J&J's depression treatment succeeds in late-stage study

 Johnson & Johnson said on Wednesday its experimental drug helped reduce symptoms of major depressive disorder (MDD) and insomnia in a late-stage trial when given along with commonly used antipsychotic treatments.

The drug candidate known as seltorexant was administered to adult and elderly patients assessed to be moderate to severely depressed despite ongoing treatment with antidepressants and suffered from significant sleep disturbance.

MDD is one of the most common chronic mental disorders in the United States, according to the National Institutes of Health.

J&J's drug candidate met both main and secondary trial goals, showing improvement in depressive symptoms when tested on a scale used to measure the severity of depressive episodes and also improved sleep disturbance outcomes in patients.

The drugmaker said seltorexant was also safe and well-tolerated in the study, with similar rates of common adverse events seen in both trial arms, consistent with previous trials.

Seltorexant works by selectively targeting proteins known as orexin-2 receptors, which play a key role in sleep-wake rhythm of the body.

When orexin-2 receptors are stimulated for too long, their activation can cause a group of symptoms, including excessive cortisol release, which may contribute to depression and insomnia.

About 21 million adults in the United States had at least one episode of major depressive disorder in 2021, according to government estimates.

The mood disorder's symptoms include sadness, helplessness and feelings of guilt, and it is often accompanied by sleep disturbances such as insomnia that exacerbate the risk of depressive relapse, increase healthcare costs and impact quality of life.

With currently no therapies approved to treat the disease, 60% of MDD patients on standard-of-care oral antidepressants experience residual insomnia symptoms, the company said in a statement.

https://www.yahoo.com/news/j-js-treatment-depression-succeeds-121216360.html