Relapse prevention with antidepressant drug treatment in depressive disorders: a systematic review
The LancetPublished 1 February 2003
John Geddes, Stuart Carney, Christina Davies, Toshi A. Furukawa, David J. Kupfer, Ellen Frank
Citations949
SJR quartileQ1
SJR score12.11
SNIP22.72
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TL;DR
Continuing treatment with antidepressants in patients with depressive disorders who have responded to acute treatment reduced the odds of relapse by 70% and seemed to persist for up to 36 months, although most trials were of 12 months' duration, and so the evidence on longer-term treatment requires confirmation.
Abstract
Antidepressants reduce the risk of relapse in depressive disorder, and continued treatment with antidepressants would benefit many patients with recurrent depressive disorder. The treatment benefit for an individual patient will depend on their absolute risk of relapse with greater absolute benefits in those at higher risk. Further trials are needed to establish the optimum length of therapy and should include patients who were not well represented in these trials, including those at low risk of relapse.
Keywords
PsychologyMedicine
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