Adolescent Substance Abuse Articles
Antidepressant research may shed light on cocaine addiction
By Staff Writer
A new mouse model designed to see how antidepressants work may lead to the development of new medications and provide a better understanding of addiction.
Antidepressants such as Prozac, Lexapro and Paxil are said to block the brain protein known as serotonin transporter. However, to see if this was in fact true, neuroscientists at Vanderbilt University created a model using genetically altered mice.
In the model, the mice were altered to express a serotonin transporter that did not respond to many antidepressants or cocaine. The neuroscientists found that the rodents did not respond to Prozac or Lexapro, which showed that the two medications do in fact target the transporter. However, the drug Paxil still managed to have an effect, indicating that certain antidepressants have different interactions with the transporter.
The neuroscientists believe that these findings might lead to the development of new antidepressants. In addition, the serotonin transporter in the mice lost its sensitivity to cocaine, which may provide a better undertsnading of the drug's effects on the brain and in turn, better options for substance abuse help.
Following their work with the mouse model, the neuroscientists are exploring how the continuous administration of antidepressants contributes to both delayed effects and side effects.
