The Role of Celecoxib in Treatment of Psychiatric Disorders: A Review Article

Purpose: Celecoxib is a Nonsteroidal Anti-Inflammatory Drug(NSAID) and a sulfonamide pain killer that is mainly used for treatment of Osteoarthritis, Rheumatoid Arthritis, acute pain and some other purposes such as prevention and treatment of gastrointestinal benign neoplasia. Due to the possibility of inflammatory etiologies in many psychiatric disorders, this medication has been studied for the treatment of some of the psychiatric disorders. In this paper we reviewed recent studies done on the use of Celecoxib as adjunctive medication for psychiatric treatments and discussed. Methods: We searched some related words such as “celecoxib”, “COX-2 inhibitors”, “psychiatry”, “treatment”, “depression”, “obsession” and “schizophrenia” in PUBMED indexing and collected the required data. Results: Among all the presented articles on the influence of Celecoxib on psychiatric disorders, the effect of this drug on schizophrenia and depression has been studies more widely and the majority of these studies have confirmed the effectiveness of this drug as a successful adjuvant therapy. Moreover, two Randomized Control Trials (RCT) studies have reported a significant improvement in the treatment of Obsessive Compulsive Disorder (OCD), using celecoxib as an adjuvant medication to fluoxetine and fluvoxamine, compared to placebo. In addition to schizophrenia, depression and OCD, Celecoxib has been reported to work effectively, once applied as adjunctive therapy in bipolar disorders. Conclusion: Celecoxib has been reported to be an effective medication as an adjunctive therapy in some of the psychiatric disorders such as depression, schizophrenia and OCD. Although evidences are less robust for OCD, results for bipolar disorder are variable and inconclusive.