Deniban in the Treatment of Dysthymia

Overview

Dysthymia is a chronic, mild depression with an impact on the quality of life. Recently it has been shown that dopaminergic agents could be successful in the treatment of depression. Amisulpride which has in low doses (Deniban) dopaminergic activity is registered for the treatment of dysthymia in Czech republic. A prospective, open observational study of dysthymia treatment with Deniban has been performed. Totally 510 patients suffering from dysthymia were included. Ninety % of the patients finished all 4 months of the study and 87% of the treated wanted to continue with Deniban. A significant reduction of symptoms (according to MADRS) has been observed after one week and this trend has continued till the end of the study. In 83.4% of patients there was a marked improvement. Deniban subjects was well tolerated, side effects were found in 59/510 (11.57%) of the treated. The most frequently observed symptoms were galactorrhea in 11/510 (2.16%), headache in 7/510 (1.37%), somnolence in 5/510(0.98%), both nausea and xerostomia in 5/510 (0.98) and mastodynia in 4/510 (0.78%). These results show that dopaminergic drugs may be drugs of choice in dysthymia.

Key words:
dysthymia, chronic mild depression, deniban.