Role of novel drug delivery systems in delivering antidepressant drugs to the brain

In the United States, depression, a potentially fatal mood disease, affects one in six people, or over 17.6 million people. For most antidepressant drugs, oral administration is probably the prototype choice of delivery. To improve the effectiveness of antidepressants, researchers are focusing on improving biopharmaceutical attributes. Novel targeted carrier loaded antidepressant formulations represent a breakthrough in oral drug administration since they have maximized the plasma drug concentration reducing adverse effects and improving therapeutic effectiveness. Various polymeric systems including micelles, nanoparticles and lipid-based systems including nano emulsions, solid lipid nanoparticles and inorganic nano constructs, might play a significant role in the future of pharmacologic treatment for psychiatric diseases. These futuristic delivery systems will offer improved safety, tolerability, and efficacy and can keep a more constant drug level in the bloodstream, thereby reducing dose and improved patient compliance. In this chapter we provide a brief appraisal of these investigated carriers on im proving the biopharmaceutical profile of antidepressant drugs, supported by various case studies and literature survey. Thus, it is believed that nanotechnology will help treat psychiatric diseases more successfully than conventional techniques, thus useful in clinical settings.