<abstract xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml">

<p>The rising burden of depression, which will soon be the second most common cause of disability in the world, is requesting new ways to treat and prevent it. Due to high number of significant adverse drug reactions of the conventional treatment, the modern pharmaceutical industry is more often turning their focus to novel plant-based solutions. We performed literature research based on standard literature search engines – PubMed, Google Scholar, Science Direct. A standard set of keywords related to our topic e.g. “Depression”, “Mesembrine type alkaloids”, “Narcissus” was used. The review describes the classical monoamine theory of depression and connects it with the newly found biochemical, genetic and morphological alterations associated with the major depressive disorder. The purpose of this review is to highlight the most important aspects of the pathophysiology of depression and to explore the possibilities to use mesembrine-like alkaloids isolated from Narcissus cv. Hawera in its treatment. We describe their effect on brain biochemistry and possible future investigations.</p>
</abstract>

The rising burden of depression, which will soon be the second most common cause of disability in the world, is requesting new ways to treat and prevent it. Due to high number of significant adverse drug reactions of the conventional treatment, the modern pharmaceutical industry is more often turning their focus to novel plant-based solutions. We performed literature research based on standard literature search engines – PubMed, Google Scholar, Science Direct. A standard set of keywords related to our topic e.g. “Depression”, “Mesembrine type alkaloids”, “Narcissus” was used. The review describes the classical monoamine theory of depression and connects it with the newly found biochemical, genetic and morphological alterations associated with the major depressive disorder. The purpose of this review is to highlight the most important aspects of the pathophysiology of depression and to explore the possibilities to use mesembrine-like alkaloids isolated from Narcissus cv. Hawera in its treatment. We describe their effect on brain biochemistry and possible future investigations.

Pathophysiology of Depression and Novel Sources of Phytochemicals for its Treatment – A Systematic Review

Acta Medica Bulgarica

This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License.

The rising burden of depression, which will soon be the second most common cause of disability in the world, is requesting new ways to treat and prevent it....

Pathophysiology of Depression and Novel Sources of Phytochemicals for its Treatment – A Systematic Review

Published Online: Nov 24, 2020

Page range: 69 - 74

Received: Apr 25, 2020

Accepted: Jun 07, 2020

DOI: https://doi.org/10.2478/amb-2020-0049

Keywords
depression, mesembrine type alkaloids, Narcissus, phytomedicine

© 2020 D. Bakalov et al., published by Sciendo

This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License.

Pathophysiology of Depression and Novel Sources of Phytochemicals for its Treatment – A Systematic Review

Published Online: Nov 24, 2020

Page range: 69 - 74

Received: Apr 25, 2020

Accepted: Jun 07, 2020

DOI: https://doi.org/10.2478/amb-2020-0049

Keywordsdepression, mesembrine type alkaloids, Narcissus, phytomedicine

© 2020 D. Bakalov et al., published by Sciendo

This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License.

Keywords
depression, mesembrine type alkaloids, Narcissus, phytomedicine