Cited by 40Treatment of Major DepressionNeurotransmitter Receptor Influence on BehaviorNeuroscience and Neuropharmacology Research

The DOI matches its Crossref record; 283 of the 283 references it cites were found in a registry or an index; 19 of the 323 sources its claims cite were checked for support.

Plasticity of synapses and reward circuit function in the genesis and treatment of depression

Open access
Thompson, Scott M.·2023·Neuropsychopharmacology

Abstract

What changes in brain function cause the debilitating symptoms of depression? Can we use the answers to this question to invent more effective, faster acting antidepressant drug therapies? This review provides an overview and update of the converging human and preclinical evidence supporting the hypothesis that changes in the function of excitatory synapses impair the function of the circuits they are embedded in to give rise to the pathological changes in mood, hedonic state, and thought processes that characterize depression. The review also highlights complementary human and preclinical findings that classical and novel antidepressant drugs relieve the symptoms of depression by restoring the functions of these same synapses and circuits. These findings offer a useful path forward for designing better antidepressant compounds.

Overview

AI snapshot

Written from the paper’s full text.

TL;DR

This review argues that chronic stress produces maladaptive weakening of excitatory synapses across reward and emotion circuits, contributing to depression symptoms. It further proposes that classical and rapid-acting antidepressants share a common action of restoring synaptic and circuit function, pointing toward synapse-targeted drug development.

Key findings

  • Chronic stress and elevated glucocorticoids damage excitatory synapses in hippocampus, prefrontal cortex, nucleus accumbens, and lateral habenula, with circuit-specific effects: reward-promoting pathways weaken while negative-valence pathways strengthen. Reported examples include ~20% shorter PFC apical dendrites, ~30% lower axospinous synapse density, and ~50% reduced GluA1 expression in distal CA1 dendrites after chronic stress or corticosteroid exposure.
  • Human and preclinical evidence converges on synaptic dysfunction in depression: hippocampal atrophy is a consistent imaging finding, and genetic studies implicate synaptic, axonal, and neurogenesis-related genes, though each gene contributes only a small amount of risk. Environmental factors are estimated to account for roughly 60% of depression risk, and depression affects about 5% of the US population.
  • Classical antidepressants require chronic administration to restore stress-weakened synapses and behavior, paralleling the 3–8 week clinical delay and ineffectiveness in about one third of patients. Ketamine produces rapid antidepressant, antianhedonic, and antisuicidal effects within about two hours, sustained for at least seven days after a single dose, and preclinical work links this to rapid synapse restoration.
  • Psilocybin shows rapid and persistent antidepressant effects in treatment-resistant patients; in mice, a single dose restored stress-impaired reward behavior by 24 hours and increased PFC dendritic spines for over one month, with preclinical evidence suggesting these effects may be independent of serotonin 2A receptor activation.

Methods

  • Narrative review synthesizing human and preclinical literature; no primary experiments, systematic search strategy, or meta-analysis are described.
  • Evidence includes rodent chronic stress models, electrophysiology, dendritic spine imaging, postmortem human tissue, functional imaging, and clinical trials of SSRIs, ketamine, and psilocybin.
  • Main analysis is qualitative integration of findings across hippocampus, prefrontal cortex, nucleus accumbens, and lateral habenula to support an excitatory-synapse hypothesis of depression and antidepressant action.

Limitations

  • Author-stated limitations include preclinical models using genetically homogeneous animals, which obscures genetic contributions to susceptibility and resilience; stress models also induce anxiety-related behaviors that may confound interpretation; some common tests such as the forced swim test are discouraged by NIMH and have unclear utility; human adult neurogenesis may be very limited or absent; and mechanisms of SSRI action in the nucleus accumbens remain largely unknown.
  • The author notes that environmental factors explain only about 60% of depression risk, leaving genetic contributions underrepresented in animal work, and calls for more human before-and-after studies with fast-acting antidepressants.
  • Evident from the text: as a narrative review, it does not systematically appraise study quality or quantify bias; causal claims rely heavily on animal models and correlational human imaging, and the highly interconnected reward circuits make it difficult to isolate a single synaptic cause of any symptom.

