Page 107 - Complementary and Alternative Medicine Treatments in Psychiatry

Appendix | 107

Collagen-vascular diseases (Example: Systemic lupus
erythematosus)
Central nervous system disease
− Multiple Sclerosis
− Brain tumors and other intracranial masses such as subdural
hematomas: Masses, especially in the frontal and temporal
areas

Complex partial seizures
Strokes
Medications can cause depression
− Antihypertensive medications (drugs used to control high
blood pressure):reserpine and alpha-methyldopa are
probably the worst, but propranolol has been implicated and
all antihypertensives are suspect
− Digitalis preparations, along with a variety of other cardiac
medications
− Cimetidine: used for gastric ulcer disease
− Indomethacin and other non-steroidal anti-inflammatory
medications
− Disulfuram (Antabuse): usually described by patients as more
a sense of fatigue than true depression
− Antipsychotic medications: Can cause an akinesia or
inhibition of spontaneity that can both feel and look like a
true depression
− Anxiolytics: all sedative hypnotics from the barbiturates to
the benzodiazepines have been implicated both in causing
depression and making it worse in susceptible individuals
− Steroids, including prednisone and cortisone

Drugs of abuse can cause depression
− Alcohol: Very commonly a cause of depression, as well as a
reaction to depression
− Stimulant withdrawal