Why Medication Fails To Address Mood Disorders

NEW YORK: The majority of people with mood and anxiety disorders who receive the most commonly prescribed anti-depressants -- called SSRIs -- are not helped by these medications.

A new research sheds light on why Selective Serotonin Reuptake Inhibitors or SSRIs fail to work in most patients.

SSRIs are designed to increase serotonin, a neurotransmitter in the brain that is key to maintenance of mood.

"We have shown that serotonin is too high near the serotonin brain cells, reducing firing of the serotonin nerve cells through a well-documented negative feedback mechanism in the raphe nucleus.

"The result is that the hippocampus and other critical brain structures needed for mood maintenance do not get enough serotonin," explained lead researcher Jeremy D. Coplan.

"We have hypothesised in an earlier paper that this is a plausible reason why SSRIs may not work in a majority of people, because SSRIs will tend to make the high serotonin even higher in the raphe nucleus.

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