoms became apparent (a drop in HDRS score below 10), following a minimum of three weeks of antidepressant treatment. This criterion had the effect of biasing the sample towards relatively early responders (three to four weeks of treatment). No patients were physically ill, actively suicidal or extremely agitated on the days of testing. Patients were discouraged from smoking during the assessments; all abstained, and none reported cravings.
1.1.2. Controls
Controls were recruited through advertisement or word of mouth among hospital staff and friends. Their family doctors were informed of their participation and asked if there were any medical or psychiatric reasons that contraindicated their patient's participation. Each volunteer was paid £100.00 upon completion of the study. All were non-smokers. Following medical and psychiatric screening (including ECG), they were told that they would receive an active tablet and a placebo and that the main purpose of the study was to look at the effects of the drug on mood. They were given the sulpiride datasheet.Controls had mean HDRS scores of 0.3 (range, 0–2), measured immediately prior to placebo administration, and 0.9 (range, 0–3), measured immediately prior to sulpiride administration.
1.2. Instruments
1.2.1. Visual analogue scales
Mood was rated using 10 visual analogue scales (VAS) (Bond and Lader, 1974), which were 10 cm lines labelled at each end (e.g. sad/happy). Subjects were asked to “mark a cross on the line to show where your feelings at present fall between the two words”. The dysphoric end was to the right for five of the scales and to the left for the other five scales.1.2.2. Fawcett–Clark pleasure capacity scale
The Fawcett–Clark Pleasure Capacity Scale (FCPCS: Fawcett et al., 1983), contains 36 items describing pleasurable situations; for each item, participants were asked to rate on a 5-point scale how much pleasure they would experience from each situation, regardless of the likelihood of the situation actually occurring.1.3. Procedure
All participants were tested twice, under medical supervision. On the two tests, they received either placebo or sulpiride (200 mg), in random order, with a one-week interval between tests. Patients spent the days on a research unit, where they stayed for 9 h on the days of the tests, with access to television, newspapers and books; they interacted regularly with medical, nursing and occupational therapy staff, who observed them for treatment-emergent side effects and performed hourly pulse, blood pressure and respiration monitoring. Control subjects were allocated a room in the research facilities with a desk and a video player.Participants were administered the HDRS at the start of each session. They then completed the VAS at hourly intervals, from 1 h before to 7 h after drug or placebo administration. The first completion of the scales was treated as a practice trial, and these data were not included in the analysis. The FCPCS was administered twice on each test day, immediately prior to drug/placebo administration, and at 2 h post drug, which was anticipated to be close to the time of maximum drug effect.
1.4. Drug
Sulpiride and placebo were prepared and encapsulated by the hospital pharmacy, which also randomized the treatments. The 200 mg dose of sulpiride was closer to the antidepressant dose range (100–150 mg) than the antipsychotic dose range (400–600 mg), and was expected not to alter mood in control subjects (Mehta et al., 1999).1.5. Statistical analysis
1.5.1. Visual analogue scales
For the initial analysis, the mean of all 10 VAS was calculated at each time point. For more detailed analyses, each of the scales was attributed to one of three sets, labelled: depressed mood (sad, depressed), psychomotor retardation (mentally slow, drowsy, withdrawn, lethargic), and psychomotor agitation (tense, irritable, restless, bored).Time-course data were analysed by 3-way analysis of variance, with two within-subjects factors, drug (D: sulpiride vs. placebo) and time (T: 8 levels, hours 0–7), and one between-subjects factor, group (G: control vs. depressed). Following the identification of a significant D×G×T interaction in the overall VAS data (see Results), 2-way D×G analyses of each time point identified the 3 h time point as the time of maximal drug effect. Therefore, 2-way D×G analyses of the 3 h data were also conducted for each of the three component sets of scales.
Finally, in order to summarize the VAS data over time, an Area Under the Curve (AUC) measure was calculated, by subtracting baseline (time 0) values from each of the subsequent time points, and summing across hours 1–7. These data were also analysed by 2-way analysis of variance (drug, group).
