New Trial of Antidepressant Drug Escitalopram Showed No Sustained Benefit for Compulsive Buying

Filed in archive Cases , Studies , Treatment on March 16, 2007

The commonly prescribed antidepressant drug escitalopram previously showed promise (brand name used: Citalopram®) in the treatment of a behavioral disorder known as compulsive buying - a condition where sufferers are preoccupied with shopping for unneeded items and are frequently unable to resist purchasing them.

Now, a new study by researchers from the Stanford University School of Medicine demonstrated puzzling findings which revealed that escitalopram (brand name used: Lexapro®) did not result in a sustained benefit for the patients who took it.

According to lead author Lorrin Koran, MD, professor of psychiatry and behavioral sciences emeritus who led the same study in 2003 using the other brand:

"...researchers found no difference in the relapse rate of people with compulsive-buying disorder when they continued to take escitalopram compared with those who had been switched to a placebo.

It was a shock that, when we did the trial again with the active ingredient, it didn't work exactly the same way. It should have."

Results of the latest double-blind, placebo-controlled trial will be published in the April issue of the Journal of Clinical Psychopharmacology.

Find more details from the full report.