Glossary terms

Anhedonia

Decreased interest in, and ability to experience, pleasure. A common symptom of depression.

Monoamine neurotransmitters

Small molecule neurotransmitters that contain a single amine group. Monoamines include dopamine, serotonin, noradrenaline and adrenaline, and histamine is sometimes included in this group of neurotransmitters as well.

Electroconvulsive therapy

(ECT). Repeated generalized seizures, induced electrically, as a treatment for depression. A form of somatic therapy.

Somatic therapies

Refers to non-medication, non-psychotherapy treatments for depression. Such therapies include ECT and several more experimental treatments such as magnetic stimulation (transcranial magnetic stimulation, TMS, and magnetic seizures) and vagal nerve stimulation.

Tricyclic antidepressants

Refers to a group of structurally related compounds that were developed in the 1950s and later shown to possess antidepressant activity in humans. Prototypical tricyclic antidepressants include amitriptyline, imipramine and desipramine.

Atypical antidepressants

Clinically effective antidepressants for which the mechanisms of action are unknown (for example, bupropion, mirtazapine and tianeptine).

Stress models

The application of any of several aversive or nociceptive stimuli (physical or psychological stressors) to an animal. Examples include restraint stress, foot shock, social defeat and chronic mild stress.

Monoaminergic depletion

Tryptophan depletion lowers serotonin levels in the brain. This treatment increases anxiety-related behaviours in rodents and increases immobility in the forced swim test. No clear effects of antidepressants have been reported.

Olfactory bulbectomy

Causes degeneration of neurons connecting the olfactory bulbs to the limbic system. This is associated with several behavioural abnormalities that can be normalized by chronic, but not acute, antidepressant treatment.

Hyponeophagia

(Novelty-suppressed feeding). Inhibition of feeding produced by exposure to a novel environment provides an anxiety-related measure that is sensitive to the effects of chronic, but not acute, antidepressant treatment. The test also responds to anxiolytic drugs, such as benzodiazepines.

Learned helplessness

Reduced escape behaviour in response to stress after prior exposures to unavoidable stressors. Responds to acute or subchronic antidepressant administration.

Chronic mild or unpredictable stress

Involves relatively prolonged exposure to various relatively mild stressors. Reported to induce an anhedonia-like state, which can be reversed by chronic antidepressant treatment. However, these findings have not been replicated by all laboratories.

Chaperone proteins

Proteins that bind to other proteins to regulate their folding, trafficking among intracellular compartments, and degradation.

Cushing syndrome

Medical consequences of hypersecretion of glucocorticoids from the adrenal cortex, which can be caused by several conditions.

Distress vocalizations

Ultrasonic vocalizations produced by young rodents lost outside the nest or by adults in aversive contexts. Acute treatment with several types of antidepressant inhibits the production of these calls.

Forced swim test

Rodents immersed in a vessel of water develop an immobile posture after initial struggling. Most antidepressants, administered acutely before the test, reverse the immobility and promote struggling. Advantages of this technique include low cost, high throughput and predictive validity; disadvantages include the fact that acute antidepressant administration, which is not effective in human depression, is effective in the test

Social defeat

Prolonged exposure to an aggressor causes several depression-like behavioural abnormalities in animals, which can be reversed by chronic, but not acute, antidepressant treatment. Social defeat is an example of chronic psychosocial stress.

Psychotomimetic drug

A drug that induces psychosis. Prototypical examples include NMDA receptor antagonists (for example, phencyclidine and ketamine) and psychostimulants administered repeatedly at high doses (for example, amphetamine).

Tail suspension test

Mice suspended by their tails develop an immobile posture after initial struggling. Acute administration of most antidepressants before the test reverses immobility and promotes struggling. Advantages of this technique include low cost, high throughput and predictive validity; disadvantages include the fact that acute antidepressant administration, which is not effective in human depression, is effective in the test.

Brain stimulation reward

Rodents will work (press a lever) to pass electric current into specific brain areas. A change in the threshold current for such intracranial self-stimulation is reported to provide a measure of affective state, with an increase in threshold current reflecting a depressed affect.