WEDNESDAY, April 30 (HealthDay News) -- Prozac may help reduce
disease activity in people with the relapsing remitting form of
multiple sclerosis (MS), a new study suggests.
Forty patients with the disease were randomly selected to
receive either 20 milligrams a day of fluoxetine (Prozac) or a
placebo for 24 weeks. MRI brain scans were conducted every four
weeks to monitor the patients for new areas of neurological
inflammation, a hallmark of disease activity.
Of the 38 patients (19 in each group) who completed the study,
those who took the placebo had more new areas of inflammation
(average of more than five areas) than those who took the drug
(average of just under two).
One in four scans from patients treated with fluoxetine showed
new areas of inflammation, compared with four out of 10 scans from
patients taking the placebo. During the last 16 weeks of treatment,
63 percent of patients in the fluoxetine group had no new areas of
inflammation, compared with 26 percent of those in the placebo
group.
The findings were published online in the
Journal of Neurology Neurosurgery and Psychiatry.
This was a small study, and larger studies are needed before any
firm conclusions about the use of fluoxetine in patients with
relapsing remitting MS can be made, the study authors noted.
However, the findings are "sufficiently encouraging to justify
further studies with fluoxetine in patients with MS," they said,
and added that higher doses and treatment combinations with other
drugs that alter the immune response should be considered in future
studies.
More information
The U.S. National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke
has more about
multiple sclerosis.
