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Your search keyword '"Cowen, Philip J."' showing total 2 results
2 results on '"Cowen, Philip J."'

1. An Experimental Medicine Investigation of the Effects of Subacute Pramipexole Treatment on Emotional Information Processing in Healthy Volunteers.

Author

Martens, Marieke Annie Gerdine, Kaltenboeck, Alexander, Halahakoon, Don Chamith, Browning, Michael, Cowen, Philip J., and Harmer, Catherine J.

Subjects
ANTIDEPRESSANTS, PRAMIPEXOLE, EXPERIMENTAL medicine, FUNCTIONAL magnetic resonance imaging, DOPAMINE agonists, INFORMATION processing
Abstract

Treatment with the dopamine D2/D3 receptor agonist pramipexole has demonstrated promising clinical effects in patients with depression. However, the mechanisms through which pramipexole might alleviate depressive symptoms are currently not well understood. Conventional antidepressant drugs are thought to work by biasing the processing of emotional information in favour of positive relative to negative appraisal. In this study, we used an established experimental medicine assay to explore whether pramipexole treatment might have a similar effect. Employing a double-blind, parallel-group design, 40 healthy volunteers (aged 18 to 43 years, 50% female) were randomly allocated to 12 to 15 days of treatment with either pramipexole (at a peak daily dose of 1.0 mg pramipexole salt) or placebo. After treatment was established, emotional information processing was assessed on the neural level by measuring amygdala activity in response to positive and negative facial emotional expressions, using functional magnetic resonance imaging (MRI). In addition, behavioural measures of emotional information processing were collected at baseline and on drug, using an established computerized task battery, tapping into different cognitive domains. As predicted, pramipexole-treated participants, compared to those receiving placebo, showed decreased neural activity in response to negative (fearful) vs. positive (happy) facial expressions in bilateral amygdala. Contrary to our predictions, however, pramipexole treatment had no significant antidepressant-like effect on behavioural measures of emotional processing. This study provides the first experimental evidence that subacute pramipexole treatment in healthy volunteers modifies neural responses to emotional information in a manner that resembles the effects of conventional antidepressant drugs. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Published
2021
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2. Fronto-limbic effective connectivity as possible predictor of antidepressant response to SSRI administration

Author

Benedetta Vai, Philip J. Cowen, Francesco Benedetti, Chiara Bulgarelli, Beata R. Godlewska, Catherine J. Harmer, Vai, Benedetta, Bulgarelli, Chiara, Godlewska, Beata R., Cowen, Philip J., Benedetti, Francesco, and Harmer, Catherine J.

Subjects
Male, 0302 clinical medicine, Neural Pathways, Image Processing, Computer-Assisted, Limbic System, SSRI, Pharmacology (medical), Depression, Middle Aged, Serotonin Uptake Inhibitor, Magnetic Resonance Imaging, Antidepressive Agents, Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorder, Frontal Lobe, Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, Psychiatry and Mental health, Treatment Outcome, medicine.anatomical_structure, Neurology, Psychiatry and Mental Health, Antidepressive Agent, Biomarker (medicine), Antidepressant, Female, Psychology, Selective Serotonin Reuptake Inhibitors, psychological phenomena and processes, Human, medicine.drug, Adult, medicine.medical_specialty, Ventrolateral prefrontal cortex, Models, Neurological, Citalopram, Amygdala, behavioral disciplines and activities, Neural Pathway, 03 medical and health sciences, mental disorders, medicine, Humans, Escitalopram, BOLD fMRI, Psychiatry, Emotional bias, Biological Psychiatry, Anterior cingulate cortex, Emotion, Pharmacology, Depressive Disorder, Major, Fusiform gyrus, 030227 psychiatry, nervous system, Dynamic causal modeling, Neurology (clinical), Neuroscience, 030217 neurology & neurosurgery
Abstract

The timely selection of the optimal treatment for depressed patients is critical to improve remission rates. The detection of pre-treatment variables able to predict differential treatment response may provide novel approaches for treatment selection. Selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors (SSRIs) modulate the fronto-limbic functional response and connectivity, an effect preceding the overt clinical antidepressant effects. Here we investigated whether the cortico-limbic connectivity associated with emotional bias measured before SSRI administration predicts the efficacy of antidepressant treatment in MDD patients. fMRI and Dynamic Causal Modeling (DCM) were combined to study if effective connectivity might differentiate healthy controls (HC) and patients affected by major depression who later responded (RMDD, n=21), or failed to respond (nRMDD, n=12), to 6 weeks of escitalopram administration. Sixteen DCMs exploring connectivity between anterior cingulate cortex (ACC), ventrolateral prefrontal cortex (VLPFC), Amygdala (Amy), and fusiform gyrus (FG) were constructed. Analyses revealed that nRMDD had reduced endogenous connectivity from Amy to VLPFC and to ACC, with an increased connectivity and modulation of the ACC to Amy connectivity when processing of fearful emotional stimuli compared to HC. RMDD and HC did not significantly differ among themselves. Pre-treatment effective connectivity in fronto-limbic circuitry could be an important factor affecting antidepressant response, and highlight the mechanisms which may be involved in recovery from depression. These results suggest that fronto-limbic connectivity might provide a neural biomarker to predict the clinical outcome to SSRIs administration in major depression.

Published
2016

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