A CALCIUM-ANTAGONIST FOR THE TREATMENT OF DEPRESSIVE EPISODES - SINGLE-CASE REPORTS

Preclinical studies indicate that a disturbed intracellular calcium io n homeostasis is involved in the pathophysiology of affective disorder s. Therefore some calcium antagonists were investigated, especially in the treatment of the manic syndrome. In the present study the calcium antagonist nimodipine was used in 10 out-patients with single or recu rrent depressive episodes. As a result the mean HAMD scores changed fr om 26.5 to 9.9 after the individual nimodipine administration. These s ingle case reports suggest an effective new therapy strategy for the t reatment of affective dysregulations and give rise to controlled clini cal studies with calcium antagonists.