Date of Award

2017

Document Type

Thesis

Degree Name

Bachelors

Department

Natural Sciences

First Advisor

Ryba, Tyrone

Area of Concentration

Natural Sciences

Abstract

Selective serotonin reuptake inhibitor (SSRI) antidepressants are among the most prescribed, and most researched pharmaceuticals. In spite of this, the details of how they attain their antidepressant effect remain incompletely understood. Early research into depression focused on the modulatory effects of monoamine neurotransmitters, while more recent approaches have sought to characterize depression in a complex systems framework. Much progress has been made in identifying the processes involved in mediating the antidepressant effect, including alteration of functional connectivity in large scale networks of the brain, glucocorticoid signaling, and activation of neural plasticity and neurogenesis in the hippocampus. Taken together, these suggest that SSRIs may act to facilitate rewiring of aberrant corticolimbic and corticostriatal neuronal circuits, but the exact characterization of these mechanisms remains elusive.

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