Repurposing of Dextromethorphan as an Adjunct Therapy in Patients With Major Depressive Disorder
Status:
Not yet recruiting
Trial end date:
2023-10-31
Target enrollment:
Participant gender:
Summary
Therapeutic latency, lack of efficacy, and adverse drug reactions are the major concerns in
current antidepressant therapies. One-third of the patients with the major depressive
disorder do not respond to conventional antidepressants that act through the monoaminergic
system. To overcome these treatment hurdles, add-on therapy to standard antidepressant drugs
may lead to better therapeutic outcomes. The recent discovery of the rapid and sustained
antidepressant effect of subanesthetic dose of ketamine led to many extensive clinical and
preclinical research in the recent past and has established the possibilities of NMDA
receptors as a potential drug target for depression. As repeated doses of ketamine are
related to abusive potential and adverse effects, the search for a similar antidepressant
agent with a better safety profile is essential. Dextromethorphan has the property of
noncompetitively blocking NMDA receptors (like ketamine) with additional SERT and NET
inhibitory action. So, we can expect that adding Dextromethorphan to the SSRI regimen can
improve clinical outcomes in major depressive disorder. Our literature search found that to
date, there is no randomized controlled trial on Dextromethorphan as add-on therapy to
first-line antidepressants like SSRIs. So, the present randomized controlled trial has been
planned to evaluate the efficacy and safety of add-on dextromethorphan to SSRIs in major
depressive disorder.
Phase:
Phase 4
Details
Lead Sponsor:
All India Institute of Medical Sciences, Bhubaneswar