Does platelet serotonin receptor supersensitivity accompany endogenous depression?

Negative impact of depression on outcomes in patients with coronary artery disease: mechanisms, treatment considerations, and future directions

“…We previously reported increased platelet reactivity to serotonin in patients without CAD with major depression compared with matched non-depressed controls [51]. Our findings are consistent with some but not all previous reports [52,53] examining serotonin-mediated platelet reactivity in patients with depression. Serotonin is a plausible mediator as serotonergic abnormalities on platelets and central nervous system neurons have been reported in healthy depressed patients [54,55].…”

Decrease of the platelet 5‐HT2A receptor function by long‐term imipramine treatment in endogenous depression

“…Interestingly, these studies found normalization or even an increase in the aggregating response to serotonin after patients were subjected to treatment with trazodone, amitriptyline (Healy et al, 1985) or sertraline (Butler and Leonard, 1988). The results of the present study are more in agreement with those previously reported by Brusov et al (1989), who showed that the ability of serotonin to induce platelet aggregation was decreased after treatment with imipramine, maprotiline or pirlindol. We are convinced that discrepancies among different studies may be due to methodological issues, such as the duration or the drug used as an antidepressant.…”

“…We are convinced that discrepancies among different studies may be due to methodological issues, such as the duration or the drug used as an antidepressant. Moreover, previous studies measured platelet aggregation induced by serotonin as the slope of the aggregation curve to 5-HT versus that of ADP (Healy et al, 1985;Butler and Leonard, 1988) or the concentration of serotonin causing a half-maximal shape change in the velocity of platelets (Brusov et al, 1989). Platelet aggregation to ADP amplified by serotonin (McAdams and Leonard, 1992;McBride et al, 1994) has proven to be a more reliable indicator than merely platelet aggregation induced by the two separated agents, because serotonin alone is a very weak aggregating agent of human platelets (McBride et al, 1994;Gómez et al, 1997).…”

The platelet intracellular calcium response to serotonin is augmented in bipolar manic and depressed patients

“…Platelet aggregation to serotonin, an indirect index of platelet type 2 serotonin receptor responsiveness was found to be decreased in depressive patients, and subsequently increased in the group of patients who responded to treatment (Healey et al, 1983). This was replicated by Brusov et al (1989), albeit with a slightly different methodology; there are however negative studies (Wood and Coppen, 1984). found that ADP Author to whom correspondence should be addressed.…”