Description

Many brains functions, including mood, pain, and sleep, are regulated by melatonin, a neuromodulator that mostly works through the two G-protein-coupled receptors MT1 and MT2. Neuropsychiatric and sleep disorders are clinically treated with MLT and non-selective MT1/MT2 receptor agonists. However, it is necessary to clarify the selective functions of the MT1 and MT2 receptors. In this article, we examine the findings that link MT1 receptors to psychiatric and neurological disorders, discuss the medicinal chemistry, biochemistry, and molecular aspects of the receptor, and describe the anatomical location of MT1 receptors in the brain. The suprachiasmatic nucleus, cortex, hippocampus, dorsal raphe nucleus, and lateral hypothalamus all contain MT1 receptors. These regions of the brain control circadian rhythms, sleep, and mood. Antidepressants and mood stabilizers, for example, also target intracellular signaling pathways when they are activated. Anxiety, a depressive-like phenotype, an increased propensity to reward and addiction, and decreased Rapid Eye Movement sleep are all seen in MT1 receptor knockout mice. Alterations in serotonergic and noradrenergic neurotransmission are linked to these behavioral dysfunctions. Numerous studies suggest that circadian rhythm regulation is mediated by the MT1 receptor rather than the MT2 receptor. It has also been suggested that MT1 receptors play a role in Huntington's and Alzheimer's diseases. The possibility that MT1 receptors are involved in depression has been further supported by postmortem studies on depressed patients. In general, there is a lot of evidence that the MT1 receptor influences mood and brain function. As a result, this MLT receptor subtype merits further investigation as a novel drug target for neuro psychopharmacology.

Practical Guidance for Managing Complex Challenge

The rapid spread of the coronavirus COVID-19 pandemic has not only resulted in a significant increase in mortality but also demonstrated a significant potential to have a negative impact on mental health, particularly among young people . Guidelines for dealing with disasters and mass trauma emphasize the importance of focusing on resilience from a public mental health perspective. Consensus guidelines emphasize the importance of interventions that maintain calm, build community, and sustain hope in the immediate and ongoing response. Having said that, it's critical to address specific psychiatric conditions that may be triggered or exacerbated by disaster. People with obsessivecompulsive disorder are perhaps the most directly affected mental health group by the COVID-19 outbreak's worsening. They are paradoxically "experts by experience" in compulsive behavior as a means of avoiding danger. Primarily, the increase in worry about the virus is making OCD sufferers' alreadyexisting obsessive fears of contamination worse and making them more likely to engage in harmful compulsive behaviors. Coronavirus may become all these people's thoughts. In fact, some patients with contamination-related OCD are questioning the rationality of their treatment plans. Since everyone now looks like them, several patients have told their doctors that they were "right all along." OCD sufferers of all ages are known to be particularly inflexible at "unlearning" danger responses when they become obsolete and as a result, they are conditioned to prolonged virus-induced distress and anxiety for others. A working group of clinical experts from the International College of Obsessive Compulsive Spectrum Disorders (ICOCS) and the Obsessive-Compulsive and Related Disorders Research Network of the European College of Neuro psychopharmacology have produced this consensus statement with the goal of providing clinicians with practical guidance for managing this complex challenge as soon as possible in response to the emerging crisis and growing calls for guidance from patients and clinicians.

Psychotherapeutic and Stimulation Based Techniques

The recommendations are largely based on empirical evidence, such as clinical experience gained from working in specialized OCD treatment services prior to and during the pandemic. In addition to clinicians who treat adult, adolescent, and child patients, our international experts also include scientists in their early stages of their careers and people who have experienced the disorder themselves. An initial draft was prepared, iteratively distributed among the authors, and edits were sequentially incorporated once agreement was reached on the key topics to be covered in a series of online discussions. Our group of experts determined that the most important issues for clinicians treating OCD under COVID-19 conditions are covered in the final report. Even though it was preliminary, it was prioritized to release the guidance as soon as possible on the basis of the "precautionary principle," with the understanding that it may be updated as new information becomes available. Psychotherapeutic and stimulation-based techniques play important roles in the treatment of psychiatric and neurological disorders, and pharmacotherapy is effective for many of them. However, treatment progress has been sluggish recently. Deeper understandings of the pathophysiological substrates and causes of brain disorders are essential to the success of future efforts to control and prevent them. In addition, it will require new, more stringent approaches to the identification, validation, creation, and clinical application of novel treatments. Neuro psychopharmacology, which introduced pharmacological treatments for psychiatric disorders 60 years ago and changed the lives of patients, remains an important area of R&D for this endeavor. The European College of Neuro psychopharmacology has supported efforts to improve psychiatric disorder management and our understanding of the brain for roughly half of this time. In addition, the ECNP is involved in new initiatives to achieve this objective in discussions with regulators and patients as well as with partners in academia and industry. Then, this is a good time to look around the field, think about what we've learned from successes and failures in the past, and think about major challenges for the future. In addition, it is essential to draw attention to the strategies that are being implemented in the pursuit of more efficient treatments for brain disorders: from drug discovery and experimental research to clinical development and joint ventures to strengthen "R and D." The eight articles in this Special Volume of European Neuro psychopharmacology are introduced, interconnected, and set the stage. A wide range of topics are covered, including: the psychiatric disorders' "R and D" past, present, and future; the synergistic effects of epigenetics and genetics; efforts to improve the treatment of neurodevelopmental, neurodegenerative, and depression disorders as well as advancements in neuroimaging and analysis of cellular and cerebral circuits.