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The Marketing of 5-Hydroxytryptamine: Depression or Anxiety?

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  02 January 2018

David Healy*
Affiliation:
Academic Sub-Department of Psychological Medicine, North Wales Hospital, Denbigh, Clwyd LL16 5SS

Extract

The discovery that tricyclic antidepressants blocked the re-uptake of both noradrenaline and 5-hydroxytryptamine (5-HT) was a significant step on the road to the development of the monoamine hypotheses of depression (Healy, 1987). The subsequent demonstration that the de-aminated metabolites of amitriptyline and imipramine, nortriptyline and desipramine, were antidepressants tilted the balance toward noradrenaline as the pertinent neurotransmitter, as these latter drugs were clearly inhibitors of noradrenergic rather than 5-HT uptake.

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Copyright © The Royal College of Psychiatrists 

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