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TED-Ed

How do antidepressants work? - Neil R. Jeyasingam

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9,203 Questions Answered

TEDEd Animation

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In the 1950s, the discovery of two new drugs sparked what would become a multi-billion dollar market for antidepressants. Neither drug was intended to treat depression at all— many doctors and scientists believed psychotherapy was the only approach to treatment. Neil R. Jeyasingam details the decades-long journey that followed and how it revolutionized our understanding of depression.

Additional Resources for you to Explore

The brain has been called the final frontier in medical research, and there have been incredible developments in the last fifty years. Serotonin isn’t the only neurotransmitter that has been identified as the most likely target for medication development. Medical research has identified other neurotransmitters and potential targets of action to treat depression. One of those neurotransmitters is Noradrenaline, which can be used to treat severe depression in patients. Learning about various neurotransmitters in the brain helps us to find causes of other mental illnesses in addition to depression. For instance, dopamine is another neurotransmitter and it’s believed that an overactive dopamine system can cause schizophrenia.

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Meet The Creators

Educator
Neil R. Jeyasingam
Director
Skirmanta Jakaitė
Narrator
Addison Anderson
Art Director
Skirmanta Jakaitė
Animator
Skirmanta Jakaitė
Storyboard Artist
Skirmanta Jakaitė
Compositor
Skirmanta Jakaitė
Composer
Salil Bhayani
Sound Designer
Spencer Ward, cAMP Studio
Director of Production
Gerta Xhelo
Editorial Director
Alex Rosenthal
Producer
Bethany Cutmore-Scott
Editorial Producer
Elizabeth Cox
Production Coordinator
Abdallah Ewis
Script Editor
Emma Bryce
Fact-Checker
Eden Girma

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