Effectiveness of Pharmacological Treatments

Jonsson B, Bebbington PE What price depression . The cost of depression and the cost-effectiveness of pharmacological treatment. Br J Psychiatry 164 665-673, 1994... 

Alcohol Treatment Settings and Services Types of Settings and Services Pharmacological Treatment Effectiveness of Alcohol Treatment Nonpharmacological Professional Treatment Self-Help Treatment Effectiveness of Pharmacological Treatments... 

SSRIs are agents of choice in obsessive-compulsive disorder and in the syndromes of impulse dyscontrol or obsessive preoccupations (e.g., compulsive gambling, trichotillomania, bulimia, but usually not anorexia nervosa and body dysmorphic disorder). Despite their hmited benefits, SSRIs offer an important advance in the medical treatment of these often chronic and sometimes incapacitating disorders. The effectiveness of pharmacological treatment for these disorders is greatly enhanced by use of behavioral treatments. 

The aim of pharmacologic treatment in portal hypertension is to decrease portal pressure and reduce the effects of sympathetic activation. 

Obviously the best treatment for cirrhosis is removal of the injurious event. In the case of viral hepatitis, viral load can at least be temporarily reduced with anti-viral agents such as lamivudine, ribavirin and/or IFNa [76]. Unfortunately, complete removal of the injurious event is frequently not possible. Moreover, by the time cirrhosis is diagnosed the fibrotic process has usually progressed beyond the point of no return and removal of the injurious event will have little effect. Successful pharmacological treatment to reverse the fibrotic... 

As a consequence, the choice of pharmacological treatment for any given disease should rely not on theoretical grounds based on neurochemistry or hypothetical mechanisms of action, but on sound science and clinical evaluation. This is true for any disease, but all the more in psychiatry, where there is lots of tine histochemical knowledge, many operational theories, but few hard links between theory and effect. 

Maj J, Rogoz Z, Skuza G, et al Antidepressants given repeatedly increase the behavioural effect of dopamine D2 agonist. J Neural Transm 78 1-8, 1989 Maj J, Rogoz Z, Skuza G The effect of combined treatment with MK-801 and antidepressant drugs in the forced swimming test in rats. Polish Journal of Pharmacology and Pharmacy 44 217-226, 1992... 

Brewer C (1996). On the specific effectiveness, and under-valuing, of pharmacological treatments for addiction a comparison of methadone, naltrexone and disulfiram with psychosocial interventions. Addiction Research, 3, 297-313... 

Goodman has opined that the backbone of pharmacologic treatment for OCD is a 10- to 12-week trial with an SRI in adequate doses. In most cases, treatment should be initiated with an SSRI because of the superior safety, tolerability, and equivalent efficacy of this class of drugs compared with clomipramine ( 195). Fluoxetine, sertraline, fluvoxamine, and paroxetine have, in separate multicenter trials, demonstrated efficacy and tolerability in the treatment of OCD ( 196). Citalopram, a recently marketed SSRI, also should be effective in the treatment of OCD (197). 

Attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) is one of the best studied and most effectively treated of all disorders in medicine. The data supporting its validity are more compelling than for many nonpsychiatric medical conditions ( 41, 42). A quarter-century of published treatment studies and clinical experience document the short-term effectiveness of pharmacological management (43). 

Sindrup, S. H. and Jensen, T. S. Efficacy of pharmacological treatments of neuropathic pain an update and effect related to mechanism of drug action, Pain 1999, 83, 389-400. 

Balash Y, Giladi N. Efficacy of pharmacological treatment of dystonia evidence-based review including meta-analysis of the effect of botulinum toxin and other cure options. Eur J Neurol. 2004 11 361-370. 

---