Why Medication Fails To Address Mood Disorders

"The serotonin neuron may not be able to adapt and restore its firing, inducing a presumed serotonin deficit in terminal fields, evidenced by shrinkage of the hippocampus," added Coplan, a professor of psychiatry at SUNY Downstate Medical Center, in the US.

The researchers advocate that additional studies should be performed as better understanding of the serotonin system will significantly improve future treatment options.

Coplan noted that a recent large-scale study showed only a minority of patients do well on SSRIs, and of those, many lose response in a year or two.

"There is an epidemic of inadequately treated depression and psychiatrists are not well trained to deal with this challenge," he observed.

"What they often do is change from one anti-depressant to another when there is a lack of response. Eventually the patient becomes non-compliant and the patient, rather than the treatment, is blamed for the non-efficacy," he rued.

The research was published in Frontiers in Behavioural Neuroscience.

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