Tryptophan Essay

that the use of this drug lead to improved mood in some of the patients. The precursor of 5-HT is tryptophan and has also be discussed as being possibly dysfunctional in depressed patients. Owens and Nemeroff (1999) explained reports were showing depressed patients had lower levels of concentration of free tryptophan located in the plasma; suggesting that this could affect the ability for neurons to produce serotonin. Since tryptophan is an amino acid and is taken in by eating foods high in tryptophan, it was possible to experimentally induce a depleted tryptophan state by placing patients on a special diet. Owens and Nemeroff (1999) described this and explained that the patients who were placed on the tryptophan restricted diet showed significant reduction in available tryptophan followed by a remittance of depression in serotonergic anti-depressant treated patients shortly after the start of the diet. These findings suggest that these fairly quick changes in the availability of serotonin in the brain could be impacting and
They found in participants with no history of mood disorders that depletion of these compounds did not lead to a depressed state. Ruhe et al (2007) did find slightly lowered moods in participants who had a family history of MDD but those themselves were not. This indicates that monoamine depletion cannot be the whole story. Another hole in this theory is the issue of therapeutic delay, a medication such as SSRIs are antidepressants may be able to induce physiological changes almost immediately however, it takes weeks of continuous treatment for a patient who feel a reduction in their depressive symptoms. It seems so far that the arguments brought forward to support this hypothesis are not able to withstand replication and therefore losing