NEW PHARMACOLOGICAL STRATEGY AGAINST RESISTANT DEPRESSION

Depression is an illness that affects more than 200 million people today, and its incidence is increasing, affecting more than twice as many women as men in all age groups and regardless of location. Currently, although new types of drugs are being developed, classic antidepressants such as Selective Serotonin Reuptake Inhibitors (SSRIs) are still used as first-line drugs due to their adherence rates and fewer side effects. Unfortunately, the available pharmacological treatments have not proven to be very effective, with almost 50% of patients presenting what is called treatment-resistant depression. In this invention, an augmentation strategy has been tested based on the pharmacological combination of an SSRI, Fluoxetine, with the N-terminal fragment of Galanin, an endogenous peptide present in the central nervous system and which can interact with the serotonergic system in such a way that it enhances the effects of antidepressants in animal models of resistant depression.