Posted by ed_uk on July 2, 2005, at 13:16:59
Hello!
Has anyone tried this drug? It's quite popular in the UK as a prophylactic against migraine. My grandma used to take it, she thought it was really good :-)
Anway, I wondered whether anyone had ever tried pizotifen for anxiety or depression.........the brand name in the UK is SANOMIGRAN. I don't think it's used in the US.
Pizotifen is a potent antagonist of 5-HT2 receptors in brain. It's also an antihistamine. Pizotifen is weakly anticholinergic.
I was only able to find a few ancient studies of pizotifen in depression!!!
Arch Psychiatr Nervenkr. 1978 Mar 7;225(1):67-72.
Clinical observations with pizotifene (Sandomigran) in the treatment of nonmigrainous depressed women.
Banki CM.
Based on earlier clinical experiences a group of 52 nonmigrainous depressed women were treated with 3-6 mh/day pizotifene (Sandomigran-Sandoz) in order to evaluate a presumed antidepressant action. The Bunney-Hamburg behavior-rating scale was employed to quantify the results. Thirteen patients showed marked improvement and 22 patients partial improvement after three weeks' treatment. Involutional and psychoreactive depressions responded better than endogenous forms. Symptomatically, anxiety and dysphoria were significantly more favorably influenced than retardation or paranoia. No serious side effects were observed.
Acta Psychiatr Scand. 1977 Oct;56(4):276-9.
Pizotifen as an antidepressant.
Standal JE.
In a double-blind study the therapeutic effect and tolerance of pizotifen was compared with placebo in 20 outpatients of both sexes suffering from light to moderate depression. Pizotifen seems to possess certain antidepressive effects in dosages of 4-10 mg daily. These properties, and the well-documented effect of pizotifen in migraine, could make it an alternative in treating patients suffering from the often seen combination of vascular headache/depression.
~Ed
poster:ed_uk
thread:522545
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/20050702/msgs/522545.html