Antidepressants induce resilience and reverse susceptibility
Using a mouse model of depression, researchers found that a therapeutic response to antidepressant medication may stem from changes in gene expression that induce resilience and reverse vulnerability to exhibiting depression-like responses to stress. The study, led by Dr. Eric Nestler of the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai in New York, teases apart the mechanisms of two different antidepressant drugs- the conventional tricyclic antidepressant imipramine and fast-acting ketamine. Depression-like symptoms were induced in mice using a chronic social defeat stress model, which causes physiological and behavioral changes that model depression in humans. Using genome-wide assays to study gene transcription in mice that either succumbed to the stress paradigm or were unaffected, the researchers identified specific transcriptional changes associated with susceptibility or resilience. Then they treated the mice exhibiting depression-like symptoms with repeated imipramine or single-d...