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Review
. 2011;13(1):109-25.
doi: 10.31887/DCNS.2011.13.1/ccelano.

Depressogenic effects of medications: a review

Christopher M Celano  1 , Oliver Freudenreich, Carlos Fernandez-Robles, Theodore A Stern, Mario A Caro, Jeff C Huffman
Affiliations
Review

Depressogenic effects of medications: a review

Christopher M Celano et al. Dialogues Clin Neurosci. 2011.

Abstract
in English, Spanish, French

The literature is filled with reports that link medications with the onset or progression of depression. Because depression is so common in patients with medical illness, assessing whether a medication has in fact caused depression, or whether the relationship is coincidental, can be challenging. In this article, we review the literature on the association between medications and depression. For most agents, there are case reports or small studies linking the medication with the onset of depression, but more rigorous prospective studies are either lacking or found no association between the agent and depression. However, several medications, (eg, barbiturates, vigabatrin, topiramate, flunarizine, corticosteroids, mefloquine, efavirenz, and interferon-alpha) do appear to cause depression in some patients and should be used with caution in patients at risk for depression.

La literatura está llena de reportes que relacionan los medicamentos con el inicio o la progresión de la depresión. Dado que la depresión es tan frecuente en pacientes con enfermedad médica, puede ser desafiante el evaluar si un medicamento de hecho ha causado la depresión o si la relación es sólo una coincidencia. En este artículo se revisa la literatura relacionada con la asociación entre medicamentos y depresión. Para la mayoría de los fármacos hay reportes de casos o pequeños estudios que vinculan la medicación con el inicio de la depresión, pero estudios prospectivos más rigurosos no existen o no encuentran asociación entre el fármaco y la depresión. Sin embargo, varios medicamentos (por ejemplo, barbitúricos, vigabatrina, topiramato, flunarizina, corticoides, mefloquina, efavirenz e interferon-alfa) parecen causar depresión en algunos pacientes y deben utilizarse con cautela en pacientes con riesgo de depresión.

La littérature regorge de rapports qui relient les médicaments à la survenue ou à la progression d'une dépression. La dépression étant très courante chez les personnes malades, l'évaluation de l'implication du médicament dans l'installation de la dépression, ou de la coïncidence de la relation observée, peut s'avérer difficile. Dans cet article, nous effectuons une revue des liens entre médicaments et dépression. Pour la plupart des produits, des rapports de cas ou de petites études associent le médicament à la survenue de la dépression, mais il manque des études prospectives plus rigoureuses ou celles qui existent n'ont pas trouvé de lien entre le produit et la dépression. Cependant, plusieurs médicaments (barbituriques, vigabatrine, topiramate, flunarazine, corticoïdes, méfloquine, éfavirenz et interféron-α) semblent provoquer une dépression chez certains patients et doivent être utilisés avec précaution chez les patients ayant un risque de dépression.

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