Biomaterial Database

Do antidepressants cause, promote, or inhibit cancers? 1995

A B Steingart, and M Cotterchio

Department of Psychiatry, Baycrest Hospital, Toronto, Ontario, Canada.

Do antidepressants cause, promote, or inhibit cancers? OBJECTIVE To review all human and experimental studies that examined the association of antidepressants with cancer or the effect of antidepressants on neoplastic growth. METHODS A search was conducted of MEDLINE for relevant articles published in English between 1976 and 1993. RESULTS Four human studies and nine experimental models were found. The human studies showed a transiently statistically significant positive association between amitriptyline and liver cancer and a negative association with pancreatic cancer; and that the antidepressants amitriptyline, nortriptyline, desipramine, and phenelzine may increase risk of breast cancer. Results of the experimental studies differed depending on which antidepressants were examined and which model was used. Amitriptyline was found to promote tumour growth, fluoxetine and clomipramine were reported to be both tumour promoters and antineoplastic agents, and imipramine and citalopram both demonstrated antineoplastic properties. CONCLUSIONS Further epidemiologic studies in humans are needed to determine which antidepressants cause, promote, or inhibit cancers.

UI	MeSH Term	Description	Entries
D009369	Neoplasms	New abnormal growth of tissue. Malignant neoplasms show a greater degree of anaplasia and have the properties of invasion and metastasis, compared to benign neoplasms.	Benign Neoplasm,Cancer,Malignant Neoplasm,Tumor,Tumors,Benign Neoplasms,Malignancy,Malignant Neoplasms,Neoplasia,Neoplasm,Neoplasms, Benign,Cancers,Malignancies,Neoplasias,Neoplasm, Benign,Neoplasm, Malignant,Neoplasms, Malignant
D012107	Research Design	A plan for collecting and utilizing data so that desired information can be obtained with sufficient precision or so that an hypothesis can be tested properly.	Experimental Design,Data Adjustment,Data Reporting,Design, Experimental,Designs, Experimental,Error Sources,Experimental Designs,Matched Groups,Methodology, Research,Problem Formulation,Research Methodology,Research Proposal,Research Strategy,Research Technics,Research Techniques,Scoring Methods,Adjustment, Data,Adjustments, Data,Data Adjustments,Design, Research,Designs, Research,Error Source,Formulation, Problem,Formulations, Problem,Group, Matched,Groups, Matched,Matched Group,Method, Scoring,Methods, Scoring,Problem Formulations,Proposal, Research,Proposals, Research,Reporting, Data,Research Designs,Research Proposals,Research Strategies,Research Technic,Research Technique,Scoring Method,Source, Error,Sources, Error,Strategies, Research,Strategy, Research,Technic, Research,Technics, Research,Technique, Research,Techniques, Research
D004195	Disease Models, Animal	Naturally-occurring or experimentally-induced animal diseases with pathological processes analogous to human diseases.	Animal Disease Model,Animal Disease Models,Disease Model, Animal
D006801	Humans	Members of the species Homo sapiens.	Homo sapiens,Man (Taxonomy),Human,Man, Modern,Modern Man
D000818	Animals	Unicellular or multicellular, heterotrophic organisms, that have sensation and the power of voluntary movement. Under the older five kingdom paradigm, Animalia was one of the kingdoms. Under the modern three domain model, Animalia represents one of the many groups in the domain EUKARYOTA.	Animal,Metazoa,Animalia
D000928	Antidepressive Agents	Mood-stimulating drugs used primarily in the treatment of affective disorders and related conditions. Several MONOAMINE OXIDASE INHIBITORS are useful as antidepressants apparently as a long-term consequence of their modulation of catecholamine levels. The tricyclic compounds useful as antidepressive agents (ANTIDEPRESSIVE AGENTS, TRICYCLIC) also appear to act through brain catecholamine systems. A third group (ANTIDEPRESSIVE AGENTS, SECOND-GENERATION) is a diverse group of drugs including some that act specifically on serotonergic systems.	Antidepressant,Antidepressant Drug,Antidepressant Medication,Antidepressants,Antidepressive Agent,Thymoanaleptic,Thymoanaleptics,Thymoleptic,Thymoleptics,Antidepressant Drugs,Agent, Antidepressive,Drug, Antidepressant,Medication, Antidepressant
D051379	Mice	The common name for the genus Mus.	Mice, House,Mus,Mus musculus,Mice, Laboratory,Mouse,Mouse, House,Mouse, Laboratory,Mouse, Swiss,Mus domesticus,Mus musculus domesticus,Swiss Mice,House Mice,House Mouse,Laboratory Mice,Laboratory Mouse,Mice, Swiss,Swiss Mouse,domesticus, Mus musculus
D051381	Rats	The common name for the genus Rattus.	Rattus,Rats, Laboratory,Rats, Norway,Rattus norvegicus,Laboratory Rat,Laboratory Rats,Norway Rat,Norway Rats,Rat,Rat, Laboratory,Rat, Norway,norvegicus, Rattus
D017891	Pharmacoepidemiology	The science concerned with the benefit and risk of drugs used in populations and the analysis of the outcomes of drug therapies. Pharmacoepidemiologic data come from both clinical trials and epidemiological studies with emphasis on methods for the detection and evaluation of drug-related adverse effects, assessment of risk vs benefit ratios in drug therapy, patterns of drug utilization, the cost-effectiveness of specific drugs, methodology of postmarketing surveillance, and the relation between pharmacoepidemiology and the formulation and interpretation of regulatory guidelines. (Pharmacoepidemiol Drug Saf 1992;1(1); J Pharmacoepidemiol 1990;1(1))	Epidemiology, Pharmaceutical,Pharmaceutical Epidemiology,Epidemiologies, Pharmaceutical,Pharmaceutical Epidemiologies