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This work is a guidebook for clinicians who are involved in treating depressive patients and also serves the research scientists who are working on the psychopharmacological mechanisms of antidepressant actions and psychopathological mechanisms underlying mood disorders. Mood disorders such as major depressive disorder (MDD), bipolar disorder (BPD) and seasonal affective disorder (SAD) are the most disabling disorders that are among the most expensive of all medical illnesses. The pathophysiology of mood disorders is very complex and involves many mechanisms like circadian rhythm disruption, sleep abnormalities, melatonin rhythm abnormalities and alterations in melatonin receptor mechanisms, abnormalities in monoaminergic neurotransmitter mechanisms, glutamatergic release mechanisms, hippocampal neurogenesis, and abnormal immune and cytokine release mechanisms. Many antidepressants that are in clinical use today including the recently introduced novel agentslike agomelatine or other antidepressants cause clinical remission by resynchronizing disrupted circadian rhythms and melatonin receptor functions, enhancing monoaminergic neurotransmission, promoting hippocampal neurogenesis, and regulating immune mechanisms. This book explains various etiological factors that are involved in the pathogenesis of mood disorders and the mechanisms of therapeutic actions of antidepressants including the recently introduced agomelatine and other antidepressants that exhibit rapid onset of action with greater efficacy and fewer side effects..

Despite the availability of antidepressants for over 40 years, a substantial proportion of depressed patients do not respond adequately to treatment. Failure to respond effectively to treatment contributes to physical ill-health and psychiatric morbidity, often resulting in premature death of the depressed patient. The purpose of this volume is to consider the possible reasons for the limitations of the currently available antidepressants, to examine the advances in our understanding of the psychopathology of depression and how such knowledge may assist in the discovery of new methods of treatment. Leading international experts in this field discuss the possible underlying reasons for depression and limitations of current antidepressants. Opportunities for novel therapeutic approaches to dysfunctional circadian rhythms and mood disorders as well as current status and future perspectives for optimizing antidepressant management of depression are reviewed. This publication illustrates the breadth of the latest research and is valuable reading for psychiatrists, neuroscientists and pharmacologists.

This unique ground-breaking work, authored by renowned Harvard-based researchers G I Papakostas and M Fava, represents, by far, the most comprehensive compilation to date of medical studies and reports involving the use of antidepressants for the treatment of major depressive disorder, one of the most prevalent and devastating medical illnesses afflicting mankind today. Given the breadth of the scientific literature focusing on the use of antidepressants for major depressive disorder, this work represents an invaluable tool for clinicians as well as scientists in search of a reference manual to help guide them through the field. The book is organized into four parts; each part focusing on a separate theme that will facilitate the reader to precisely access particular information of interest, whether be it clinical or scientific in nature. Each part is then sub-divided into several thematic chapters, which are enriched with tables and figures citing results from the most influential studies in the field. Finally, clinical and research “pearls” are listed throughout the book in bullet-point fashion to help summarize the available knowledge-base in a user-friendly format.