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ARTHRITIS DRUG BOOSTS ANTIDEPRESSANT’S EFFECTIVENESS

I was excited to read this week about another new treatment possibility for depression: An arthritis drug, when paired with an antidepressant, has been shown to work amazingly well.

It’s all about inflammation. Older studieshave shown that depression leads to inflammation. Inflammation messes with the chemical balance in your brain and can prevent antidepressants from restoring that balance.

I’ve written before about how taking an over-the-counter anti-inflammatory medication can cut the depression symptoms for people with bipolar disorder, but this takes that treatment theory to another level.

This time, researchers got serious about tackling inflammation. They brought in an arthritis drug Celecoxib (used to treat pain, redness, swelling and inflammation from arthritis) and paired it with an antidepressant (Lexapro).

For an incredible 78 percent of patients, depression symptoms diminished by at least half. Sixty-three percent reported their depression was completely gone. That’s compared to remission in just 10 percent of patients taking Lexapro alone (with 45 percent saying symptoms had reduced by half).

Furthermore, where antidepressants typically take four to six weeks to start working, patients taking the arthritis drug saw results in just one week.

This new treatment method could prove to be a game changer for many!

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