Understanding mood disorders using electrophysiology and circuit breaking

Mood disorders such as major depressive disorders are predicted to increase globally and according to the World Health Organization (WHO), it will become a leading contributor to the global burden of disease over the next few years. Pathophysiology of mood and reward processing leads to mood disorders such as anxiety, depression and addiction. Comorbidity of these disorders in a majority of patients implies that overlapping brain regions most likely regulate these processes. Evidence from the literature described in this chapter suggests that the multiplicity of symptoms related to mood disorders most likely is the result of aberrations in different aspects of normal neural functions ranging from the molecular up to the neural circuit. This review synthesizes findings from rodent studies from which emerges a role for different, yet interconnected, molecular systems and associated neural circuits to the aetiology of depression. Thus, in order to develop more effective and faster acting treatments for mood disorders such as depression, much work is still needed in understanding how exposure to stress lead to the sequence of changes in molecular, genetic/epigenetic processes and eventually neural circuit signalling. Using the combination of animal models of mood disorders together with the development of novel and sophisticated technologies to study molecular, genetic and neural circuit changes, there is a good possibility for the development of newer and better therapeutics for the treatment of mental disorders in the near future.