1.5.2. Fawcett–Clark pleasure capacity scale
A mean item score was obtained for each administration of the FCPCS. Preliminary examination of these data identified one outlier: an unusually large decrease in FCPCS score following placebo administration, in one of the controls. Data from this participant were excluded from the analysis of FCPCS scores. The remaining data were then analysed by 3-way analysis of variance (within-subjects: drug, time; between-subjects: group).2. Results
2.1. Antidepressant treatment
During the course of antidepressant treatment, mean (±SEM) HDRS ratings in the patient group fell from 27.1 (±1.4) prior to treatment to 8.6 (±0.5: range, 6–10) at the time of testing.FCPCS scores increased significantly over the course of antidepressant treatment [mean±SEM: before treatment, 2.35±0.14; after treatment, 3.36±0.14; t(7)=6.23, p<0.001]. Post-treatment scores in the treated group were marginally lower than control scores [3.60±0.12].
2.2. Effects of sulpiride on overall mood scores
The statistical analysis of the VAS scores is summarized in Table 1.Table 1.
Statistical analysis of VAS datalk and lk Interaction termc D×G D×G×T Quadratic D×G (3 h) AUC
Degrees of freedom 1, 16 7, 112 1, 16 1, 16 1, 16
All VAS 6.70 (0.02) 3.36 (0.003) 17.18 (<0.001) 16.76 (<0.001) 6.94 (0.018)
Depressed mood 8.50 (0.01) 3.95 (0.008) 17.30 (<0.001) 16.31 (<0.001) 12.38 (0.003)
Sad 2.92 (0.008) 8.41 (0.01)
Depressed 3.99 (0.001) 14.3 (0.002)
Psychomotor retardation 6.18 (0.024) 1.25 (>0.1) 3.80 (0.069) 7.38 (0.015) 2.32 (>0.1)
Mentally slowed 2.27 (0.037) 3.49 (0.08)
Drowsy 1.02 (>0.1) 3.85 (0.067)
Withdrawn 1.6 (>0.1) 0.21 (>0.1)
Lethargic 0.87 (>0.1) 2.43 (>0.1)
Psychomotor agitation 1.40 (>0.1) 2.32 (0.03) 7.29 (0.016) 5.62 (0.031) 5.08 (0.039)
Tense 1.75 (>0.1) 5.98 (0.026)
Irritable 1.89 (0.077) 0.62 (>0.1)
Restless 1.37 (>0.1) 0.91 (>0.1)
Bored 0.98 (>0.1) 4.29 (0.055)
a Values in the table are F-values for the specified interaction terms, with the associated p-values in parentheses. Analyses significant at p<0.01 are shown in bold.
b Only the major measures are shown for the individual VAS.
c D×G=Drug×Group interaction, providing an initial test of the hypothesis that sulpiride would specifically increase mood scores in the depressed group; D×G×T=Drug×Group×Time interaction, testing the hypothesis that this effect of sulpiride would be greater at certain time points than at others; Quadratic=quadratic component of the D×G×T interaction, testing the more specific hypothesis, that the effect of sulpiride would grow in the early part of the session and decline in the later part of the session, as the drug effect waned; D×G (3 h)=D×G interaction at the 3 h time-point, when maximal effects were observed; AUC=D×G interaction for Area Under the Curve.Analysis of the mean VAS rating, averaged across all 10 scales, revealed significant D×G (p=0.02) and D×G×T (p<0.005) interactions, and a significant quadratic component to the D×G×T interaction (p<0.001). Sulpiride increased overall depressive mood ratings, but only in the patient group; and this effect increased in the early part of the session, then decreased towards the end of the session (Fig. 1A, left panel). AUC (Fig. 1A, right panel) was decreased non-significantly by sulpiride in control subjects, but increased significantly in the depressed group, leading to a significant D×G interaction (p<0.02). The same pattern was present, to varying degrees, in each of the 10 individual scales.
