Posted by psychobot5000 on December 27, 2008, at 18:51:05
In reply to Re: Agomelatine how does it work?, posted by Henrik Jonsson on December 26, 2008, at 1:18:36
> I think this is strange. If it is a 5htp antagonist, shouldn´t it increase serotonin levels?
As far as I understand, the answer is no. (it's actually a 5HT-antagonist, btw) If you look just at the title 5HT-antagonist, you might think it would actually block serotonin... But in the case of this drug, it only significantly blocks certain subfamilies of serotonin receptors, the 5HT-2b and 5HT-2c receptors. The latter is thought to be partly responsible for its antidepressant effects--blocking serotonin 2c receptors can apparently help relieve anxiety, better sleep, and increase dopamine levels in the frontal cortex, which could theoretically help with various other issues, i.e. concentration. Agomelatine also agonizes two families of melatonin (MT) receptors, which helps sleep and (researchers say) may also contribute to its antidepressant effects. However, I'm not aware that it has any effect on increasing (synaptic) serotonin levels in a general way.
poster:psychobot5000
thread:864397
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/20081223/msgs/871073.html