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Study shows Prozac may slow MS
2008-05-01
The popular antidepressant Prozac may help slow multiple sclerosis, according to a Dutch study showing that people who took the drug had fewer of the brain lesions that are a hallmark of the incurable disease. The findings were from a small study but justified further examination in those afflicted with MS, the researchers reported in one of the British Medical Journal's specialist journals on Thursday. "This proof-of-concept study shows that (the drug) tends to reduce the formation of new enhancing lesions in patients with MS," Jop Mostert, a neurologist at the University Medical Center Groeningen in the Netherlands, and colleagues wrote. There is no cure for MS, which affects more than 1 million people worldwide. It is twice as common in women than men with symptoms often first appearing between the ages of 20 and 40. The disease can be a mild illness in some people while causing permanent disability in others. Symptoms may include numbness or weakness in one or more limbs, partial or complete loss of vision, tingling or pain, electric-shock sensations with certain head movements, tremors and an unsteady gait. In their study the researchers randomly assigned 40 people with MS to treatment with either 20 mg daily of Prozac, known generically as fluoxetine, or a placebo for 24 weeks. Thirty-eight people completed the study. The researchers conducted detailed brain scans every four weeks to check for new areas of neurological inflammation, a tell-tale sign of the disease. The scans showed people on the placebo had more new areas of inflammation after eight weeks. And during the last 16 weeks of treatment almost two-thirds of people on the antidepressant had no new areas of inflammation compared to about a quarter of those in the other group, the researcher said. Prozac was initially introduced by U.S. drugmaker Eli Lilly and Co in 1987 and belongs to a class of compounds called selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors (SSRIs). It is now off patent and widely available generically as fluoxetine. Last month researchers showed the medicine might help treat "lazy eye" by returning neurons in the adult brain to a more plastic state normally only seen in youth. This allows the visual perception system to develop its proper connections between the eye and the brain. The Dutch team, which did not administer other SSRIs, added their findings mean further research should look at adding higher doses and combining the drug with other treatments that alter the immune response. (Reporting by Michael Kahn, Edited by Maggie Fox and Richard Balmforth)
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