New Medication That May Stop Depression

By Alex Groberman, Wed, May 18, 2011

According to research conducted by two Australian scientists and published in the British medical journal The Lancet, a new compound may improve patients’ sleep patterns and depression all the while side-stepping the unfortunate negative side-effects that accompany most such depression-treating drugs.

Often, people suffering from depression that opt to take one of the popular drugs available on the market for the disorder, experience some sort of weight fluctuation and/or sexual dysfunction. This, in turn, throws the sufferer off and may cause them to stop with the medication – thus preventing themselves from getting the necessary treatment for their depression.

One of the researchers behind the study, Dr. Naomi Rogers, had this to say on the matter:

"A lot of people don't want to go on medications that cause the sexual function with the weight gain, or they have that happen and decide to stop taking the medication," she said.

In order to circumvent this problem, Rogers and her colleague Professor Ian Hickie from the Brain and Mind Research Institute in Sydney tried out a number of different treatment options. Finally, they found a synthetic compound known as agomelatine which produced the ideal results.

"Previously people have often focused just on the mood disruption that's associated with depression," she said. "We know there's a lot of other symptoms that impact people with depression such as sleep disturbance and the circadian disruptions.

"So we're looking at different approaches that target more of the symptoms and then help to improve overall symptoms and quality of life for these patients."

Agomelatine is still being trialed in the U.S., however, it is widely available and approved for use in Australia.

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