Evaluation of Reboxetine, a Noradrenergic Antidepressant, for the Treatment of Fibromyalgia and Chronic Low Back Pain

Clinical experience supports the use of antidepressant medications to treat chronic pain syndromes, such as low back pain and fibromyalgia. Although this use of antidepressants is common in clinical practice, the literature supporting this off-label use has some limitations. In this report, the auth...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Psychosomatics (Washington, D.C.) D.C.), 2005-09, Vol.46 (5), p.379-384
Main Authors: Krell, Heather V., Leuchter, Andrew F., Cook, Ian A., Abrams, Michelle
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Adrenergic Uptake Inhibitors - therapeutic use
Adult
Analgesics
Antidepressive Agents - therapeutic use
Biological and medical sciences
Chronic Disease
Female
Fibromyalgia - drug therapy
Humans
Low Back Pain - drug therapy
Male
Medical sciences
Middle Aged
Morpholines - therapeutic use
Neuropharmacology
Pharmacology. Drug treatments
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Summary:Clinical experience supports the use of antidepressant medications to treat chronic pain syndromes, such as low back pain and fibromyalgia. Although this use of antidepressants is common in clinical practice, the literature supporting this off-label use has some limitations. In this report, the authors review the body of clinical data on the use of antidepressants in treating pain and present a case series of depressed patients with these syndromes who experienced relief of pain symptoms while being treated with the noradrenergic antidepressant reboxetine. These subjects experienced significant relief of pain before any significant improvement in actual mood symptoms. Our experience with reboxetine suggests that this noradrenergic antidepressant may have efficacy in the treatment of chronic pain in patients with depression.
ISSN:0033-3182
1545-7206
DOI:10.1176/appi.psy.46.5.379