Revisiting serotonin reuptake inhibitors and the therapeutic potential of "uptake-2" in psychiatric disorders

Lynette C. Daws, Wouter Koek, Nathan C. Mitchell

Research output: Contribution to journalReview articlepeer-review

40 Scopus citations

Abstract

Depression is among the most common psychiatric disorders, and in many patients a disorder for which available medications provide suboptimal or no symptom relief. The most commonly prescribed class of antidepressants, the selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors (SSRIs), are thought to act by increasing extracellular serotonin in brain by blocking its uptake via the high-affinity serotonin transporter (SERT). However, the relative lack of therapeutic efficacy of SSRIs has brought into question the utility of increasing extracellular serotonin for the treatment of depression. In this Viewpoint, we discuss why increasing extracellular serotonin should not be written off as a therapeutic strategy. We describe how "uptake-2" transporters may explain the relative lack of therapeutic efficacy of SSRIs, as well as why "uptake-2" transporters might be useful therapeutic targets.

Original languageEnglish (US)
Pages (from-to)16-21
Number of pages6
JournalACS Chemical Neuroscience
Volume4
Issue number1
DOIs
StatePublished - Jan 16 2013

Keywords

  • antidepressant
  • organic cation transporter
  • plasma membrane monoamine transporter
  • serotonin transporter

ASJC Scopus subject areas

  • Cognitive Neuroscience
  • Biochemistry
  • Physiology
  • Cell Biology

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