Posted by utopizen on April 1, 2003, at 18:22:46
Keep in mind Pregabalin is NOT out yet, pending further safety review due to a few rats that got cancer.
Pfizer claims animals are different enough for us not to worry.Note that whenever humans get sick on a drug, companies rely on animal tests as evidence they're not at fault. Looks like they have it both ways.
ADAA: Pregabalin Effective Against Somatic and Psychic Symptoms of Generalized Anxiety DisorderBy Alison Palkhivala
TORONTO, ON -- March 31, 2003 -- The novel anxiolytic pregabalin quickly reduces both somatic and psychic symptoms in patients with generalized anxiety disorder, according to the results of a meta-analysis.
Bruce Lydiard, MD, PhD, from Southeast Health Consultants, Charleston, South Carolina, United States, and colleagues, including researchers from Pfizer Inc., manufacturers of pregabalin, combined data from five short-term, double-blind trials on the use of pregabalin in generalized anxiety disorder.
The goal was to evaluate the effects of pregabalin on both the psychic and somatic symptoms of generalized anxiety disorder. Results were presented here in a poster on March 29th at the 23rd Annual Conference of the Anxiety Disorders Association of America.
The five studies comprised 78 patients who took 200 mg of pregabalin, 91 who took 300 mg, 364 who took 300/400 mg and 335 who took 600 mg. Individual trials also included comparisons of pregabalin with venlafaxine and alprazolam. Both psychic and somatic symptoms were assessed using the Hamilton Anxiety Scale (HAM-A).
Prior to therapy, each group of patients was similar with respect to clinical and demographic characteristics. After therapy, patients taking pregabalin had significant reductions in both somatic and psychic symptoms across all doses compared with placebo (P<0.05).
At study end points, patients taking each dose of the drug had the following placebo-subtracted change scores in their psychic and somatic symptom HAM-A subscales, respectively: 150 mg -0.96 and -1.04; 200/300 mg -1.99 and -1.56; 400/450 mg -1.75 and -1.44; and 600 mg -1.93 and -1.32.
At the higher doses, pregabalin reduced psychic symptoms better than venlafaxine and reduced both psychic and somatic symptoms faster than either venlafaxine or alprazolam.
Based on these findings, the authors concluded that pregabalin, "has broad-spectrum efficacy across the full range of [generalized anxiety disorder] symptomatology, with efficacy in reducing psychic symptoms equivalent to [selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors] and efficacy in reducing somatic symptoms equivalent to benzodiazepines.
poster:utopizen
thread:215184
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/20030329/msgs/215184.html