One Dose of Antidepressant Changes Brain Connections, Study Says
One Dose of Antidepressant Changes Brain Connections, Study Says
Researchers eventually hope to predict who will respond to a drug and who won't
Lexapro is a selective serotonin reuptake inhibitor (SSRI), a group of antidepressants that also includes brands like Paxil, Prozac and Zoloft. The drugs are widely prescribed, but no one knows precisely how they act on the brain.
It's been thought that they change the brain's connectivity, but that those effects probably take a few weeks to show up, said study researcher Dr. Julia Sacher, a fellow at the Max Planck Institute for Human Cognitive and Brain Sciences in Leipzig, Germany.
"Our findings reveal that SSRIs affect brain connectivity right away, and that these changes encompass the entire brain," Sacher said.
It's possible, she added, that those changes are a first step in "remodeling" the brain before the drugs improve symptoms, which typically takes a few weeks -- if they work at all.
Sacher agreed that much work remains before these findings can prove useful in the real world. She said researchers still need to understand how different antidepressants affect the brains of people with and without depression -- not only after the first dose, but over the longer term, too.
The hope is to uncover distinct differences in brain connectivity between depression patients who ultimately respond to an antidepressant and those who don't.
Then, one idea would be to do a short brain scan before someone who is depressed starts treatment, Sacher said. "Ideally, the pattern of this baseline brain scan could provide psychiatrists with additional information on what kind of treatment would have the highest probability to help with the patient's symptoms," she said.
That's not feasible right now, she stressed, but in the future it could be.
Saveanu agreed. Functional MRI scans are noninvasive and take about 15 minutes. As the price comes down over time, Saveanu said, they might offer a viable way to help tailor depression patients' treatment.
Depression Slideshow: Tips for Exercise, Diet and Less Stress
1 Dose of Antidepressant Changes Brain Connections?
Researchers eventually hope to predict who will respond to a drug and who won't
Lexapro is a selective serotonin reuptake inhibitor (SSRI), a group of antidepressants that also includes brands like Paxil, Prozac and Zoloft. The drugs are widely prescribed, but no one knows precisely how they act on the brain.
It's been thought that they change the brain's connectivity, but that those effects probably take a few weeks to show up, said study researcher Dr. Julia Sacher, a fellow at the Max Planck Institute for Human Cognitive and Brain Sciences in Leipzig, Germany.
"Our findings reveal that SSRIs affect brain connectivity right away, and that these changes encompass the entire brain," Sacher said.
It's possible, she added, that those changes are a first step in "remodeling" the brain before the drugs improve symptoms, which typically takes a few weeks -- if they work at all.
Sacher agreed that much work remains before these findings can prove useful in the real world. She said researchers still need to understand how different antidepressants affect the brains of people with and without depression -- not only after the first dose, but over the longer term, too.
The hope is to uncover distinct differences in brain connectivity between depression patients who ultimately respond to an antidepressant and those who don't.
Then, one idea would be to do a short brain scan before someone who is depressed starts treatment, Sacher said. "Ideally, the pattern of this baseline brain scan could provide psychiatrists with additional information on what kind of treatment would have the highest probability to help with the patient's symptoms," she said.
That's not feasible right now, she stressed, but in the future it could be.
Saveanu agreed. Functional MRI scans are noninvasive and take about 15 minutes. As the price comes down over time, Saveanu said, they might offer a viable way to help tailor depression patients' treatment.
Depression Slideshow: Tips for Exercise, Diet and Less Stress
