Affective Disorders: Antidepressants and Mood Stabilizers

 

Characteristics of Affective Disorders

Major depression damages the quality of life

In bipolar disorder moods alternate from mania to depression

Risk factors for mood disorders are biological and environmental

Animal Models of Affective Disorders

Models of bipolar disorder

Neurochemical Basis of Mood Disorders

Serotonin dysfunction contributes to mood disorders

Norepinephrine activity is altered by antidepressants

Norepinephrine and serotonin modulate one another

Neurobiological Models of Depression

Box 18.1 The Cutting Edge Epigenetic Modifications in Psychopathology and Treatment

Therapies for Affective Disorders

Monoamine oxidase inhibitors are the oldest antidepressant drugs

Tricyclic antidepressants block the reuptake of norepinephrine and serotonin

Second-generation antidepressants have different side effects

Third-generation antidepressants have distinctive mechanisms of action

Drugs for treating bipolar disorder stabilize the highs and the lows