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Cholinergic neurotransmission seems not to be involved in depression but possibly in personality
- Publication Year :
- 1995
-
Abstract
- Concordant with the adrenergic-cholinergic imbalance hypothesis of affective psychosis, there is a cholinergic supersensitivity in depression. Thus, the anticholinergic properties of some antidepressants might contribute to their efficacy. However, in the present double-blind studies (n = 20) with mianserin and viloxazine, respectively, which lack anticholinergic properties, adjunctive treatment with the anticholinergic biperiden versus placebo did not enhance the antidepressive efficacy. Therefore, we hypothesized that cholinergic supersensitivity might be linked to some possibly predisposing dimension of personality. Indeed, in healthy male volunteers (n = 11) the behavioral and cardiovascular sensitivity to physostigmine correlated significantly with "irritability" and "emotional lability" as well as with habitually passive strategies in stress coping. The rise in plasma cortisol and norepinephrine correlated with "retardation"; that of epinephrine with active coping. Thus, the cholinergic supersensitivity in affective psychoses might be linked to a personality dimension like stress sensitivity rather than to the diagnostic category itself.
- Subjects :
- Adult
Male
Depressive Disorder
Adolescent
Dose-Response Relationship, Drug
Physostigmine
Mianserin
Middle Aged
Synaptic Transmission
Acetylcholine
Drug Administration Schedule
Biperiden
Viloxazine
Cholinergic Fibers
Double-Blind Method
Humans
Drug Therapy, Combination
Female
Arousal
Research Article
Aged
Personality
Subjects
Details
- Language :
- English
- Database :
- OpenAIRE
- Accession number :
- edsair.pmid..........9a89660a53949999691330eeef6178ef