(113K)Fig. 1. Effects of sulpiride on the mean mood ratings, averaged across (A) all 10 visual analogue scales (VAS); (B) scales reflecting depressed mood; (C) scales reflecting psychomotor retardation; or (D) scales reflecting psychomotor agitation. Left panels: Hourly mood ratings, for 7 h following administration of sulpiride (Sul) or Placebo (Plac) to volunteers (Con) or antidepressant-treated depressed patients (Dep). Right panels: Area under each of the curves shown in the left panels. Sulpiride significantly increased dysphoric mood ratings in patients but, if anything, tended to improve ratings in the controls; the effect was greatest on scales reflecting depressed mood (B).
Two-way ANOVAs at each time point showed that the greatest D×G interaction term was found 3 h after drug administration (p<0.001). Fig. 2A shows the change in VAS scores at this time, while Fig. 2B shows the change in FCPCS score 2 h after drug administration. Similar to the VAS data, analysis of FCPCS scores revealed a significant D×G×T interaction (p<0.001). As noted earlier one outlier was removed prior to analysis of the FCPCS data; if this outlier is included, the effect reported is even larger [F(1,16)=30.67]. On both measures, sulpiride caused a substantial worsening of mood in the patient group (p<0.001), which was seen in all eight participants. Similar effects of sulpiride were seen in the three smokers and the five non-smokers.
(23K)Fig. 2. Change in scores (Pre-Post) on (A: left panel) mean of all Visual Analogue Scales (VAS) 3 h post-drug and (B: right panel) the Fawcett–Clark Pleasure Capacity Scale (FCPCS) 2 h post-drug, following the administration of sulpiride (Sul) or Placebo (Plac) to volunteers (Con) or antidepressant-treated depressed patients (Dep). Sulpiride greatly decreased VAS ratings and pleasure scores in patients (seen as a large pre-post difference), but tended to improve scores in controls. *** p<0.001 relative to placebo.
In contrast to the significant decreases in mood following sulpiride administration to the patient group, sulpiride slightly improved mood in the control group (Fig. 2). While the improvements were not significant overall, on both measures there was a significant correlation between the initial mood rating and the change following sulpiride administration: that is, sulpiride caused greater mood improvements in individuals who were more depressed (VAS: r=0.67, p<0.05; FCPCS: r=0.71, p<0.025).
2.3. Treatment–emergent side effects
No systematic changes in vital signs were observed during the study in either treatment condition. Two patients each showed transient bradycardia and tachycardia during the first 2 h of the procedure. Three patients complained of sedation and two of lethargy during the active drug condition, two each of lethargy and sedation with placebo. One patient complained of dizziness in the placebo condition. Other side effects were continuations of those experienced with SSRI treatment prior to the study. There were no reports or observations of akathisia or other extrapyramidal side effects (EPS).In order to examine in greater detail the possibility that sulpiride may have caused subtle EPS, the 10 VAS were separated into three groups, representing depressed mood, psychomotor retardation, and psychomotor agitation, respectively. On all three measures, sulpiride caused a significant worsening in the SSRI-treated patients but slightly improved psychological well-being in the control group. Compared with Fig. 1A, which shows the time course of sulpiride effects averaged across all VAS, Fig. 1B shows that the effect of sulpiride was substantially larger in the two VAS that reflect depressed mood, both of which showed highly significant (p<0.01) changes (Table 1). By contrast, the effects of sulpiride on scales representing psychomotor retardation (Fig. 1C) and psychomotor agitation (Fig. 1D) were much smaller, with significant effects (p<0.05) seen on only two of the eight contributing scales (Table 1). As the effects of sulpiride on psychomotor symptoms were far smaller than the effects on depressed mood, they cannot readily be attributed to psychomotor side-effects.
