T37. Rapid Anxiolytic Effects of a Serotonin Type 4 Receptor Agonist Involve Prefrontal Cortex-Brainstem Neural Circuit Recruitment

Abstract

Benzodiazepines are an effective treatment of anxiety disorders for years, but misgiving over side effects have led to prescribe some antidepressant drugs even though they present a delayed onset of action. Here, we seek to evaluate whether serotonin type 4 receptor (5-HT4R) activation and targeting glutamatergic axon terminals arising from the medial prefrontal cortex (mPFC) in the dorsal raphe nucleus (DRN) may constitute a new way to induce fast anxiolytic effects.