Metformin as Adjunct Therapy in Depression-Obesity Comorbidity: Clinical and Genetic Evaluation

Summary

The patients with depression and obesity will receive add-on metformin with antidepressant therapy, which may result in greater improvement in depressive symptoms and BMI reduction compared to antidepressant monotherapy. NEGR1/RPL31P12 gene polymorphisms may influence the comparative efficacy of antidepressant monotherapy versus combination therapy (antidepressant + metformin) in Pakistani patients. Patients with certain variants may respond better or worse to antidepressants and may have different weight outcomes.

Timeline

Start

2026-06-17

Primary completion

2027-06-11

Completion

2027-06-11

Publications

• Results Siddique A, Naeem U, Masood Khokhar M, Waheed Syed A, Iftikhar J, Amjad A. Impact of Demographic Factors on the Treatment Response of Antidepressant Therapy: A Descriptive Cohort Study from Pakistan. Tunis Med. 2025 Feb 5;103(2):201-205. doi: 10.62438/tunismed.v103i2.5280.
• Results Ninomiya-Baba M, Matsuo J, Sasayama D, Hori H, Teraishi T, Ota M, Hattori K, Noda T, Ishida I, Shibata S, Kunugi H. Association of body mass index-related single nucleotide polymorphisms with psychiatric disease and memory performance in a Japanese population. Acta Neuropsychiatr. 2017 Oct;29(5):299-308. doi: 10.1017/neu.2016.66. Epub 2016 Dec 7.
• Results Cheng YY, Yao Q, Miao Y, Guan W. Metformin as a potential antidepressant: Mechanisms and therapeutic insights in depression. Biochem Pharmacol. 2025 Mar;233:116773. doi: 10.1016/j.bcp.2025.116773. Epub 2025 Jan 31.
• Results Choi WS, Song MK, Seo M, Woo YS, Bahk WM. Comparative efficacy and safety of liraglutide versus metformin, naltrexone/bupropion, and phentermine-topiramate in psychiatric patients. Ther Adv Psychopharmacol. 2026 Feb 18;16:20451253261419609. doi: 10.1177/20451253261419609. eCollection 2026.

Drugs

Indications