An electrophysiological model of major depression: Relevance to clinical subtyping and pharmacological management

We present a neurochemical model of unipolar major depressive disorder that makes predictions for optimizing pharmacological treatment of this debilitating neuropsychiatric disorder. We suggest that there are two principal electrophysiological subtypes of depression, with the more common one involving a high excitatory/inhibitory (E/I) electrophysiological ratio, and a less common low E/I subtype. The high E/I subtype is paradoxically a variant of previous conceptions of atypical depression, whereas the low E/I subtype is a variant of melancholic depression. We focus on the ratio of norepinephrine (NE) to serotonin (5HT) as primary determinants of E/I ratio, which have opposing effects on mood regulation. We suggest that high NE/5HT (or E/I) ratio depressions should be treated with pharmacological agents that boost 5HT (such as SSRIs) and/or drugs that reduce noradrenergic transmission (such as clonidine, guanfacine, propranolol, prazosin). In contrast, low NE/5HT (or E/I) depressions should be treated with agents that boost NE (such as most tricyclics) and/or drugs that reduce serotonergic transmission. Our model predicts that the rapidly acting antidepressant ketamine (and possibly scopolamine), which has an acutely excitatory electrophysiological profile that may be followed by sustained increased inhi-bition, should improve the high NE/5HT subtype and worsen the low subtype.

Automated summary

The article presents a neurochemical model of unipolar major depressive disorder and predicts optimal pharmacological treatment based on different subtypes of depression. It suggests using different medications for high and low NE/5HT depression, and predicts the effects of rapidly acting antidepressants on different subtypes.