Current Evidence and Future Directions of Berberine Intervention in Depression.

A major type of serious mood disorder, depression is currently a widespread and easily overlooked psychological illness. With the low side effects of natural products in the treatment of diseases becoming the pursuit of new antidepressants, natural Chinese medicine products have been paid more and more attention for their unique efficacy in improving depression. In a view from the current study, the positive antidepressant effects of berberine are encouraging.

Rapid anti-depressant-like effects of ketamine and other candidates: Molecular and cellular mechanisms.

Major depressive disorder takes at least 3 weeks for clinical anti-depressants, such as serotonin selective reuptake inhibitors, to take effect, and only one-third of patients remit. Ketamine, a kind of anaesthetic, can alleviate symptoms of major depressive disorder patients in a short time and is reported to be effective to treatment-resistant depression patients. The rapid and strong anti-depressant-like effects of ketamine cause wide concern.

Role of leptin in the regulation of food intake in fasted mice.

Leptin is well acknowledged as an anorexigenic hormone that plays an important role in feeding control. Hypothalamic GABA system plays a significant role in leptin regulation on feeding and metabolism control. However, the pharmacological relationship of leptin and GABA receptor is still obscure.

Correction: The role of substance P in epilepsy and seizure disorders.

[This corrects the article DOI: 10.18632/oncotarget.20606.

Stress-Induced Functional Alterations in Amygdala: Implications for Neuropsychiatric Diseases.

The amygdala plays a major role in the processing of physiologic and behavioral responses to stress and is characterized by gamma-aminobutyric acid (GABA)-mediated high inhibitory tone under resting state. Human and animal studies showed that stress lead to a hyperactivity of amygdala, which was accompanied by the removal of inhibitory control. However, the contribution of hyperactivity of amygdala to stress-induced neuropsychiatric diseases, such as anxiety and mood disorders, is still dubious.

The role of substance P in epilepsy and seizure disorders.

A range of evidence implicates the neuropeptide substance P (SP), a member of the tachykinin family, in emotional behavior, anxiety, pain, and inflammation. Recently, SP has been implicated in susceptibility to seizures, for which a potential proconvulsant role was indicated. Indeed, antagonists of a specific SP receptor, neurokinin-1 receptor, were found to attenuate kainic acid (KA)-induced seizure activity.