Low-dose colchicine: a potential augmenting agent in the treatment of refractory mood disorders.

Authors

Ajeet B Singh, David R Skvarc, Juliana Lago, Michael Berk

Published in

Acta neuropsychiatrica. Volume 38. Pages e56. Oct 14, 2026. Epub Oct 14, 2026.

Abstract

Treatment-resistant mood disorders, including major depressive disorder (MDD) and bipolar disorder (BD), remain a significant clinical challenge. A confluence of emerging evidence implicates chronic low-grade inflammation in the pathophysiology of at least a subset of mood disorders, potentially mediating their poor response to traditional therapies. Colchicine, a well-established anti-inflammatory agent used in gout and more recently (at low dose) cardiovascular disease, inhibits microtubule polymerisation and suppresses NLRP3 inflammasome activation. Recent advances in immunopsychiatry suggest NLRP3-mediated pathways are key mediators of mood pathology. This hypothesis-generating paper explores how low-dose colchicine may plausibly serve as a novel augmenting agent in refractory mood disorders by targeting these neuroinflammatory pathways. We present mechanistic rationale, integrate preclinical and translational evidence, review long-term safety data and outline biomarker-guided clinical trial proposals.

PMID:
42870751
Bibliographic data and abstract were imported from PubMed on 14 Oct 2026.

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