Posted by TSA West on April 7, 2002, at 20:44:40
In reply to Effexor poop-out. Anybody???, posted by jay on April 7, 2002, at 20:20:11
Journal of Clinical Psychopharmacology, October 2000 "Lithium Augmentation of Venlafaxine: An Open-Label Trial":
"Lithium augmentation of venlafaxine therapy has not previously been reported. In this study, treating patients with depression with venlafaxine alone produced a significant response at week 7, and augmentation with lithium for 6 weeks provided a further improvement in response. The addition of lithium to venlafaxine treatment was well tolerated, and most adverse events were mild-to-moderate in severity. Only one patient discontinued for adverse events during augmentation. The tolerability profile with venlafaxine alone was consistent with that previously reported.
Overall, this patient population could be characterized as more severely depressed before treatment as evidenced by the duration of depression, the number of previous antidepressant treatments, and the mean rating scale scores at baseline. In addition, those patients requiring augmentation tended to have more severe depression on the basis of a longer duration and higher scores on depression rating scales.
Results from previous studies have indicated the benefits of lithium augmentation of selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors and tricyclic antidepressants. Lithium augmentation seems to be most effective when added sequentially to an adequate trial of an antidepressant in nonresponding patients, as was done here. Factors that may be predictive of a response to lithium augmentation include the presence of bipolar depression, less severe depression, and rapid improvement to lithium addition... Previous studies have indicated that a lithium plasma level of at least 0.7 mEq/L is required for maximal effectiveness during augmentation."
poster:TSA West
thread:102308
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/20020402/msgs/102311.html