This Article  • References  • Full text PDF  • Reply to article  • Send to a friend  • Save in My Folder  • Save to citation manager  • Permissions  Citing Articles  • Citation map  • Citing articles on HighWire  • Contact me when this article is cited  Related Content  • Similar articles in this journal  Social Bookmarking   What's this?

Idazoxan: A Selective 2-Antagonist and Effective Sustained Antidepressant in Two Bipolar Depressed Patients

Ossama T. Osman, MD; Matthew V. Rudorfer, MD; William Z. Potter, MD, PhD
Section on Clinical Pharmacology National Institute of Mental Health Bethesda, MD 20892

Arch Gen Psychiatry. 1989;46(10):958-959.

	Since this article does not have an abstract, we have provided the first 150 words of the full text PDF and any section headings.

To the Editor.—

We report on the therapeutic and biochemical effects of short- and long-term administration of idazoxan, a selective ₂-administration and a putative antidepressant, in three patients with the diagnosis of depression and a history of poor response to standard treatments. The down regulation of central β-receptors in response to increased synaptic norepinephrine (NE) levels has consistently been demonstrated after tricyclic antidepressant¹ as well as other effective treatments for depression.^2,3 In addition, ₂-adrenergic receptors have been shown to down regulate in response to at least some antidepressants.^4,5 Furthermore, blockade of -receptors can accelerate the down regulation of β-receptors by tricyclic antidepressants in rats,⁶ probably by enhancing intrasynaptic NE through the blockade of prejunctional ₂-receptors that normally mediate feedback inhibition of NE release.⁷ In human studies, however, the addition of yohimbine therapy to patients who had failed to respond . . . [Full Text PDF of this Article]

CiteULike    Connotea    Del.icio.us    Digg    Reddit    Technorati    Twitter     What's this?