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.
Keywords: SSRIs induced apathy; apathy; norepinephrine; serotonin; venlafaxine.
© 2020 The Authors. Neuropsychopharmacology Reports published by John Wiley & Sons Australia, Ltd on behalf of the Japanese Society of NeuropsychoPharmacology.