Posted by Quintal on October 3, 2007, at 15:43:00
Well b*gger my socks!!! How did that one slip under my radar? I was just looking through the new edition of the BNF to see if there were any new antidepressants etc, when I spotted the warning about rimonabant causing depression, and I wondered what it was. It turns out to be a cannabinoid receptor antagonist, a CB1 receptor antagonist to be precise. In simple terms, it has the opposite effect of cannabis on appetite, i.e. the munchies. Judging by the list of adverse psychiatric effects, it has the opposite effect of cannabis on the mind as well; depression, anxiety and insomnia are common side effects.
I'm very proud to announce that if I were overweight I could probably march into my GP's surgery and get a script for it - rimonabant has been available in the UK as Acomplia® since 2006, though at £44.00 a pack it's not cheap. Well it's about time we Brits got to sample some interesting new drugs first! It seems unlikely rimonabant will be approved in the US any time soon.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rimonabant
http://www.bnf.org/bnf/bnf/54/129838.htmQ
poster:Quintal
thread:786700
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/20070929/msgs/786700.html