[Cholinergic hypothesis of depression]

Is acetylcholine implicated in depressive disorders? Biochemical methods studying the cholinergic system are not well set up. Only indirect elements could confirm the cholinergic hypothesis of affective disorders. Cholinergic agonists induce depressive symptomatology. Moreover, a central, cholinergic dysfunction could be an explanation of sleep disturbances and of neuroendocrine abnormalities seen in affective disorders. These observations could be applied in two ways: a more precise choice of antidepressive drugs, and the use of new tests developed to detect population with high depression risk.