Reversal of antidepressant-induced dopaminergic behavioural supersensitivity after long-term chronic imipramine withdrawal.

Chronic antidepressant treatments enhance dopaminergic neurotransmission in the mesolimbic dopamine system. We suggested that this potentiation might underlie both the antidepressant therapeutic effect and the antidepressant-induced switch from depression to mania, which in turn, might be involved in the development of rapid cycling in bipolar patients. In this study, we investigated the changes occurring in the sensitivity of the mesolimbic dopamine system up to 40 days after antidepressant withdrawal.