Department of Pharmaceutical Sciences and Drug Research, Punjabi University, Patiala, Punjab, 147002, India.
Neurochem Res. 2021 Jun;46(6):1305-1321. doi: 10.1007/s11064-021-03274-5. Epub 2021 Mar 4.
Depression is one of the most frequent psychiatric comorbidities associated with epilepsy having a major impact on the patient's quality of life. Several screening tools are available to identify and follow up psychiatric disorders in epilepsy. Out of various psychiatric disorders, people with epilepsy (PWE) are at greater risk of developing depression. This bidirectional relationship further hinders pharmacotherapy of comorbid depression in PWE as some antiepileptic drugs (AEDs) worsen associated depression and coadministration of existing antidepressants (ADs) to alleviate comorbid depression has been reported to worsen seizures. Selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors (SSRIs) and selective serotonin and norepinephrine reuptake inhibitors (SNRIs) are first choice of ADs and are considered safe in PWE, but there are no high-quality evidences. Similar to observations in people with depression, PWE also showed pharmacoresistant to available SSRI/SNRIs, which further complicates the disease prognosis. Randomized double-blind placebo-controlled clinical trials are necessary to report efficacy and safety of available ADs in PWE. We should also move beyond ADs, and therefore, we reviewed common pathological mechanisms such as neuroinflammation, dysregulated hypothalamus pituitary adrenal (HPA) axis, altered neurogenesis, and altered tryptophan metabolism responsible for coexistent relationship of epilepsy and depression. Based on these common pertinent pathways involved in the genesis of epilepsy and depression, we suggested novel targets and therapeutic approaches for safe management of comorbid depression in epilepsy.
抑郁症是与癫痫相关的最常见精神共病之一,对患者的生活质量有重大影响。有多种筛选工具可用于识别和随访癫痫患者的精神障碍。在各种精神障碍中,癫痫患者(PWE)患抑郁症的风险更高。这种双向关系进一步阻碍了癫痫共病抑郁的药物治疗,因为一些抗癫痫药物(AEDs)会加重相关抑郁,而联合使用现有的抗抑郁药(ADs)来缓解共病抑郁已被报道会加重癫痫发作。选择性 5-羟色胺再摄取抑制剂(SSRIs)和选择性 5-羟色胺和去甲肾上腺素再摄取抑制剂(SNRIs)是 AD 的首选药物,在 PWE 中被认为是安全的,但缺乏高质量的证据。与观察到的抑郁症患者类似,PWE 对现有 SSRI/SNRIs 也表现出药物抵抗,这进一步使疾病预后复杂化。有必要进行随机双盲安慰剂对照临床试验,以报告 PWE 中现有 AD 的疗效和安全性。我们也应该超越 AD,因此,我们回顾了常见的病理机制,如神经炎症、下丘脑-垂体-肾上腺(HPA)轴失调、神经发生改变和色氨酸代谢改变,这些机制导致了癫痫和抑郁的共存关系。基于这些与癫痫和抑郁发生相关的共同相关途径,我们提出了新的靶点和治疗方法,以安全管理癫痫共病抑郁。