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Depression

Treatment of bipolar depression with minocycline and/or aspirin: an adaptive, 2×2 double-blind, randomized, placebo-controlled, phase IIA clinical trial

“Given evidence of chronic inflammation in bipolar disorder (BD), we tested the efficacy of aspirin and minocycline as augmentation therapy for bipolar depression.

"The absence of a significant interaction between the efficacy of aspirin treatment and baseline levels of CRP and/or IL-6 may reflect Type II error given the relatively small samples, but also may reflect the clinically non-significant anti-inflammatory effect of low-dose aspirin in autoimmune or other inflammatory disorders".

"In this regard, this first report of higher baseline 11-D-TXB2 levels in the BD sample relative to the control sample (Figure S2) is noteworthy as it suggests that the activity of the arachidonic acid pathway is elevated in a subset of individuals with BD, consistent with previous hypotheses".

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Is Depression an Inflammatory Disorder?

“Studies consistently report that groups of individuals with major depressive disorder (MDD) demonstrate increased levels of a variety of peripheral inflammatory biomarkers when compared with groups of nondepressed individuals."

 “Two randomized, placebo-controlled studies have reported that the addition of an inhibitor of the cyclooxygenase enzyme to a standard antidepressant enhances symptomatic improvement in medically healthy individuals with depression.  Similarly, preclinical and clinical data suggest that acetylsalicylic acid (aspirin) may hold promise as an augmenting strategy in patients who fail to respond to monotherapy with a serotonin reuptake inhibitor."

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