Promising Treatment for Hot Flashes - Celexa?!?!!

October 26, 2005

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Promising Treatment for Hot Flashes Reported in Journal of Palliative

Medicine

10/25/2005 8:02:00 AM EST

Hot flashes can dramatically affect a woman's quality of life as she goes

through menopause caused by chemotherapy; but many women may get relief from

hot flashes by taking a commonly prescribed antidepressant, citalopram

(Celexa)--even when newer antidepressant medications cannot control

symptoms, according to a report in the October issue (Volume 8, Number 5) of

Journal of Palliative Medicine, a peer-reviewed publication of Ann

Liebert, Inc., and the official journal of the American Academy of Hospice

and Palliative Medicine. The paper is available free online at

www.liebertpub.com/jpm.

Hot flash scores were reduced by more than half after four weeks among 30

women who took citalopram, report Loprinzi, M.D., from the Mayo

Clinic College of Medicine (Rochester, MN), and colleagues in a paper

entitled, " Pilot Evaluation of Citalopram for the Treatment of Hot Flashes

in Women with Inadequate Benefit from Venlafaxine. " The women who

participated in the study had not received adequate relief of hot flash

symptoms with venlafaxine (Effexor), a newer antidepressant medication

commonly used to treat this disorder.

Ever since the adverse effects of hormone replacement therapy came to light,

researchers have searched for an effective approach to alleviating hot

flashes, which are a major problem for many menopausal women. Newer

antidepressants--the serotonin and norepinephrine reuptake inhibitors,

called SNRIs--such as venlafaxine, can substantially reduce hot flashes in

many women, but some women will have only limited relief. The present study

was designed to test whether classic antidepressants--the so-called SSRIs,

or selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors--could provide an effective

alternative form of treatment.

" In addition to women going through menopause, these data will help us treat

those women and men with cancer whose treatment gives them hot flashes, "

says F. von Gunten, M.D., Ph.D., Editor-in-Chief of Journal of

Palliative Medicine, and Director of the Center for Palliative Studies, San

Diego Hospice & Palliative Care.

Journal of Palliative Medicine, published bimonthly in print and online, is

an interdisciplinary journal that reports on the clinical, educational,

legal, and ethical aspects of care for seriously ill and dying patients. It

includes coverage of the latest developments in drug and non-drug treatments

for patients with life-threatening diseases including cancer, AIDS, cardiac

disease, pulmonary, neurologic, respiratory conditions, and other diseases.

The Journal reports on the development of palliative care programs around

the United States and the world, and on innovation in palliative care

education.

Ann Liebert, Inc. is a privately held, fully integrated media company

known for establishing authoritative peer-reviewed journals in many

promising areas of science and biomedical research, including Journal of

Women's Health, Disease Management, Alternative and Complementary Therapies,

and The Journal of Alternative and Complementary Medicine. Its biotechnology

trade magazine, Genetic Engineering News (GEN), was the first in its field

and is today the industry's most widely read publication worldwide. A

complete list of the firm's 60 journals, newsmagazines, and books is

available at www.liebertpub.com.

October 26, 2005