ABSTRACT
This introduction presents an overview of the key concepts discussed in the subsequent chapters of this book. The book discusses the importance of the 5-HT receptor sensitivity or neuronal enhancement hypothesis, since it is the only working model of antidepressant action that has generated a novel treatment modality that has proved effective. A number of discoveries, including the specificity of certain classes of medications for the treatment of different psychiatric disorders and the elucidation of possible biological markers in several major psychiatric illnesses, have spurred the growth of research in this area. The examines recent evidence, from several lines of study, that implicates 5-HTergic dysfunction as having a major role in obsessive compulsive disorder. Again, drugs that are 5-HT reuptake inhibitors have been shown to possess clinical efficacy in the treatment of this disorder, whereas, strikingly, drugs that block NE reuptake appear to be ineffective in such treatment.
