Learn More about New Medicine for Depression
There have been three controlled clinical trials and a review article that provide growing evidence for the safety and efficacy of Mirapex for treatment of bipolar depression and treatment-resistant depressions.
Mirapex has a large effect size of 0.6-1.1. This means it is a lot more helpful than placebo in bipolar depression and treatment- resistant depression. However, it has not been approved by the FDA for these conditions. It is approved for Parkinson's disease and restless legs syndrome.
Mirapex is well tolerated by most patients, although some patients report side effects such as nausea, tiredness, sedation, headache, or insomnia. Less frequent side effects are abnormal muscle movements, restlessness, sleep attacks, faintness when standing.
Rare, more serious adverse reactions include hallucinations, hypersexuality, excess spending, or compulsive eating. So far, mania, hypomania, and psychosis have occurred at lower frequencies for Mirapex than for traditional antidepressants.
You can read an abstract of the review article at:
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/sites/entrez
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Pramipexole in Psychiatry: a Systematic Review of the Literature.