Pregabalin for depression

Pregabalin for depression

Depression is a mood disorder that causes the person to be sad and have lost interest in life and anything.

It affects how the patient’s feelings, behaviors, and thinkings.

It can be severe that may lead the patient to feel that life doesn’t worth to be lived.

Depression is usually associated with signs and symptoms of anxiety.

So, before talking about Pregabalin for depression, let’s understand first the relation between depression and anxiety.

The U.S (United States) National Comorbidity Study declared that 58% of patients diagnosed with major depressive disorder we also diagnosed with comorbid anxiety disorder.

As reported by Zinbarg et al., in 1994. Patients suffering from depression can show strong signs of agitation and anxiety.

Those patients suffering from anxiety and major depression are identified to have anxious depression.

These kinds of depressed patients meet the diagnosis of a comorbid anxiety disorder combined with axis II clusters (dramatic, very emotional, or surprising thinking or behavior).

So when these patients start the treatment,

the doctor should take into consideration treating the anxiety symptoms as well as treating the depression.

It is highly important to take care of the anxiety symptoms to prevent the illness to be converted to a chronic one.

Patients with depression and comorbid anxiety symptoms suffer from severe depression and suicidal thoughts with a higher risk of performing suicide.

Pregabalin could become an excellent added drug to the antidepressant in patients suffering from depression associated with anxiety and agitation, which may also replace benzodiazepines during the first period of treatment as it outweighs them in the onset of action, which is a very big benefit for the patients.

Few studies had already shown the benefits of adding Pregabalin to the therapy regimen of patients suffering from depression not completely responding to antidepressant medications, or in elder patients suffering from a comorbid generalized anxiety disorder.

Pregabalin has already shown a very good anti-anxiety effect in patients with generalized anxiety disorder.

It is also very effective in the prevention of relapse of patients suffering from a generalized anxiety disorder.

Pregabalin for depression is a well-tolerated drug with fewer side effects and less risk for dependence.

Although new data have shown susceptibility of abuse when using Pregabalin for depression, it possesses comparable effectiveness with benzodiazepines, with no major interactions.

In treating depression and anxiety, the often-used were a combination of antidepressant drugs, which showed 2-4 weeks onset of action, which may cause complete disturbance for the patient and may cause him to stop the therapy.

Pregabalin for depression has proved to work from the first week by reducing the symptoms of anxiety and depression.

Anxiety symptoms were measured by the HAMA scale (Hamilton Anxiety Rating Scale), and the depressive symptoms were measured by the HAMD (Hamilton Depression Rating Scale), and those scales were found to decrease starting the treatment and throughout the therapy period.

So, what is Pregabalin?

Pregabalin for depression is an anti-epileptic drug.

It slows down the impulses send by the brain to cause seizures, and also affects the chemicals that send signs of pain across the nervous system.

Uses and indications:

Pregabalin is not just used for depression, it has many other uses.

• Peripheral neuropathic pain associated with diabetes
• Neuralgia happening after the infection with the herpes zoster virus
• The pain caused by fibromyalgia, the first drug approved for this case
• Partial-onset seizures
• Neuropathic pain happening after spinal cord injury
• used off-label in generalized anxiety disorder, bipolar disorder, insomnia (sleeping disorder), social disorders, and conditions of chronic pain

N.B. Neuropathic pain is pain happening from what is supposed to not be painful due to damage or disease affecting the nervous system.

Dosing and administration:

Pregabalin for depression is available in many dosage forms but all of them are orally taken forms, no injectable or rectal ones.

The dose should be taken exactly as prescribed by the doctor.

The dose depends on the age and weight of the patient and also on the medical condition.

Interactions:

As we clarified before, there are no contraindicated drugs to be concomitantly used with Pregabalin for depression, but there are drugs that may cause serious interactions that the patient should use an alternative drug in this case.

• benazepril
• captopril
• enalapril
• everolimus
• fosinopril
• imidapril
• lisinopril
• metoclopramide intranasal
• moexipril
• perindopril
• quinapril
• ramipril
• sirolimus
• temsirolimus
• trandolapril

Pregabalin should not be also used while consuming alcohol, as alcohol can increase the side effects of the nervous system, dizziness, drowsiness, and concentration problems.

Pregnancy and lactation:

Pregabalin for depression should only be given to pregnant women when there are no other alternatives, and when the benefits outweigh the risks.

Breastfeeding while on drug therapy with Pregabalin, tumorigenicity could happen (susceptibility for growing tumors either benign or malignant).

So breastfeeding is not recommended while using Pregabalin for depression.

This is not a full list of information about Pregabalin for depression; always talk to your doctor about the full information about any drug before taking it.

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