# Milnacipran in Fibro treatment...



## M&M (Jan 20, 2002)

Also posted to the Co-Cure mailing list...


> quote:A double-blind placebo-controlled trial of milnacipran in the treatment offibromyalgia.Hum Psychopharmacol. 2004 Sep 20Vitton O, Gendreau M, Gendreau J, Kranzler J, Rao SG.Cypress Bioscience, San Diego, USA.PMID: 15378666Fibromyalgia syndrome is a systemic disorder of widespread pain which isthought to result from abnormal pain processing within the central nervoussystem. There are no currently approved treatments for this indication.Antidepressants appear, however, to be effective, especially those with anaction on noradrenergic neurotransmission.The objective of the present study was to test the efficacy of the dualaction noradrenaline and serotonin reuptake inhibitor antidepressant,milnacipran, in the treatment of fibromyalgia.The 125 patients, who were enrolled in a double-blind, placebo-controlled,flexible dose escalation trial, were randomized to receive placebo ormilnacipran for 4 weeks of dose escalation - up to 200 mg/day - , followed by8 weeks at a constant dose.The study evaluated the efficacy and safety of milnacipran for thetreatment of pain and associated symptoms such as fatigue, depressed moodand sleep.75% of milnacipran-treated patients reported overall improvement, comparedwith 38% in the placebo group - p < 0.01 - . Furthermore, 37% of twice dailymilnacipran-treated patients reported at least 50% reduction in painintensity, compared with 14% of placebo-treated patients - p < 0.05 - . 84% ofall milnacipran patients escalated to the highest dose - 200 mg/day - with notolerability issues.Most adverse events were mild to moderate in intensity, and transient induration.These results suggestthat milnacipran may have the potential to relieve notonly pain but several of the other symptoms associated with fibromyalgia.Copyright 2004 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.


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