ABSTRACT
Postsynaptic interactions are one of the major aspects of almost all drugs used in psychiatry. These interactions may account for a drug’s therapeutic effects and/or its adverse side-effects. Most drugs in use are non-selective, meaning that they have interactions with multiple pre-and postsynaptic receptors or transporters. Most current knowledge about the mechanism of drug action is based on direct pre-and postsynaptic drug interactions and the subsequent modulation of intracellular components such as second, third, and fourth messengers.
