Abstract How on earth could an antidepressant drug drive someone to murder? In the past two columns RxISK has heard from two people who know they can. In The Man Who Thought He Was A Monster, Steindor Erlingsson shared his own story of being tormented with urges to stab his wife and young children while [...]

Authors: Shevchuk N PMID: 17993252 DOI: 10.1016/j.mehy.2007.04.052 Abstract Depression is a debilitating mood disorder that is among the top causes of disability worldwide. It can be characterized by a set of somatic, emotional, and behavioral symptoms, one of which is a high risk of suicide. This work presents a hypothesis that depression may be caused [...]

Authors: Levenson CW PMID: 16491668 DOI: 10.1111/j.1753-4887.2006.tb00171.x Abstract Low serum zinc levels have been linked to major depression. Furthermore, zinc treatment has been shown to have an antidepressant effect. With the hope of understanding the role of zinc in mood disorders, recent work has begun to explore possible mechanisms of zinc action on serotonin uptake [...]

Authors: Nowak G, Szewczyk B, Pilc A PMID: 16382189 Abstract Unsatisfactory clinical efficacy and a variety of adverse effects of current antidepressant drugs have incited search for better therapy. Zinc, an antagonist of the glutamate/N-methyl-D-aspartate (NMDA) receptor, exhibits antidepressant-like activity in rodent tests/models of depression. Similarly to antidepressants, zinc induces brain derived neurotrophic factor (BDNF) [...]