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Effect of treatment with some atypical antidepressants on 3 H‐DHA binding in rat brain
Author(s) -
Pandey Ghanshyam N.,
Brown Barbara,
Davis John M.
Publication year - 1985
Publication title -
drug development research
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.582
H-Index - 60
eISSN - 1098-2299
pISSN - 0272-4391
DOI - 10.1002/ddr.430050308
Subject(s) - antidepressant , pharmacology , chlorpromazine , haloperidol , mechanism of action , mianserin , dihydroalprenolol , reuptake , serotonin , receptor , medicine , endocrinology , chemistry , antagonist , partial agonist , dopamine , hippocampus , biochemistry , in vitro
The mechanism of therapeutic action of antidepressant drugs has been related to their effects on metabolism and release and reuptake of catecholamines and serotonin. Some atypical antidepressants, however, do not have such pharmacological effects. Recently it has been reported that most of the antidepressant drugs cause down regulation of beta adrenergic receptors in rat brain after chronic treatment. In order to examine if this is a common and specific pharmacologic property of all antidepressant drugs, we have studied the effects of treatment with some atypical antidepressant drugs on beta adrenergic receptor binding in rat cortex using 3 H‐dihydroalprenolol (DHA) as the radiolabeled ligand. Our results indicate that chronic treatment with almost all antidepressants studied causes down regulation of beta adrenergic receptors. However, such effects are not observed after treatment with neuroleptics such as haloperidol or chlorpromazine or psychomotor stimulants such as cocaine. This approach thus provides a useful method of screening potential antidepressant drugs.