Evidence for serotonin function as a neurochemical difference between fear and anxiety disorders in humans?

Autor(es)

Corchs, Felipe ^[1] ; Nutt, David J. ^[2] ; Hince, Dana A. ^[3] ; Davies, Simon J. C. ^[4] ; Bernik, Marcio ^[1] ; Hood, Sean D. ^[3]

Afiliação do(s) autor(es)

^[1] Univ Sao Paulo, Inst & Dept Psychiat, Sch Med, BR-05430903 Sao Paulo - Brazil

^[2] Univ London Imperial Coll Sci Technol & Med, Div Expt Med, Neuropsychopharmacol Unit, London - England

^[3] Univ Western Australia, Sch Psychiat & Clin Neurosci M521, Perth, WA 6009 - Australia

^[4] Univ Toronto, Ctr Addict & Mental Hlth, Toronto, ON - Canada

• Tipo de documento: Artigo Científico
• Fonte: JOURNAL OF PSYCHOPHARMACOLOGY; v. 29, n. 10, p. 1061-1069, OCT 2015.
• Citações Web of Science: 9

Resumo

The relationships between serotonin and fear and anxiety disorders have been much studied yet many important questions remain, despite selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors having been the primary treatments for these disorders for some time. In order to explore this issue we performed a pooled analysis of six of our studies in remitted patients with a fear/anxiety disorder who were exposed to syndrome-specific aversive stimulation under acute tryptophan depletion. We based our analysis on the hypothesis that the inconsistencies observed in the studies could be predicted by Deakin and Graeff's theory about the dual role of serotonin in responses to threats, whereby serotonin is critical to prevent fear (panic) but not anxiety. In accordance with this view, our results give support to a dissociation of the disorders traditionally grouped under fear and anxiety-related disorders in terms of different roles of serotonin in modulation of responses to aversive stimulation. Implications for future studies and psychiatric nosology are discussed. (AU)

• Processo FAPESP: 08/04122-5 - Estudo sobre a precipitação de sintomas em pacientes com transtorno do estresse pós-traumático remitidos com inibidores seletivos de recaptura de serotonina através da redução abrupta de triptofano
• Beneficiário: Márcio Antonini Bernik
• Modalidade de apoio: Auxílio à Pesquisa - Regular