Major depression

Depression - diagnosed as a condition lasting at least 2 weeks, with lethargy and/or loss of pleasure as the leading symptoms - is the most common psychiatric disorder in the world.

Our research investigates the physiological and pathological regularities of chemical stimulation transmission and its pharmacological manipulation in the central and peripheral nervous system and its interfaces. The aim of our research is to elucidate the mechanisms of depression that are not or not sufficiently responsive to drug therapy and to identify novel therapeutic targets for drug development, for which the validation of targets identified in in vitro experiments in in vivo animal models is essential. Consequently, hypotheses previously validated in in vitro experiments will be tested in in vivo experiments with a smaller number of animals, aiming at a minimum sufficient number of elements in the experiments. Our experiments involve in vivo acute and subacute animal models of depression:

 

- forced swim test, 

- tail suspension test, 

- sucrose prefrenece test, 

- learned helplessness

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