title: Effect of short-term escitalopram treatment on neural activation during emotional processing.
abstract: Recent functional magnetic resonance (fMRI) imaging studies have revealed that subchronic medication with escitalopram leads to significant reduction in both amygdala and medial frontal gyrus reactivity during processing of emotional faces, suggesting that escitalopram may have a distinguishable modulatory effect on neural activation as compared with other serotonin-selective antidepressants. In this fMRI study we aimed to explore whether short-term medication with escitalopram in healthy volunteers is associated with reduced neural response to emotional processing, and whether this effect is predicted by drug plasma concentration. The neural response to fearful and happy faces was measured before and on day 7 of treatment with escitalopram (10mg) in 15 healthy volunteers and compared with those in a control unmedicated group (n=14). Significantly reduced activation to fearful, but not to happy facial expressions was observed in the bilateral amygdala, cingulate and right medial frontal gyrus following escitalopram medication. This effect was not correlated with plasma drug concentration. In accordance with previous data, we showed that escitalopram exerts its rapid direct effect on emotional processing via attenuation of neural activation in pathways involving medial frontal gyrus and amygdala, an effect that seems to be distinguishable from that of other SSRIs.
authors.affiliation: Research and Development Service, and Department of Psychiatry, North Estonia Medical Centre, Tallinn, Estonia Department of Psychiatry, University of Tartu, Tartu, Estonia Faculty of Medicine, Division of Brain Sciences, Imperial College London, London, UK e.maron@imperial.ac.uk.
authors.forename: Eduard
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Maron
authors.affiliation: Faculty of Medicine, Division of Brain Sciences, Imperial College London, London, UK.
authors.forename: Matt
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Wall
authors.affiliation: University of Roehampton, Whitelands College, London, UK.
authors.forename: Ray
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Norbury
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychiatry, University of Oxford, Warneford Hospital, Oxford, UK.
authors.forename: Beata
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Godlewska
authors.affiliation: Department of Experimental Psychology, University of Oxford, Oxford, UK.
authors.forename: Sylvia
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Terbeck
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychiatry, University of Oxford, Warneford Hospital, Oxford, UK.
authors.forename: Philip
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Cowen
authors.affiliation: Faculty of Medicine, Division of Brain Sciences, Imperial College London, London, UK.
authors.forename: Paul
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Matthews
authors.affiliation: Faculty of Medicine, Division of Brain Sciences, Imperial College London, London, UK.
authors.forename: David J
authors.initials: DJ
authors.lastname: Nutt
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D000679:Amygdala / Q000187:drug effects / Q000378:metabolism; D015283:Citalopram / Q000008:administration & dosage / Q000494:pharmacology*; D004644:Emotions / Q000187:drug effects*; D005149:Facial Expression; D005260:Female; D005625:Frontal Lobe / Q000187:drug effects / Q000378:metabolism; D006801:Humans; D008279:Magnetic Resonance Imaging / Q000379:methods*; D008297:Male; D017367:Selective Serotonin Reuptake Inhibitors / Q000494:pharmacology*; D055815:Young Adult
chemical_list: D015283:Citalopram; D017367:Selective Serotonin Reuptake Inhibitors
keywords: SSRIs; amygdala; emotional processing; escitalopram; fMRI