Elucidating And Unravelling The Novel Antidepressant Mechanism Of Action For Atypical Antipsychotics: Repurposing The Atypical Antipsychotics For More Comprehensive Therapeutic Usage

Abstract

There has been paucity of research reports on the obscured antidepressant mechanism of action for the atypical antipsychotics. The present study was designed to elucidate and unravel the novel antidepressant mechanism of action for the atypical antipsychotics. During the course of this present study, original peer-reviewed articles reported in English language that investigated atypical antipsychotics were identified by exploring the Medline-Entrez-PubMed search, Web of Science database, Google Scholar search, and Science Direct database online facilities. Information was also sourced from printed textbooks and the reports documented by some recognized medically inclined and health professional bodies. These published materials containing documented reports relating to the subject matter of focus in this review article were accessed and adequately referenced. This study spanned for 8-month duration from March 2023 to November 2023. A total number of 117 published articles were reviewed, out of which 61 referenced articles were found to contain information pertinent to this present study, while those parts of the referenced articles inapt to this study were neglected. Based on pharmacological mechanism of action, the atypical antipsychotic agents can be broadly classified into two major subclasses, namely: regular and irregular atypical antipsychotics. This review will proclaim and repurpose the atypical antipsychotics pharmacological properties for more comprehensive therapeutic usage as a new generation class of antidepressants that had brought forth substantial improvement and positive outcome to the management of patients with depressive disorders.