A with child study has see that there is not enough evidence to indicate antidepressants are effective at treating inveterate pain . Despite some priorevidencesuggesting that antidepressants do aid shorten neuropathic pain , there has never been a large meta - analysis of the papers , and now the outcome do not seem to be as clear .

Experts urge caution when reading into the data , however , and suggest stay to antidepressant if they are ferment for you .

inveterate painis described as pain that continues for long than 12 weeks despite medicine or intervention . The true underlying mechanism are indecipherable and there are many ways it can arise , but the system that cause chronic pain are think to directly overlap with those involve with impression . This is why antidepressants were think to be efficient at treating the nuisance , as they straight target the neurotransmitter pathways suppose to be the culprit .

To see whether they are in reality effective , researchers from the UK flush databases looking for any cogitation or clinical trial where hoi polloi with chronic pain were treated with antidepressants . They then performed a meshing meta - psychoanalysis on the data to rank all the antidepressants used from well to defective .

In total , 176 studies were found encompass almost 29,000 masses , who were treated with a total of 89 different drug and combinations of treatment . The nuisance was mainly a result of fibromyalgia , nerve pain in the neck , or musculoskeletal pain in the neck , and the treatments were most often SNRIs , TCAs , and SSRIs .

The solution picture that one antidepressant drug , called duloxetine , may help oneself treat painful sensation , with patients taking a standard Venus’s curse feeling better than when they took a placebo more often than not . Another drug may help oneself , called milnacipran , but there was not enough data to say for sure .

That ’s where the respectable news ends , however . For the rest of the drugs , the researchers could not get enough evidence to hint they have any effect on pain sensation and were not positive in reaching a ending for any of them . Some appeared to have a venial upshot on modality , but the studies did not take into business relationship genial wellness conditions , so the research worker were not convinced in the results .

The datum did not provide reliable evidence for the safety of antidepressants as a treatment for chronic nuisance in either the unforesightful or farsighted term .

The squad hopes the data can be used to influence insurance in prescribing antidepressant drug for each individual person . expert indicate that the final result might not state that the drug do not wreak , but instead foreground the indigence for mellow - quality clinical visitation and an case-by-case - centered approach .

“ What this comprehensive depth psychology demonstrates is that when clinical tribulation are designed ill under the assumption that everyone ’s experience of pain is consistent , most antidepressant seem to have limited utilisation for treating inveterate bother , ” Dr Ryan Patel , Prof Anthony Mellows / King ’s Prize Fellow at King ’s College London , who was not involved in the cogitation , state in astatement .

“ Even when the cause of chronic infliction is the same , the biologic change that take place in the nervous scheme are wide-ranging and so it is no surprisal that painful sensation presents other than from person to person , and not everyone will answer to the same drugs . In most areas of medicine the aim is to agree the treatment selection to the underlying biota . The question that should be ask is not ‘ are antidepressant drugs effective for treat hurting ? ’ but ‘ for whom are antidepressants effective ? ’ "

The review can be ascertain atCochrane Reviews .