It is not known whether the stress of living with chronic pain causes depression in patients or whether a depressive disorder leads to an increased experience of pain. However, it could be argued that in the case of coexisting chronic pain and depression, antidepressants may represent a good drug of choice to relieve both symptoms. An enhancement of morphine-induced antinociception by antidepressants, has also been demonstrated after systemic injection of morphine. Therefore, co-administration of these two drugs might be a good way to get rid of some adverse effects of opioid administration in high doses. Opioid receptors and neuropeptides in the CNS in rats treated chronically with amoxapine or amitriptyline.
Desipramine relieves postherpetic neuralgia.
Clin Pharmacol Therapeut. Psychpharmaka in der schmer Zbehandlung. Amitriptyline relieves diabetic neruopathy pain in patients with normal or depressed mood. Millan MJ, Czlonkowski A, Lipowski A, et al. Kappa-opioid receptor mediated antinociception in the rat.