Paul J Carlson, Jaskaran B Singh, Carlos A Zarate, Wayne C Drevets, Husseini K Manji
Major depressive disorder and bipolar disorder are severe mood disorders that affect the lives and functioning of millions each year. The majority of previous neurobiological research and standard pharmacotherapy regimens have approached these illnesses as purely neurochemical disorders, with particular focus on the monoaminergic neurotransmitter systems. Not altogether surprisingly, these treatments are inadequate for many individuals afflicted with these devastating illnesses. Recent advances in functional brain imaging have identified critical neural circuits involving the amygdala and other limbic structures, prefrontal cortical regions, thalamus, and basal ganglia that modulate emotional behavior and are disturbed in primary and secondary mood disorders...
January 2006: NeuroRx: the Journal of the American Society for Experimental NeuroTherapeutics