Posted by SLS on June 27, 2005, at 7:44:12
In reply to Riluzole_and_Lamactil, posted by EERRIICC on June 26, 2005, at 22:35:04
> How similar are these drugs? Will failure of a trial with lamactil for unipolar depression indicate that a trial with riluzole will probably fail as well?
Incredibly expensive stuff. The drug company would not even supply for free the NIMH with riluzole to accomadate their studies of riluzole to treat bipolar depression.
Among its pharmacological properties, Lamictal inhibits the release of glutamate. In contrast, riluzole acts as a reuptake inhibitor of glutamate much the same way Prozac works with serotonin.
I glean only a mild antidepressant effect from Lamictal, and I need standard antidepressants for it to work at all.
I tried riluzole (Rilutek) to treat my bipolar depression. It did nothing for me except perhaps making me feel a little worse.
You know the deal. You won't know unless you try it. There is very little one can do to predict the outcome of a drug trial. I think the NIMH trial is ongoing and have yet to publish their results. I haven't a clue as to what they came up with. I've been waiting.
Wait...
It's about time. Zarate et. al just published their results. It appears on Medline.
It is a pretty poor abstract. One would need to read the full text to gather enough information to draw any conclusions. They don't even state how many of the 14 subjects who were enrolled in the study went on to respond to riluzole. Nor do they state the percentage of patients who responded and the magnitude of the improvements seen. What a disappointingly low number of subjects tested. They only managed to recruit 14 people in two years. What a crappy study.
http://www.clinicaltrials.gov/show/NCT00054704
- Scott
poster:SLS
thread:519627
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/20050627/msgs/519768.html