BACKGROUND Despite an increasingly recognized relationship between depression and smoking, little is known about how smoking influences antidepressant response and treatment outcomes. The aim of this study was to systematically review the evidence of the impact of smoking on new-generation antidepressants with an emphasis on the pharmacokinetic perspective. METHODS We present a systematic rev...

BACKGROUND This study aimed to evaluate whether selecting mirtazapine as the first choice for current depressive episode instead of selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors (SSRIs) reduces benzodiazepine use in patients with major depressive disorder (MDD). We concurrently examined the relationship between clinical responses and serum mature brain-derived neurotrophic factor (BDNF) and its precu...

PURPOSE Fibromyalgia syndrome (FS) is a form of non-articular rheumatism. The main criteria are the widespread musculoskeletal pain and tender points at multiple characteristic sites which are associated with several vegetative and functional symptoms. Depression is the most frequent psychiatric concomitant of FS. Etiology is unknown, connection between disturbances of serotonin metabolism and ...

A rising concern among clinicians is treatment of unplanned weight loss in the elderly, especially given the predicted growth of this population over the next few decades. Unexpected weight loss in the geriatric patient worsens overall health outcomes. A variety of pharmacotherapeutic options are available for treatment; however, evidence underlying their use is limited, and none has gained app...

BACKGROUND Bleeding is the most common and worrisome adverse effect of warfarin therapy. One of the factors that might increase bleeding risk is initiation of interacting drugs that potentiate warfarin. We sought to evaluate whether initiation of an antidepressant increases the risk of hospitalization for gastrointestinal bleeding in warfarin users. METHODOLOGY/PRINCIPAL FINDINGS Medicaid cla...

A clinical trial was undertaken to evaluate the Anti depressant efficacy of Newer Antidepressant Mirtazapine in the treatment of major Depression in 39 patients in an O.P.D. setup. In addition to this clinical acceptability and safety profile of Mirtazapine as compared to that of Amitriptyline was also assessed. Mitazapine usually described as Noradrenergic and specific serotonergic Anti depres...

African Journal of Psychiatry • May 2012 160 Drug interaction in psychiatry is a clinically important issue, as it can cause side-effects and prevent adequate therapeutic effect. We report an unexpected interaction between the antidepressant mirtazapine and the antiemetic ondansetron in a 72 year old patient, weighing 68 kg, with a height of 173 cm. The patient, who gave his informed consent fo...