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DECRYPTION – Certain molecules could not only improve mood but also cognitive functions impaired during a depressive episode.
In France, it is estimated that one in five people will experience a depressive episode in their life. If depression causes mood disorders, it is also often associated with cognitive disorders impairing memory, attention, concentration or even decision-making. Researchers from the neuroscience center at Copenhagen University Hospital have just discovered how certain antidepressants could improve not only patients’ morale, but also some of their cognitive functions. Their study was published in August in the journal Biological Psychatry and presented at the beginning of October at the Congress of the European College of Neuropsychopharmacology in Milan. They show how “selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors” (or SSRIs), the most prescribed antidepressants currently, improve verbal memory, such as the memory of a conversation, by playing on a particular metabolic pathway.
Serotonin reuptake
Nicknamed “happiness hormone”,
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