Although much research effort has been put into the development of new antidepressant drugs, the process of developing a drug often fails at the stage of large randomized controlled trials (RCTs)... Show moreAlthough much research effort has been put into the development of new antidepressant drugs, the process of developing a drug often fails at the stage of large randomized controlled trials (RCTs) in which an initially promising compound appears to lack efficacy after all. Several experimental medicine models have been proposed as preclinical tools in order to predict drug efficacy before the stage large RCTs. Among the various experimental medicine models, the cognitive neuropsychological model has been proposed as a tool to predict the efficacy of antidepressant drug even before the stage of large scale and expensive RCTs. We applied the cognitive neuropsychological model of drug action to test antidepressant effects of a novel compound (ARA290) and a well-known compound (L-tryptophan). We further investigated the model by tapping into HPA-axis reactivity and social decision making as additional outcomes, and investigated their interaction with a genetic marker. Show less
