Rethinking depression. (cover story)

ANTIDEPRESSANTS; MENTAL depression; SEROTONIN uptake inhibitors

Intriguingly, some SSRIs and other antidepressant medicines seem to suppress inflammation. This would explain why medications and talking therapies often work best together: the antidepressants make the brain more neuroplastic, while the person learns more helpful thought patterns. His idea to test ketamine as an antidepressant came from work showing that other drugs that bind to the normal receptors for glutamate seemed to reduce low mood in animals. Depression is one of the biggest medical problems facing societies worldwide, treatments have long been controversial and here was research showing that Prozac and other common antidepressants are based on a defunct hypothesis about what causes the condition. [Extracted from the article]

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