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Conventional methods to treat depression have proven to be inefficient. While
current medications increase the monoamine concentration at synapse, over the course of
hours or days, clinical results have shown that the concentration needs to be increased
over a period of weeks or months to have a beneficial effect. Controlled release systems
offer an alternative to these inadequate conventional methods. Instead of treating
depression by increasing the monoamine concentration, depression can be treated by
increasing the level of neurotrophic growth factors thus fixing an impairment in
neuroplasticity. One possible neurotrophic factor is brain-derived neurotrophic factor
(BDNF). Controlled release systems offer the best method of delivering BDNF because
they can be altered to be site specific and to change the rate of release. In this study,
biocompatible controlled release systems were developed and the surfaces were adjusted
to examine the effect of pore size and structure on the rate of diffusion. These controlled
release systems proved to be easily fabricated and have comparable time release rates to
those required to administer BDNF, thus providing a potential alternative to current
medication.
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