TY - JOUR
T1 - Anorexia Nervosa
T2 - Treatment Efficacy of Cyproheptadine and Amitriptyline
AU - Halmi, Katherine Ann
AU - Eckert, Elke
AU - LaDu, Terence J.
AU - Cohen, Jacob
N1 - Copyright:
Copyright 2015 Elsevier B.V., All rights reserved.
PY - 1986/2
Y1 - 1986/2
N2 - Patients with anorexia nervosa have concurrent problems of emaciation and depression. Therefore, treatment with medications affecting both weight gain and depression seemed reasonable. Seventy-two anorectic patients were randomly assigned in a double-blind study to receive cyproheptadine hydrochloride, a weight-inducing drug, amitriptyline hydrochloride, a tricyclic antidepressant, or placebo. Overall, cyproheptadine had a marginal effect on decreasing the number of days necessary to achieve a normal weight. There was a differential drug effect present in the bulimic subgroups of the anorectic patients: cyproheptadine significantly increased treatment efficiency for the nonbulimic patients and significantly impaired treatment efficiency for the bulimic patients when compared with the amitriptyline- and placebo-treated groups. The differential cyproheptadine effect on the anorectic bulimic subgroups is the first pharmacologic evidence of the validity of these subgroups. Cyproheptadine had an antidepressant effect demonstrated by a significant decrease in the Hamilton depression ratings.
AB - Patients with anorexia nervosa have concurrent problems of emaciation and depression. Therefore, treatment with medications affecting both weight gain and depression seemed reasonable. Seventy-two anorectic patients were randomly assigned in a double-blind study to receive cyproheptadine hydrochloride, a weight-inducing drug, amitriptyline hydrochloride, a tricyclic antidepressant, or placebo. Overall, cyproheptadine had a marginal effect on decreasing the number of days necessary to achieve a normal weight. There was a differential drug effect present in the bulimic subgroups of the anorectic patients: cyproheptadine significantly increased treatment efficiency for the nonbulimic patients and significantly impaired treatment efficiency for the bulimic patients when compared with the amitriptyline- and placebo-treated groups. The differential cyproheptadine effect on the anorectic bulimic subgroups is the first pharmacologic evidence of the validity of these subgroups. Cyproheptadine had an antidepressant effect demonstrated by a significant decrease in the Hamilton depression ratings.
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U2 - 10.1001/archpsyc.1986.01800020087011
DO - 10.1001/archpsyc.1986.01800020087011
M3 - Article
C2 - 3511877
AN - SCOPUS:0022576162
SN - 0003-990X
VL - 43
SP - 177
EP - 181
JO - Archives of General Psychiatry
JF - Archives of General Psychiatry
IS - 2
ER -