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L-DOPA in the Treatment of Depressive Symptoms

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  29 January 2018

Torgny Persson  and
Jan Wålinder
Jan Wålinder
Affiliation:
University of Göteborg, Psychiatric Research Centre, St. Jörgen's Hospital, S- 422 03 Hisings Backa, Sweden
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Extract

The reports on the good effect of L-DOPA on Parkinson's syndrome and on some forms of depression have prompted us to investigate if it might alleviate mental disorders not responding to conventional methods. Pare et al. (1962) suggested distinguishing between types of depression according to how they respond to antidepressant drugs. If L-DOPA were shown to be effective, it would provide another means of differentiating between obscurely defined mental states. We present five cases of psychic disorders in which depression was a prominent symptom. All were treated with L-DOPA after a wide range of conventional treatments over many years had proved of little use.

Type
Abstract
Information
The British Journal of Psychiatry , Volume 119 , Issue 550 , September 1971 , pp. 277 - 278
Copyright
Copyright © The Royal College of Psychiatrists, 1971 

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References

Goodwin, F. K., Brodie, H. K. H., Murphy, D. L., and Bunney, W. E. (1970): ‘Administration of a peripheral decarboxylase inhibitor with L-DOPA to depressed patients.’ Lancet, i, 908–11.Google Scholar
Pare, C. M. B., Rees, L., and Sainsbury, M. J. (1962). ‘Differentiation of two genetically specific types of depression by the response to antidepressants.’ Lancet, ii, 1340–3.Google Scholar
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