title: Acute tryptophan depletion in bipolar disorders; literature review and directives for further research.
abstract: Serotonin (5-HT) has been implicated in the pathophysiology of bipolar disorders. Acute tryptophan depletion (ATD), which decreases serotonergic turnover, is an established paradigm to study serotonergic vulnerability in affective disorders. Literature on the application of ATD as a research tool in bipolar patients is limited to three studies, which revealed inconsistent results on mood modification. These inconsistencies may be attributed to differences in methodological procedures and / or characteristics of included patients. Patient selection, methodological aspects and procedures of these studies are critically considered and recommendations given. A research protocol to test the 5-HT vulnerability in bipolar disorder is proposed.
authors.affiliation: Institute Brain and Behaviour,Dept. of Psychiatry,Maastricht,The Netherlands.
authors.forename: S
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Sobczak
authors.affiliation: Institute Brain and Behaviour,Dept. of Psychiatry,Maastricht,The Netherlands.
authors.forename: A
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Honig
authors.affiliation: Institute Brain and Behaviour,Dept. of Psychiatry,Maastricht,The Netherlands.
authors.forename: W J
authors.initials: WJ
authors.lastname: Riedel