Obsessive Compulsive Disorder  & Luvox

Fluvoxamine is an antidepressant which functions pharmacologically as a selective serotonin reuptake inhibitor.

Fluvoxamine was one of the first of the SSRI antidepressants to be launched and was developed by Solvay Pharmaceuticals. It has been in use in clinical practice since 1983 and has a clinical trial database comprising of approximately 35,000 patients. It was launched in the US in December 1994 and in Japan in June 1999. Up to the end of 1995, more than 10 million patients world-wide have been treated with fluvoxamine.

Fluvoxamine was the first SSRI to be registered for the treatment of Obsessive Compulsive Disorder in children by FDA in 1997.

Fluvoxamine was the first drug approved for the treatment of social anxiety disorder in Japan in 2005.

Fluvoxamine is widely prescribed to treat depression, and anxiety disorders such as Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder, Obsessive-Compulsive Spectrum Disorder, Panic Disorder, Social Phobia, and Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder.

Fluvoxamine is indicated for children and adolescents with OCD.

Fluvoxamine is also used for the treatment of children and adolescents with social phobia, separation anxiety disorder, or generalized anxiety disorder.

Fluvoxamine may help in the treatment of Irritable Bowel Syndrome.

Fluvoxamine is one of the few SSRI class of drugs to have a monocyclic structure.

Although all SSRIs inhibit the reuptake of serotonin, fluvoxamine has different pharmacological and side effects profiles from other drugs in its class. Fluvoxamine shown to be selective for serotonin reuptake and has little effect on dopamine and noradrenaline uptake systems compared to other SSRI. For this reason, fluvoxamine can be of benefit to patients who experience unusual or limiting side-effects from other antidepressants. It appears to cause fewer side effects than other SSRIs. In addition, these differences also are a result of the lack of direct effects at other neurotransmitter receptors compared to other SSRIs. Affin