Model-written summary. Check it against the paper before relying on it.

Integrity signals

Registry

Crossref · 10.1038/s41386-022-01422-1

Cites

283 of 283 references verified0 citation errors · 0 not checkable

Statistics

Nothing to recompute.

Verification

Claims the paper makes

183 Not checked yet · 40 Own interpretation · 14 No basis given · 6 Partly supported · 2 Supported · 1 Mixed support · 1 Not supported · 1 Own result · accuracy not yet measured

Verify all 304 references — free account

Show all 145 claims

  • It may state two separate claims as one. 91
  • Probably not a substantial claim. 15
103 of 103
  • The authors state this as an assumption.

    Chronic stress produced experimentally in animals provides a realistic model of human depression.

    “An underlying assumption of all preclinical models is that the forms of chronic stress we produce experimentally in our animals provides a realistic model of human depression.”
  • The paper relies on this without support.

    Environmental factors account for only about 60% of the risk for major depressive disorder.

    “On the other hand, environmental factors are believed to account for only 60% of risk for MDD.”
  • The paper relies on this without support.

    Overall genetic risk for major depressive disorder arises from small differences in many genes, each contributing a small amount to overall risk.

    “Given the likelihood that overall genetic risk results from small differences in large numbers of genes, each with small contributions to overall risk, this blind spot represents a particular short coming in our current understanding and significant experimental challenge for future progress.”
  • The paper relies on this without support.

    The serotonin 2A receptor mediates the mind-altering effects of psychedelics.

    “the serotonin 2 A receptor that mediates the mind-altering properties of psychedelics”
4 of 4

Claims other papers make about this one

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Self-check

Percentages, sums and reported differences re-computed from the paper’s own numbers.

Each contradiction between two passages listed here was confirmed by an independent check.

2 of 2

Citations

Cites

Show all 281 references

Research works printed but not linked: 2

  1. Gourley SL, Kiraly DD, Howell JL, Olausson P, Jane R, Taylor JR. Acute hippocampal BDNF restores motivational and forced swim performance after corticosterone. J Neurosci. 2009;64:884–90.
  2. Kim U, Lee T. Topography of descending projections from anterior insular and medial prefrontal regions to the lateral habenula of the epithalamus in the rat. Eur J Neurosci. 2012;35:1253–69. · DOI · Paper page

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Metadata

Authors
Thompson, S. M.
Affiliations
University of Colorado Anschutz (US)
Corresponding author
Thompson, Scott M.
Venue
Neuropsychopharmacology
Published
2022-09-03
Volume
48
Issue
1
Pages
90-103
ISSN
  • 0893-133X (ISSN-L)
  • 1740-634X
OpenAlex
W4294433359
Cited by
40
References
281
Citations by year
2026: 9 · 2025: 11 · 2024: 13 · 2023: 7
FWCI
1.11
Type
journal article
Language
en
Open access
Locations
  • Neuropsychopharmacology (publishedVersion)
  • PubMed Central (publishedVersion)
  • PubMed (publishedVersion)
Funders
U.S. Department of Health & Human Services | National Institutes of Health (R01 MH086828)
Topics
  • Health Sciences › Medicine › Pharmacology (medical) › Treatment of Major Depression
  • Life Sciences › Neuroscience › Cellular and Molecular Neuroscience › Neurotransmitter Receptor Influence on Behavior
  • Life Sciences › Neuroscience › Cellular and Molecular Neuroscience › Neuroscience and Neuropharmacology Research
Keywords
depression, synaptic plasticity, excitatory synapses, reward systems, antidepressants, antidepressant drug development, mood, synaptic dysfunction
MeSH terms
Antidepressive Agents, Depression, Humans, Neuronal Plasticity, Reward, Synapses

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