Ketamine is not approved for depression, and it has a checkered past in psychiatric research.
Also last week, AstraZeneca said the government had notified it that an F.D.A. expert panel would need to review Seroquel XR, an extended-release version of the drug, before it could be approved for depression and generalized anxiety disorder.
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The combination of bupropion, which is approved for depression and smoking cessation, and naltrexone, an opioid receptor antagonist approved for opioid and alcohol addiction, was assessed for the treatment of obesity.
Other medications that can be effective include certain drugs that are approved to treat depression, but also reduce hot flashes in women without depression.
If mifepristone does reach the market, it will be the first medication specifically approved for psychotic depression, which psychiatrists say is the most difficult form of depression to treat.
Paxil is already approved for treating depression, obsessive-compulsive disorder, social phobia and panic disorder.
This month, Prozac was approved to treat depression in children ages 7 to 17.
Unlike another relatively new noninvasive treatment, transcranial magnetic stimulation (TMS), now federally approved to treat depression in certain cases, tDCS does not have the rare but real risk of seizures, Dr. Lisanby said.
Cymbalta, Lilly's second-best-selling drug behind Zyprexa, is approved for major depression, anxiety, diabetic pain and fibromyalgia, but Lilly is seeking a vast new market in chronic pain.
