This project builds on the investigator's previous work on serotonergic differences between depressed patients who are antidepressant responders vs. those not responding. This study proposes to extend data from the PI's laboratory to date suggesting that chronic, but not acute, 5-HTlA partial agonist administration may have antidepressant effects and desensitize human 5-HT1A receptor-stimulated responses in depressed patients. This proposal seeks to test the hypothesis that standard antidepressant treatment is associated with 5-HT1A receptor-mediated adaptations which will be discriminative of a treatment response to nortriptyline. The project utilizes a standard nortriptyline treatment protocol designed by the investigator to test for biological differences between antidepressant responders vs. antidepressant nonresponders. The nortriptyline treatment design has been used successfully to date to test response groups at different time points during treatment, yielding different response cohorts sufficient to test for biological differences between groups. The present study builds on the investigator's IND# to utilize the 5-HT1A agonist properties of ipsapirone in a challenge paradigm designed to test the ACTH, cortisol, and hypothermic responses of 5-HTlA pre- and postsynaptic receptor subtypes, in a new approach designed to explore the possibility that a 5-HTlA receptor adaptation may underlie a component of the response mechanism to standard antidepressant treatment. lpsapirone and placebo challenges are done at baseline, with repeat challenges performed during acute and chronic treatment, using a fixed dose nortriptyline treatment paradigm designed to yield approximately equal sized groups of responding vs. nonresponding patients in which the differences in 5-HT1A receptor adaptations can be tested.

Agency
National Institute of Health (NIH)
Institute
National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH)
Type
Research Project (R01)
Project #
1R01MH050366-01
Application #
3389549
Study Section
Treatment Assessment Review Committee (TA)
Project Start
1993-01-01
Project End
1995-12-31
Budget Start
1993-01-01
Budget End
1993-12-31
Support Year
1
Fiscal Year
1993
Total Cost
Indirect Cost
Name
Medical College of Georgia (MCG)
Department
Type
Schools of Medicine
DUNS #
City
Augusta
State
GA
Country
United States
Zip Code
30912
Rausch, Jeffrey L; Johnson, Maria E; Kasik, Katherine E et al. (2006) Temperature regulation in depression: functional 5HT1A receptor adaptation differentiates antidepressant response. Neuropsychopharmacology 31:2274-80
Rausch, Jeffrey L; Johnson, Maria E; Li, Junqing et al. (2005) Serotonin transport kinetics correlated between human platelets and brain synaptosomes. Psychopharmacology (Berl) 180:391-8
Rausch, Jeffrey L; Corley, Katina M; Hobby, H Mac (2004) Improved potency of escitalopram on the human serotonin transporter: demonstration of an ex vivo assay technique. J Clin Psychopharmacol 24:209-13
Rausch, Jeffrey L; Moeller, Frederick G; Johnson, Maria E (2003) Initial platelet serotonin (5-HT) transport kinetics predict nortriptyline treatment outcome. J Clin Psychopharmacol 23:138-44
Rausch, J L; Johnson, M E; Corley, K M et al. (2003) Depressed patients have higher body temperature: 5-HT transporter long promoter region effects. Neuropsychobiology 47:120-7
Rausch, Jeffrey L; Johnson, Maria E; Fei, You-Jun et al. (2002) Initial conditions of serotonin transporter kinetics and genotype: influence on SSRI treatment trial outcome. Biol Psychiatry 51:723-32
Rausch, J L; Gillespie, C F; Fei, Y et al. (2002) Antidepressant effects on kinase gene expression patterns in rat brain. Neurosci Lett 334:91-4
Rausch, J L; Hobby, H M; Shendarkar, N et al. (2001) Fluvoxamine treatment of mixed anxiety and depression: evidence for serotonergically mediated anxiolysis. J Clin Psychopharmacol 21:139-42