Preface: Cholinergic Mechanisms

Cholinergic mechanisms in depression.

Evidence supporting a cholinergic hypothesis of depression is presented. First, cholinergic overdrive produces behavioral, neuroendocrine, and polysomnographic features of melancholia, and melancholics exhibit state-independent supersensitivity to cholinergic overdrive. Drugs inducing up-regulation and supersensitivity of cholinergic systems produce behavioral, polysomnographic, and neuroendocr...

Editorial: Brain cholinergic mechanisms

While historically acetylcholine (ACh) holds a central place in the discovery of chemical transmission in the nervous system, progress in our knowledge of the mechanistic underpinnings of cholinergic transmission in the central nervous system (CNS) has lagged behind its sister transmitters. For example, unlike what we know about glutamatergic transmission, neither the prevalence of fast choline...

PREFACE

Cholinergic mechanisms in affective disorders.

Advances in clinical and basic research methodology combined with clearly articulated concepts create new opportunities for researching the roles of cholinergic mechanisms in the pathophysiology of affective disorders. Areas for study include: 1) roles of cholinergic mechanisms in mediating effects of stress and cholinergic mechanisms linking the pathophysiologies of affective and panic disorde...

Preface