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Apathy symptoms induced by low-dose venlafaxine: Two cases
Shinji Sato1,2, Noriko Sodeyama3, Asaki Matsuzaki3
1Department of Psychiatry, Ibaraki Clinical Educational and Training Center, Faculty of Medicine, University of Tsukuba, Tsukuba, Japan.
Abstract:
Recent guidelines regarding pharmacological interventions for major depressive disorder (MDD) recommend first using serotonin (5HT) selective reuptake inhibitors (SSRIs) or 5HT and norepinephrine (NE) reuptake inhibitors (SNRIs). Although SSRIs and SNRIs are effective and well-tolerated, apathy occurs as an adverse effect in some SSRIs-treated patients. Because apathy would be associated with the 5HT pathway, if a patient exhibits apathy symptoms under SSRIs treatment, a clinical strategy has been to change the SSRIs to treatment with an SNRIs. Here, I report two cases in which low-dose venlafaxine, an SNRIs, induced apathy symptoms.
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