The effect of using antidepressant medication to treat depression in manifest Huntington's disease patients

Huntington’s disease is a genetic disorder affecting the brain that impacts a person’s movements, thinking and feelings. Depression is a common symptom in those with symptomatic Huntington’s disease. There is no evidence to guide the treatment of depression in this patient population. Selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors and serotonin-norepinephrine reuptake inhibitors are the antidepressant medications most commonly prescribed. This study aimed to assess the effectiveness of antidepressant medication use in symptomatic Huntington’s disease patients.

This study examined motor-manifest Huntington’s disease patients participating in the Enroll-HD study who had depressive symptoms. Participants using antidepressants were matched to non-users to account for differences in age, sex and disease state. The effect of antidepressant medication on changes in depression severity and extent of motor impairment, functional impairment and cognitive impairment were assessed using linear models and linear mixed effect models. Models were adjusted for baseline measures of the outcome variable.

Antidepressant users did not significantly differ from non-users on any of the outcomes of interest, though they had less improvement in depression scores and worse progression on the total motor score and total functional capacity score. The findings of this study support further research on the effectiveness of antidepressants in Huntington’s disease patients. Due to the small sample size and potential inconsistencies in pharmacotherapy reporting in this study, clinical trials or studies with a larger sample of new antidepressant users should be used to assess the causal effects of antidepressant medications on depressive symptoms and how they affect disease progression.