Clinical Psychopharmacology of 5-HT

5-HT的临床精神药理学

• 批准号: G0701421/1
• 负责人: Philip Cowen
• 金额: $ 207.15万
• 依托单位: University of Oxford
• 依托单位国家: 英国
• 项目类别: Research Grant
• 财政年份: 2008
• 资助国家: 英国
• 起止时间: 2008 至 无数据
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://gtr.ukri.org/projects?ref=G0701421%2F1
• 关键词: Clinical; Psychopharmacology; HT

Clinical depression is a common illness, often beginning in early adulthood, which can recur throughout a lifetime. The recurrent nature of clinical depression, together with the burden it places on patients and their families, makes this condition one of leading medical causes of suffering and disability. Understanding the biochemical changes in the brain in depression will help us devise better treatments and also improve efforts at prevention. A neurotransmitter called serotonin (5-HT) plays an important role in both the causation of depression and in current drug treatments. In this study we will use advances in brain imaging to study how 5-HT acts in the brain to alter mood. For example we will use magnetic resonance spectroscopy (MRS) to see how 5-HT interacts with special neurons in the brain that use a chemical messenger called glutamate. We believe that the interactions between 5 HT and glutamate may be very important in helping us understand the cause of depression and in developing more effective methods of treatment. A major problem in the treatment of depression is the unpredictability of response to current drug treatments; some patients do well, others are not helped very much. We believe that antidepressants which work through 5-HT such as the selective serotonin re-uptake inhibitors (SSRIs) may produce their therapeutic effects by acting on the way the brain analyses emotional information. The use of functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) allows us to examine the brain networks involved in emotional experience. We will use therefore use fMRI to study how these brain networks are influenced by SSRIs in depressed patients and whether the changes we see enable us to predict those patients who will do well with treatment.

临床抑郁症是一种常见疾病，通常始于成年早期，并可能在一生中复发。临床抑郁症的反复发作性及其给患者及其家人带来的负担，使这种疾病成为造成痛苦和残疾的主要原因之一。了解抑郁症时大脑的生化变化将有助于我们设计更好的治疗方法，并加强预防工作。一种称为血清素 (5-HT) 的神经递质在抑郁症的病因和当前的药物治疗中发挥着重要作用。在这项研究中，我们将利用大脑成像技术的进步来研究 5-HT 如何在大脑中发挥作用来改变情绪。例如，我们将使用磁共振波谱 (MRS) 来观察 5-HT 如何与大脑中使用称为谷氨酸的化学信使的特殊神经元相互作用。我们相信，5 HT 和谷氨酸之间的相互作用对于帮助我们了解抑郁症的病因和开发更有效的治疗方法可能非常重要。抑郁症治疗的一个主要问题是当前药物治疗的反应不可预测。有些患者情况良好，而另一些患者则没有得到很大帮助。我们相信，通过 5-HT 发挥作用的抗抑郁药，例如选择性血清素再摄取抑制剂 (SSRI)，可能通过作用于大脑分析情绪信息的方式来产生治疗效果。功能性磁共振成像（fMRI）的使用使我们能够检查涉及情绪体验的大脑网络。因此，我们将使用功能磁共振成像来研究抑郁症患者的这些大脑网络如何受到 SSRI 的影响，以及我们看到的变化是否使我们能够预测那些治疗效果良好的患者。