3. Discussion
Consistent with an earlier study (Mehta et al., 1999), the administration of a low dose of sulpiride caused no worsening of mood in non-depressed, non-antidepressant-treated volunteers. Indeed, in the control group, sulpiride caused a slight enhancement of psychological well-being. This observation may be relevant to the efficacy of low-dose sulpiride as an antidepressant (Del Zompo et al., 1990 and Ruther et al., 1999), and most likely reflects the inhibitory action of sulpiride at presynaptic D2/D3 receptors (Serra et al., 1990, Drago et al., 2000 and Papp and Wieronska, 2000).In sharp contrast, sulpiride caused a marked worsening of mood when administered acutely to patients treated chronically with SSRIs. This presumably reflects an inhibitory action at supersensitive postsynaptic D2/D3 receptors in mesolimbic terminal regions (Maj, 1990, Willner, 1989 and Willner, 2002). The re-emergence of depressive subjective changes, following sulpiride administration, was seen using both VAS measures and the Fawcett–Clark Pleasure Capacity Scale. Further exploration of the individual VAS showed that the effects of sulpiride were maximal on scales reflective of depressed mood (sad, depressed), but smaller on scales reflecting psychomotor changes (retardation or agitation), suggesting some degree of specificity for sulpiride to reverse the anti-anhedonic effect of antidepressant treatment.
The observation that sulpiride reinstated depressive mood following successful antidepressant treatment at first sight appears contrary to clinical experience that depression can be treated using low dose benzamides (Del Zompo et al., 1990, Ruther et al., 1999 and Smeraldi, 1998), or antidepressant/neuroleptic cocktails (Nelson, 1987 and Willner, 2002). However, there is no real inconsistency, because the conditions of the present study are very different from the clinical situation, in which sulpiride would be administered chronically to a patient who was actively depressed. In the present study, sulpiride was administered acutely only after the patients had recovered, a situation that would almost never arise in the clinic. The selective effect of sulpiride in the antidepressant-treated patients is consistent with studies showing that antidepressants increase subcortical D2/D3 receptor binding following successful treatment of anhedonic rats (Papp et al., 1994) or depressed patients (Bowden et al., 1997, Larisch et al., 1997, D'haenen et al., 1999 and Klimke et al., 1999: but not Ebert et al., 1996 and Moresco et al., 2000), which was not seen in nondepressed volunteers (Tiihonen et al., 1996), or depressed patients who failed to respond to SSRIs (D'haenen et al., 1999 and Klimke et al., 1999).
It is possible that sulpiride-induced relapse to a dysphoric mood state could be related to akathisia, which has sometimes been reported following the combination of an SSRI and an antipsychotic (Lane, 1998 and Caley, 1998). However, this is unlikely, because no observable signs of akathisia were apparent in the patient group. Furthermore, no significant subjective effects of sulpiride were seen in the two individual VAS most closely related to akathisia, restlessness and irritability. For ethical reasons, this study did not include the control group that would definitively rule out akathisia: that is, non-depressed volunteers treated acutely with sulpiride after chronic SSRI treatment. However, the comparable group was included in two preclinical studies using the chronic mild stress model (Willner, 1997a), neither of which showed adverse effects of this drug combination in control animals, at doses that were pharmacologically active in reversing (fluoxetine) and reinstating (raclopride) stress-induced anhedonia (Muscat et al., 1992 and D'Aquila et al., 1997).
