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Category: Project

Description: Antidepressants are used worldwide to the treatment of different psychiatric conditions. Despite the popularity in therapeutics, the biological mechanisms underlying the effects of antidepressants remain elusive. In the literature, there are concurrent explanatory theories on the mechanisms of action of antidepressants focusing in different neurobiological targets. Theories on the mechanisms of action of antidepressants rely mostly in preclinical studies that often display mixed results. Controversal findings may be consequence of experimental heterogeneity among studies. To identify the sources of heterogeneity and quantify the contribution of different neurobiological targets such as monoamines, atypical neurotransmitters, neural plasticity, hippocampal neurogenesis to the effects of antidepressants, we will create protocols and perform systematic reviews and meta-analyses of primary preclinical studies.