Brain Imaging and the Mechanisms of Antidepressant Action

The history of pharmacological treatments for depression began in the 1950s, with the serendipitous discovery of the antidepressant potential of drugs like the tricyclic antidepressant, imipramine. Since then, many new, safer, and better tolerated, antidepressant drugs have appeared on the market (1), and now depression can be treated widely in primary care. However, finding a treatment effective for an individual patient is not a trivial task, with only around 30% of patients responding to their first antidepressant (AD) medication, most requiring multiple changes, and about one-third not responding at all (2).