The study has some methodological shortcomings. First, we have tested only eight patients. However, the reversal of antidepressant effects by sulpiride was highly significant and seen in all eight participants, so the sample size was adequate for the purposes of this initial study. Nevertheless, the study should be replicated. Second, the patient group included some smokers. While this could in principle have been a complicating factor, the effects reported were of similar magnitude in the smokers and the non-smokers. Third, patients received three different SSRIs. However, as the effects of sulpiride were seen in all eight participants, this could be viewed as a strength, since it demonstrated that the effect is not specific to a particular SSRI. Fourth, the study did not include a placebo wash-out period, and the design of the study favoured the inclusion of early responders, so it is possible that a portion of the clinical improvement under SSRI treatment reflects a placebo effect. This shortcoming could be addressed in a subsequent study, in which patients were tested after longer periods of treatment. However, placebo effects are unlikely to be a major factor, as the relevant animal studies did include placebo-treated groups, and the effects of D2/D3 receptor blockade were restricted to the antidepressant-treated groups (Muscat et al., 1992 and D'Aquila et al., 1997). Finally, we did not examine the effect of sulpiride in depressed patients who had not been treated with antidepressants. Some studies (D'haenen and Bossuyt, 1994, Shah et al., 1997 and Verbeeck et al., 2001) though not others (Bowden et al., 1997 and Wong et al., 1985) have suggested that D2 receptors might be supersensitive in untreated depressed patients. Hence, a potential mood-lowering effect of sulpiride might have been present in our patients even before they received SSRI treatment. However, this is rather unlikely, as sulpiride and its congener, amisulpride, have been widely used in the treatment of depression (indeed, this was the reason for choosing sulpiride for this study, rather than raclopride), and to the best of our knowledge, adverse effects on mood early in treatment have not been reported.
In summary, both the animal and the human data are consistent with the hypothesis that D2/D3 receptors in the nucleus accumbens may represent a ‘final common pathway’ in the reversal of hedonic impairments by antidepressant drugs. The antidepressant effects of drugs that act primarily as direct (pramipexole) or indirect (nomifensine, bupropion, amoxapine, low-dose amisulpride) dopamine agonists are also consistent with a dopaminergic mechanism of antidepressant action (Willner and Papp, 1997 and Willner, 1997b). However, the failure of DA synthesis inhibitors to block the antidepressant effect of SSRIs (Miller et al., 1996 and McTavish et al., 2004) highlights the importance of postsynaptic receptor modulation in the action of ‘conventional’ antidepressants. Our working hypothesis is that (i) antidepressants act primarily at serotonergic or noradrenergic synapses in regions such as amygdala, hippocampus or prefrontal cortex, but (ii) all of these regions project primarily to the nucleus accumbens, where their outputs to the motor system are gated by dopaminergic inputs from the ventral tegmental area, and (iii) it is this gating function that is modulated by antidepressant sensitisation of D2/D3 receptors (Willner, 2002). Further studies of this hypothesis are warranted: in particular, a test of the prediction that, in common with serotonergic antidepressants, the action of noradrenergic antidepressants would also be blocked by acute low dose neuroleptic administration to depressed patients.
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Posted by ed_uk on April 12, 2005, at 15:59:35
In reply to Re: Antidepressants affect serotonin in 2 distinctways » ed_uk, posted by jrbecker on April 12, 2005, at 15:42:45
Hi,
Thank you for posting the study :-) I'm sorry for my oversimplistic statements.
>much more complicated than that....
It always is when it comes to the brain!
Regards,
Ed.
Posted by banga on April 12, 2005, at 16:13:35
In reply to Re: Antidepressants affect serotonin in 2 distinctways » ed_uk, posted by jrbecker on April 12, 2005, at 15:42:45
>>>actually, the interplay of the SSRI's affect on dopaminergic output is much more complicated than that. In other words, because SSRIs modulate DA activity, it should not be summarily described as a "negative" or an adverse effect of these drugs....
Really that is what I meant, sorry if I offended--that it is very complex...For me I was just reacting ot the tone that seemed to imply this is definitely positive...we dont know that. I think it is way too early to understand whether the interactions are good or bad--and as in anything in life, it is probably both good and bad, at different sites at different times, individualized by a persons chemistry, etc....
IMO. I am far from being an expert, all I know is that brain chemistry is highly complex, and the we truly do not know much about the medications to understand how they act...not that I do not appreciate their efforts!
Banga
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