alpha-Methyldopa and depression: a clinical study and review of the literature

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Abstract
A high incidence of prevalence of depression in patients being treated with .alpha.-methyldopa [for hypertension] has never been documented. In a study of hypertensive patients in a general medical clinic, symptoms of depression were no more common in 42 patients treated with .alpha.-methyldopa than in 38 patients treated with other antihypertensive agents. As with other centrally active agents, .alpha.-methyldopa appears able to produce many different behavioral symptoms, including mood changes, in predisposed individuals. Because .alpha.-methyldopa is a dopa decarboxylase inhibitor but does not consistently affect mood or induce depression, its effects do not support a catecholamine hypothesis of depression.