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Prozac 'could limit multiple sclerosis effects'

01/05/2008

The antidepressant drug Prozac could help to limit the effects of multiple sclerosis (MS), new research suggests.

Dutch scientists found that the drug - also known as fluoxetine - tends to reduce inflammation caused by the disease.

They studied 40 patients with the relapsing remitting form of MS who were either given 20mg daily of Prozac or a placebo (dummy drug) for 24 weeks.

Magnetic resonance images - detailed brain scans - were taken every four weeks to check for new areas of neurological inflammation.

This inflammation is a hallmark of active MS disease.

The results, published in the Journal of Neurology Neurosurgery and Psychiatry, revealed that people in the placebo group had more new areas of inflammation than those treated with Prozac.

While the group given Prozac had an average number of two new areas affected, the average number of new areas affected in the group given the placebo was more than five.

Effects were seen after eight weeks, which corresponds with the time Prozac starts to work on relieving depression.

During the last 16 weeks of treatment almost two-thirds of patients (63 per cent) in the group given Prozac had no new areas of inflammation compared with only one in four (26 per cent) in the group given the placebo.

The researchers warn that "conclusions from our results must be made with caution because of the small sample size and exploratory design".

But they add that the results of the trial are "sufficiently encouraging to justify further studies with fluoxetine in patients with MS".