Researchers including Oxford Health Biomedical Research Centre (OH BRC) Theme Leads Philip Cowen, Catherine Harmer and Andrea Cipriani led a recent study funded by the Wellcome Trust and the OH BRC, to investigate whether combining statin medication with anti-depressants was more effective at treating depression than anti-depressants on their own.
Depression affects more than 350 million people worldwide and antidepressants for the treatment of adults with moderate to severe depression are often prescribed.
However, only around 50% of patients prescribed antidepressants respond well to the treatment, with one third of those patients still suffering with depression 1 year later. A high proportion of patients also stop taking their medications for reasons including unpleasant side effects.
The study found that combining statins with antidepressants for use in patients suffering from depression reduced the number of patients who stopped taking their anti-depressants, however the combination did not prove more effective at treating depression.
You can read the full article on the BMC Medicine journal website.
