Drug Combination Treatment May Not Help in Depression

Published by editor | Filed under Depression

Drug therapy is used in the treatment of depression to moderate or correct neurochemical imbalances that affect moods. The most popular type of medication prescribed for depression is antidepressant. Antidepressants are medications that prevent or relieve depression. It helps the brains of people who are depressed to produce neurochemicals they may be missing. A different type of medication is prescribed for people with manic depression. There had been a substantial increase in the number of people taking antidepressants, since the introduction of Prozac.

If the depression patients have not recovered from two of the general treatments, they are at a little chance of successful treatment from a third medication. During the study, only sixteen percent of the patients showed the reduced symptoms of depression.

Dr. Maurizio Fava of Massachusetts General Hospital, the author of the report in the American Journal of Psychiatry suggested that Patients should have a prior medical consultation before going for combination treatment. He says, further, that almost half of the patients who take antidepressants required a third drug.

Patients opted for Celexa. If it did not work, they went to another antidepressant or continued with Celexa and added a second drug. In the third time, they took either mirtazapine or nortriptyline. Symptoms disappeared in twelve percent of the mirtazapine users and twenty percent of nortriptyline users.

The invention relates to a combination comprising an amount of mirtazapine, or a pharmaceutically acceptable salt or solvate thereof, and an amount of gepirone, or a pharmaceutically acceptable salt or solvate thereof, optionally in association with one or more pharmaceutically acceptable carriers, whereby the amount of gepirone and the amount of mirtazapine are such that the effect of the composition is more favourable than the added effects of the amounts of each drug separately. This combination can be used in the treatment of depression and related disorders, whereby the invention also provides for a new method of treatment of depression and related disorders

A combination comprising mirtazapine, or a pharmaceutically acceptable salt or solvate thereof, and gepirone, or a pharmaceutically acceptable salt or solvate thereof, optionally in association with one or more pharmaceutically acceptable carriers.

A combination according to claim 1, characterised in that the combination comprises a pharmaceutical composition which comprises both mirtazapine and gepirone, optionally in association with one or more pharmaceutically acceptable carriers.

Use of mirtazapine and gepirone in the manufacture of a medicament having psychotropic activity with improved efficacy.

Use of mirtazapine in the manufacture of a medicament for administration in combination with gepirone for the treatment of depression or related disorders.

Use of gepirone in the manufacture of a medicament for administration in combination with mirtazapine for the treatment of depression or related disorders.

A method for the treatment of depression or a related disorder in an individual of a vertebrate species which comprises treating said individual with an effective amount of mirtazapine in combination with gepirone.

A patient pack containing means for administration of metered unit doses, which patient pack comprises mirtazapine and gepirone and means to help using the combination according to claim 1 or 2.

Description:

• The invention relates to a combination comprising mirtazapine, to a package containing dosage units comprising mirtazapine, and to a method of treatment of depression and related disorders.
• Disorders of the central nervous system, such as depression and anxiety are illnesses that affect people of all ages. Although there are many effective drugs available for treatment of these diseases, the currently available methods of treatment are often still not adequate. Most noteworthy is that there are no positive treatment results in about one third of all subjects with depression or anxiety and recovery in the effectively treated group is slow, with an onset of effect at the earliest two weeks after the start of drug treatment.
• The present invention thus concerns the administration of two different psychotropic drugs from different pharmacological categories, each drug enhancing the therapeutic efficacy of the other drug in the treatment of depression and related disorders.

That is why Drug-combination Treatment May Not Help in Depression.

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