Project 7

Tryptophan depletion in patients with SSRI-remitted anxiety disorders.

Antidepressant medications such as SSRIs (which increase levels of the neurotransmitter serotonin) are now the main treatments of anxiety disorders as well as depression. We have recently demonstrated that the dietary procedure of tryptophan depletion (TD) reverses the anti-anxiety actions of the SSRIs in both panic disorder and social anxiety disorder. We now wish to examine the effects of decreasing serotonin in patients with two other anxiety disorders (generalised anxiety disorder and obsessive-compulsive disorder) after SSRI treatment. These studies should help tease out the differences (and similarities) between several major anxiety disorders with respect to serotonergic function, and provide clinically important prognostic information.