Regulation of neurotransmitter receptors by desipramine and other antidepressant drugs: the neurotransmitter receptor hypothesis of antidepressant action.

Recent findings on neurotransmitter receptors are reviewed as they relate to current hypotheses of the etiology of depression and mechanism of action of antidepressant drugs. Two important research areas are 1) the finding that each synapse may have more than one neurotransmitter, and 2) data which link specific neurotransmitters and receptors to depressive illness and antidepressant drug response. A new hypothesis that has emerged from receptor studies is the neurotransmitter receptor hypothesis of antidepressant reaction, which states that antidepressants exert their effects by down-regulating neurotransmitter receptors. Research questions generated by these hypotheses are reviewed, and implications of findings in this area for the development of more effective, rapid-acting antidepressants are discussed.