Editorial
Antidepressants in the treatment of patients with COPD: possible associations between smoking cigarettes, COPD and depression
| The first 150 words of the full text of this article appear below. |
The antidepressants bupropion and nortriptyline are effective
agents in stimulating smoking cessation.1-4 The mechanism
by which bupropion and nortriptyline act as smoking cessation aids is
unknown, as is its exact mechanism of antidepressant activity. What we
do know is that the effects on smoking cessation are not produced
through the treatment of depression itself.1-4 Bupropion and nortriptyline are thought to produce their therapeutic
antidepressant effects via inhibition of the neuronal uptake of
noradrenaline and/or dopamine. Furthermore, the effects of nicotine are
supposed to occur through the stimulation of dopaminergic pathways.
Because (1) smoking cigarettes is the major risk factor for chronic
obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD), (2) smoking cessation is the main
preventive measure in reducing the decline in lung function in patients
at all stages of COPD, and (3) patients with COPD can be characterised as a population of chronically ill patients with a higher than normal
prevalence of psychiatric
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