The role of serotonin neurotransmission in rapid antidepressant actions.
Ketamine has rapid antidepressant effects that represent a significant advance in treating depression, but its poor safety and tolerability limit its clinical utility. Accreting evidence suggests that serotonergic neurotransmission participates in the rapid antidepressant effects of ketamine and hallucinogens. Thus, understanding how serotonin contributes to these effects may allow identification of novel rapid antidepressant mechanisms with improved tolerability. The goal of this paper is to understand how serotonergic mechanisms participate in rapid antidepressant mechanisms. We review the relevance of serotonergic neurotransmission for rapid antidepressant effects and evaluate the role of 5-HT We found that 5-HT We find it plausible that serotonergic neurotransmission participates in rapid antidepressant mechanisms by increasing synaptic plasticity, perhaps through GSK-3β inhibition.