Polyglutamine diseases are a class of dominantly inherited neurodegenerative disorders for which there is no effective treatment. Here we provide evidence that activation of serotonergic signalling is beneficial in animal models of Machado-Joseph disease. We identified citalopram, a selective serotonin reuptake inhibitor, in a small molecule screen of FDA-approved drugs that rescued neuronal dy...

Drug-induced gene-expression profiles that invert disease profiles have recently been illustrated to be a starting point for drug repositioning. In this study, we validate this approach and focus on prediction of novel drugs for colorectal cancer, for which there is a pressing need to find novel antimetastatic compounds. We computationally predicted three novel and still unknown compounds again...

Abstract Background Psychiatric medication that has a soothing effect on limbic responses to affective stimuli could improve instability symptoms as observed in borderline personality disorder (BPD). The objective of this study was investigate whether citalopram versus placebo reduces the response neural circuitry during an emotional challenge. Methods A total 30 female individuals with BPD dia...

Selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors are widely prescribed drugs without recognized cardiovascular risk. We report the case of a 54-year-old patient who developed QTc interval prolongation, followed by ventricular fibrillation episodes, 10 hours after admission to the ICU, in the setting of a citalopram overdose. Citalopram plasma values dropped from 5.88 to 0.34 mg/L at 9 days postadmission...

BACKGROUND Subsyndromal symptoms of depression (SSD) in patients with schizophrenia are common and clinically important. SSRI's appear to be helpful in alleviating depressive symptoms in patients with schizophrenia who have SSD in patients age 40 and greater. It is not known whether SSRI's help improve functioning in this population. We hypothesized that treating this population with the SSRI c...

BACKGROUND Severe depression can increase the risk of psychiatric hospitalization, as well as inpatient and outpatient care; it may also lead to long-term absenteeism from work. However, the cost-effectiveness of antidepressant therapy for severe depression has been little studied. OBJECTIVE The aim of this work was to investigate the cost-effectiveness of escitalopram compared with citalopra...

Although several antidepressants (including fluoxetine, imipramine, citalopram, venlafaxine, and duloxetine) are known to inhibit the serotonin transporter (SERT), whether or not these molecules compete with 5-hydroxytryptamine (serotonin) (5-HT) for binding to SERT has remained controversial. We have performed radioligand competition binding experiments and found that all data can be fitted vi...

Reflecting its potent inhibition of serotonin (5-HT) reuptake (accompanying paper), S33005 blocked spontaneous tail-flicks induced by parachloroamphetamine in rats. This action was mimicked by the 5-HT reuptake inhibitor, citalopram, and the 5-HT/norepinephrine (NE) reuptake inhibitor, venlafaxine, whereas the preferential NE reuptake inhibitor, reboxetine, was inactive. Consistent with its les...

Area-specific and stimulation-dependent changes of human brain activation by selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors (SSRI) are an important issue for improved understanding of treatment mechanisms, given the frequent prescription of these drugs in depression and anxiety disorders. The aim of this neuroimaging study was to investigate differences in BOLD-signal caused by administration of the S...