CHAPTER 10: Glutamate Approaches Towards the Treatment of Mood Disorders

Mood disorders, including both major depressive disorders (MDD) and bipolar disorders (BPD), are forms of chronic mental illness associated with alterations in normal affective response that result in profound disruptions in daily living and for which there are limited treatment options. Recent preclinical and clinical findings indicate that alterations in the signalling of the glutamatergic system may account at least in part for many of the symptoms observed in patients with mood disorders. These findings have shifted the focus of novel therapeutic development for mood disorders from traditional monoamine-based approaches to the investigation of different modulators of glutamatergic signalling as will be reviewed in this chapter.