Brain plasticity and antidepressant treatments:new cells, new connections

It is now a decade since we first wrote about the impact of antidepressant agents on plastic processes in the hippocampus (Stewart and Reid, 1993). Since then, the roles of various forms of brain plasticity have moved centre stage in efforts to understand the pathophysiology of depressive disorder. Here, we review the background to current views relating cytoarchitectural and synaptic changes to the aetiology and treatment of affective disease.