Antidepressant To Help Multiple Sclerosis Symptoms

New research has found that the antidepressant, Clomipramine can be helpful with symptoms of multiple sclerosis. Multiple sclerosis still doesn't have a cure and can be very devastating as it progresses.

Clomipramine for multiple sclerosis

It turns out that this antidepressant drug might be able to help best with progressive multiple sclerosis. People with progressive MS face a constantly worsening disease without any breaks or improvement. 

Through collaboration and hard work, researchers partnered up with Dr. V. Wee Yong from the University of Calgary and Dr. Simon Faissner from Ruhr-Universitat Bochum in Germany. The team screened over a thousand different medications and therapeutics for potential efficacy for this type of progressive multiple sclerosis. Based on preclinical studies, they were able to identify one that seemed appropriate for treating multiple sclerosis.

The benefit of repurposing drugs already approved for other conditions

It's a method that basically repurposes already safe and marketed drugs for the treatment of a disease different from what they were initially intended for. That means a way of helping people feel better and get better with less time and cost if we are able to recycle the drugs that we already have out there for something else. What's great about repurposing these drugs is that they don't have to go through all the clinical trials again to make sure they are safe for human use - they've already been through all that to treat another condition. All that needs to be done now is to prove that it can help benefit patients suffering from another condition.

Though there are drugs out there for relapsing-remitting multiple sclerosis, these medications don't always work for the progressive-type

Currently, there are twelve different medications out there approved to treat relapsing-remitting multiple sclerosis, where people experience sudden episodes that worsen and then get better. However, for progressive types of multiple sclerosis, where people continually get worse without any relief, there are only several therapeutic approaches available to them. Researchers focused their energy on this type because these are the patients that especially need a new therapy the most.

Multiple sclerosis is a chronic, debilitating condition that is desperately in need of new solutions

As the most common reason for neurologic disability in young people within the Western world, multiple sclerosis is a very serious condition that needs better treatment and prevention. In the disease process, the person's own immune system attacks and destroys the protective insulation of nerve cells, which is called the myelin sheath. Due to the damage, patients suffer from neurological damage that can include visual problems, paralysis, and sensory numbness. The worst part is that there isn't a cure, and patients tend to gradually deteriorate within 20 years. The progressive type affects 10% of multiple sclerosis patients, which doesn't have any time periods symptom-free throughout deterioration. But why don't drugs for the relapsing-remitting type work for progressive types of multiple sclerosis?