David Janowsky:Cholinergic muscarinic mechanisms in depression and mania 

Samuel Gershon’s response to David Janowsky’s reply

        Thanks for your courteous and generous response to my comments. I can reciprocate by saying that when we contacted Janowsky and Davis about their findings and raised the question of  the possibility of differential severity of the mania  being a factor in the response to physostigmine, they both responded: “We will come and redo the experiment at Bellevue.” The times have changed and this sort of collegiality and willingness to mutually evaluate possible variables in an experiment are rare and rarer.

        However, Dave has referred to our experiments  on the role of serotonin in antidepressant activity. So, I think we all still have to try and understand the  question of what the pharmacological role is of antidepressants in producing their therapeutic effect.
 Although the Janowsky studies have contributed a great deal to understanding this question, we still need a comprehensive explanation of how these findings fit together.

        I wish to conclude by again referring to a past history of collaborative work and collegiality of the “old” days.

February 6, 2020