The latest discoveries in Neurology
A concise briefing on the most relevant research developments in your field, curated for clarity and impact.
Antidepressants: A surprising ally against Huntington’s disease progression
A large-scale analysis of over 25,000 participants in the ENROLL-HD cohort provides compelling evidence that treating psychiatric symptoms in Huntington’s disease (HD) may have profound benefits for the underlying neurodegeneration. The study found that episodes of depression and anxiety, which account for over 80% of antidepressant prescriptions in HD, are themselves associated with significantly faster disease progression and increased mortality. Crucially, when patients with new-onset depression or anxiety started antidepressant therapy, their rate of disease progression slowed markedly and their risk of all-cause mortality was reduced by more than half. The research also suggests that different classes of antidepressants may offer specific protective benefits against suicide or non-suicide related mortality.
Why it might matter to you:
This study directly challenges the clinical concern that antidepressants might worsen neurodegenerative progression, a paradigm relevant across conditions like Parkinson’s and Alzheimer’s. It underscores that behavioral and psychiatric states are not just comorbidities but may be integral, modifiable drivers of disease trajectory. For biomarker development, this highlights the critical need to account for psychiatric status and its treatment as a potential confounder or effect modifier when correlating proteomic signals with clinical outcomes.
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