Benefits of Switching Antidepressants Following Early Nonresponse
Status:
Unknown status
Trial end date:
2010-12-01
Target enrollment:
Participant gender:
Summary
Introduction and Purpose:
Most of the guidelines for the treatment of major depression recommend the use of
antidepressants for 4 to 8 weeks. On the other hand, it has been recently reported that they
start to show their antidepressant efficacy within a couple of weeks (1,2), contrary to the
conventional theory. In addition, a good response (i.e. a 20% reduction in the
Montgomery-Åsberg Depression Rating Scale [MADRS]) at week 2 is proposed to be a predictor of
subsequent remission at week 6 (3,4), while nonresponse at week 2 could predict unfavourable
outcome at week 8 (5). Furthermore, early worsening is suggested to be related to a low rate
of remission at weeks 8 and 12(6).