Neuroscience basis of clinical depression: implications for future antidepressant drug development.

This column reviews progress in our understanding of the neuroanatomy, pathophysiology, and genetics underlying clinical depression. Such understanding is fundamental to the ability to rationally identify the neural regulatory processes involved and develop drugs specifically targeted to those processes. The goal of the column is to help clinicians better conceptualize the nature of depressive illness and its treatment and educate their patients about these issues.