Posted by fca on December 15, 2006, at 16:24:02
Could agomelatine be the ideal antidepressant?
Pandi-Perumal SR, Srinivasan V, Cardinali PD, Monti MJ.
Comprehensive Center for Sleep Medicine, Division of Pulmonary, Critical Care and Sleep Medicine, Mount Sinai School of Medicine, 1176 5 Avenue, 6 Floor, Box 1232, New York, NY 10029, USA. pandiperumal@gmail.com
Depressive disorders are a common cause of chronic and recurrent psychiatric dysfunction, constituting the fourth leading cause of global diseases. Depression is associated with a high rate of morbidity and mortality, and is a leading cause of global disability. Despite the effectiveness of most currently available antidepressants, many of them have a number of undesirable side effects. Agomelatine is the first melatonin (MT)(1)/MT(2) agonist having 5-hydroxytryptamine (5-HT)(2C) and 5-HT(2B) antagonist properties and antidepressant activity. Agomelatine is effective in several animal models of depression and anxiety. In addition, three large, multicenter, multinational, placebo-controlled studies and several double-blind, placebo-controlled trials of agomelatine have demonstrated that it is a clinically effective and well-tolerated antidepressant in acute trials. Since currently available antidepressants are not always adequate to cause complete remission of symptoms in severely depressed patients, the superior rate of response achieved with agomelatine in this group of patients underlines its future for clinical use in depressive disorders. In summary, the clinical advantage of agomelatine is attributed to its novel mechanism of action, which helps not only to exert antidepressant action, but also to regulate the sleep-wake rhythm.
PMID: 17144776 [PubMed - in process]
poster:fca
thread:713990
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/20061212/msgs/713990.html