A major trend in psychiatric medicine, and other areas of medicine is the importance or glutamate in proper mental and physical function. I felt we should start a topic on this so we can categorize our findings on this neurotransmitter.
To start things off:
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/21827775"Towards a glutamate hypothesis of depression: an emerging frontier of neuropsychopharmacology for mood disorders.""A wealth of data from animal models have shown that different types of environmental stress enhance glutamate release/transmission in limbic/cortical areas and exert powerful structural effects, inducing dendritic remodeling, reduction of synapses and possibly volumetric reductions resembling those observed in depressed patients. Because a vast majority of neurons and synapses in these areas and circuits use glutamate as neurotransmitter, it would be limiting to maintain that glutamate is in some way 'involved' in mood/anxiety disorders; rather it should be recognized that the glutamatergic system is a primary mediator of psychiatric pathology and, potentially, also a final common pathway for the therapeutic action of antidepressant agents."
Also, I was caught by the line regarding a potential "malfunction in the mechanisms regulating clearance and metabolism of glutamate" as a contributor to dysfunction. Given our successes in supplementation, what can we do to ensure a healthy glutamatergic system?
Supplements I've seen so far include glutamine (precursor of glutamate), tryptophan and 5-htp (b6)
I don't totally understand the glutamine/glutamate metabolism or breakdown, but perhaps it's worth looking into.
Again, I think this is worth having it's own thread, so I made it