Treatment-resistant depression might be considered as the failure of two families of antidepressant therapy given sequentially at sufficient dosage, for an adequate length of time and with continuous compliance. Patients with treatment-resistant depression should be assessed as though they were new referrals, and factors which may be contributing should be dealt with whenever possible. A sequen...

Serotonin [5-hydroxytryptamine (5-HT)] is a conspicuous neuromodulator of sensory-motor networks that affects a variety of neurons at different levels of the network hierarchy. Because of its many possible targets, it has been difficult to obtain a comprehensive picture of how 5-HT achieves its final modulatory output on any given network. Our hypothesis is that the profile of 5-HT actions is d...

Venlafaxine is a novel antidepressant with a rapid onset of action. It is highly efficacious in the treatment of depression and in comparison to the traditional thcyclic antidepressants, it has a favourable side effects profile. Although effective, venlafaxine too carries a risk for manic switch in bipolar affective disorder patients. Give the paucity of literature, we report a case of venlafax...

Gijsman HJ, Geddes JR, Rendell JM, et al. Antidepressants for bipolar depression: A systematic review of randomized, controlled trials. Am J Psychiatry 2004;161:1537–47. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . ....

Six cases of convulsive seizures occurring during treatment with viloxazine notified to the Committee on Safety of Medicines (CSM) and two other cases from Japan were reviewed. A critical study of the patient's histories suggests a possible causal connection between drug and seizures in only two of these cases. The occurrence of convulsions is not in keeping with the results of animal experimen...

About 1% of patients in general practice take antidepressants for long periods. Many receive repeat prescriptions, without review. It might be assumed that these patients are well and are on adequate maintenance treatment. Our findings refute this assumption; of 78 patients on long-term repeats, only a third were in remission and a fifth had Beck Depression Inventory scores suggesting persistin...

OBJECTIVE To report the occurrence, type, causes, and management of psychiatric manifestations in multiple sclerosis (MS). METHOD Review of recent, relevant literature. RESULTS Psychiatric illness, especially depression, occurs much more frequently than expected in patients with MS, is frequently unrecognized or ignored, and is treatable using standard methods, although patients with MS may...

There are very divergent appraisals of the effect of antidepressants on thyroid parameters and their possible correlation with the response. Whereas there are numerous investigations of tricyclic antidepressants, so far, there are only limited data on the possible effect of serotonin-selective reuptake inhibitors on neuroendocrine parameters. The present study showed a significant reduction of ...

Merital (Nomifensine) is a tetrahydroiso quinolene which is structurally unrelated to the tricyclics or to the mono amino-oxidase inhibiters. Merital has been reported to have antidepressant properties equivalent to amitryptyline (Grof, Saxena, Daigle, and Mahutte, 1977) and imiprimine (Forrest, Hewett, and Nicholson, 1977) in the treatment of patients with depressive symptoms. Bruckner and Jan...

The effects of the tricyclic antidepressants desipramine HCI and chlorimipramine HCI on buprenorphine HCI antinociceptive activity were studied in mice using the hot-plate and the tail-flick methods. In the hot-plate test, desipramine caused a transient antinociceptive effect at low doses, but it decreased buprenorphine analgesia. Chlorimipramine in this test caused a more sustained antinocicep...