Pilot trials with diclofensine, a new psychoactive drug in depressed patients.

Diclofensine inhibits uptake of serotonin, norepinephrine, and dopamine. In this pilot trial, 169 mostly hospitalized patients with various subtypes of depression were treated over a period of 30 days. From the data collected we were able to document a response rate of 75%. The response was characterized by psychoenergizing, mood alleviating effects. Symptoms such as depressed mood, psychomotor retardation, anxiety, ideas of suicide, phobic thoughts, and agitation contributed most to the overall improvement, whereas insomnia and delusions were little affected. Patients with non-psychotic depressions reacted more rapidly and impressively than patients with psychotic features. Also their dose requirements were less. Drop-outs due to adverse reactions were very low. Only a very few severely depressed patients showed a clinical deterioration after 1 week of initially good response. A number of patients continued on maintenance medication with diclofensine over a period of 2-4 months without showing any signs of abrupt dissipation. It can be hypothesized that diclofensine can be an effective drug for the relief of depressions, in particular for those patients who require psychic energization. Its nonsedative profile, good tolerance, and broad margin of safety make this drug particularly interesting for the general practice.