A new class of antidepressants dramatically cut the time needed to take effect when they were tested on rats, a study found.

The study authors, from McGill University in Montreal, Canada, said they hope the finding will spur research into the family of drugs, raising the prospect of faster-acting antidepressants.

But, as always with studies involving animals, the findings must first be confirmed in humans.

"The only way we'll know is when a clinical trial is done" involving humans, said Gerald Frye, Joseph H. Shelton professor of neuropharmacology and neurotoxicology at the Texas A&M Health Science Center College of Medicine's department of neuroscience and experimental therapeutics. "It looks promising from an animal standpoint, and the animal systems they're using are pretty good, but this can only predict. There's no guarantee."

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