Depression medication list trial#

These statistics translate to a vast number of the American population reliant on psychotropic medications. In addition, depression impacts approximately 16 million, about 6.7% of the U.S. The Anxiety and Depression Association of America (ADAA) states that an estimated 40 million adults suffer from one of the eight disorders within the anxiety spectrum. Joseph Lonstein, a professor of psychology at Michigan State University, who was not involved in the research, says, “I very much doubt this is the only system that’s atypical in women might suffer from postpartum depression or anxiety, but I think it’s a completely reasonable one.The difficulties of modern life often are reflected in the high prevalence of mental health disorders, particularly anxiety disorders and major depressive disorders. Not everyone is convinced that a single hormonal pathway is responsible, however. The drug, called brexanolone, is now under review by the U.S. Sage Therapeutics has since conducted two phase III trials with a combined 226 postpartum women, and preliminary reports are promising. Most important, the effect occurred immediately after it was administered, and benefits persisted for 30 days.

Depression medication list trial#

In one of Meltzer-Brody’s studies, a phase II clinical trial of 21 severely depressed postpartum women, 70 percent of those who received the drug went into remission. Doing so activates GABA receptors and keeps the neurochemical at a healthy level. The new drug, developed by Sage Therapeutics, works by elevating allopregnanolone.

But in some new mothers, this rebound takes longer, which may result in postpartum depression. Immediately following birth, estrogen, progesterone and allopregnanolone drop back to normal levels, after which GABA receptor levels rebound quickly. GABA receptors go dormant during pregnancy to avoid overactivation by allopregnanolone otherwise a pregnant woman would become virtually anesthetized. It also produces a spike in brain levels of a steroid called allopregnanolone, which normally activates receptors for GABA-a neurochemical that signals brain cells to stop firing.

Pregnancy causes a dramatic rise in the reproductive hormones estrogen and progesterone.

Instead researchers suspect a different biological process may be the culprit. It is unclear how well these drugs work, however, because the neurotransmitter serotonin may play only a secondary role in the condition or may not be involved at all. Many women who suffer from postpartum depression receive standard antidepressants, including selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors such as Prozac. She conducted recent trials of the drug, which targets hormonal changes in new mothers. “There is a real need to identify women and treat them-and treat them quickly,” says Samantha Meltzer-Brody, director of the Perinatal Psychiatry Program at the University of North Carolina Center for Women’s Mood Disorders. There is no specific treatment, but a promising new drug may change that. The condition can interfere with normal bonding between mothers and infants and jeopardize children’s development through adolescence. Postpartum depression afflicts 10 to 20 percent of the nearly four million women who give birth in the U.S.