Boehringer Ingelheim present duloxetine switch results

Boeheringer Ingelheim has announced the results of a clinical study showing that the antidepressant duloxetine hydrochloride is effective as a means of pain relief in patients suffering from depression who have not adequately responded to the use of a selective serotonin reuptake inhibitor (SSRI).

The trial data presented at the annual meeting of the American Psychiatric Association in San Diego showed that the treatment was effective for patients switched both gradually and abruptly from SSRIs.

Boeheringer Ingelheim reports that 30-50 per cent of patients do not respond to their treatment with an antidepressant, with these individuals requiring a change to another medication, while there currently exists little data to aid physicians in conducting this switch.

Professor Angel L Montejo, psychiatry research coordinatory at the University Hospital of Salamanca, said: “Recent data suggests the more antidepressants an individual has tried, the less likely they are to benefit from a new antidepressant.

“Therefore it is important to maximise the chance of remission earlier in the treatment pathway.”

He added that the trial results presented this week showed that depression patients switching to duloxetine hydrochloride displayed a major reduction in painful symptoms, with the compound well tolerated irrespective of the speed of transition.

In March 2007, Boehringer Ingelheim presented data from clinical studies of duloxetine at the European Congress of Psychiatry, reporting that the compound lowered non-specific pain and emotional symptoms in depression patients.