Double-blind Switch Study of Imipramine or Sertraline Treatment of Antidepressant-Resistant Chronic Depression
Archives of General PsychiatryPublished 1 March 2002
Michael E. Thase, A. John Rush, Robert H. Howland, Susan G. Kornstein, James H. Kocsis, Alan J. Gelenberg
Citations144
Generate an AI Snapshot to get a quick, structured summary of this paper.
Study Snapshot
ObjectiveStudy objective
MethodsResearch methodology
PopulationPopulation studied
Sample sizeSample sizes
OutcomesStudy outcomes here
ResultsStudy results comes here
LimitationsResearch study limitations comes here
A concise AI-generated summary of the paper will appear here once you click Generate AI Snapshot.
TL;DR
Switching to a standard antidepressant of a different class is a useful treatment strategy for antidepressant nonresponders and could be considered a standard of comparison for future studies of novel alternate strategies.
Abstract
More than 50% of chronically depressed antidepressant nonresponders benefited from a switch from imipramine to sertraline, or vice versa, despite a high degree of chronicity. As in the initial trial, sertraline was generally better tolerated than imipramine. Switching to a standard antidepressant of a different class is a useful treatment strategy for antidepressant nonresponders and could be considered a standard of comparison for future studies of novel alternate strategies.
Keywords
PsychologyMedicine
Archives of General PsychiatryAn Inventory for Measuring Depression
38,163 Citations1961Aaron T. Beck
The difficulties inherent in obtaining consistent and adequate diagnoses for the purposes of research and therapy have been pointed out and a wide variety of psychiatric rating scales have been developed.
Journal of Neurology Neurosurgery & PsychiatryA RATING SCALE FOR DEPRESSION
32,633 Citations1960M. Hamilton
The present scale has been devised for use only on patients already diagnosed as suffering from affective disorder of depressive type, used for quantifying the results of an interview, and its value depends entirely on the skill of the interviewer in eliciting the necessary information.
The British Journal of PsychiatryA New Depression Scale Designed to be Sensitive to Change
13,927 Citations1979Stuart Montgomery, Marie Åsberg
The construction of a depression rating scale designed to be particularly sensitive to treatment effects is described, and its capacity to differentiate between responders and non-responders to antidepressant treatment was better than the HRS, indicating greater sensitivity to change.
BiometricsLongitudinal Data Analysis for Discrete and Continuous Outcomes
7,834 Citations1986Scott L. Zeger, Kung‐Yee Liang
A class of generalized estimating equations (GEEs) for the regression parameters is proposed, extensions of those used in quasi-likelihood methods which have solutions which are consistent and asymptotically Gaussian even when the time dependence is misspecified as the authors often expect.
Archives of General PsychiatryThe Structured Clinical Interview for DSM-III-R (SCID)
4,364 Citations1992Robert L. Spitzer
The history, rationale, and development of the Structured Clinical Interview for DSM-III-R (SCID) is described, which is a semistructured interview for making the major Axis I DSM- III-R diagnoses.
New England Journal of MedicineA Comparison of Nefazodone, the Cognitive Behavioral-Analysis System of Psychotherapy, and Their Combination for the Treatment of Chronic Depression
1,320 Citations2000Martín Keller, James P. McCullough +27 more
Although about half of patients with chronic forms of major depression have a response to short-term treatment with either nefazodone or a cognitive behavioral-analysis system of psychotherapy, the combination of the two is significantly more efficacious than either treatment alone.
PubMedWhen at first you don't succeed: sequential strategies for antidepressant nonresponders.
737 Citations1997M E Thase, A. John Rush
In this paper, alternate antidepressant strategies are reviewed within the context of a five-stage strategy, ranging from lesser to greater degrees of treatment resistance.
Journal of Personality DisordersThe Structured Clinical Interview for DSM-III-R Personality Disorders (SCID-II). Part I: Description
706 Citations1995Michael B. First, Robert L. Spitzer +2 more
PubMedPrevention of relapse in residual depression by cognitive therapy: a controlled trial.
462 Citations1999Eugene S. Paykel, Jan Scott +9 more
In this difficult-to-treat group of patients with residual depression who showed only partial response despite antidepressant treatment, cognitive therapy produced worthwhile benefit.
The Journal of Clinical PsychiatryThe Treatment of Chronic Depression, Part 3
305 Citations1998Ivan W. Miller, Gabor I. Keitner +10 more
Results indicate that successful antidepressant treatment with sertraline or imipramine can alleviate the severe psychosocial impairments found in chronic depression.
Statistics in MedicineMethods for the analysis of informatively censored longitudinal data
289 Citations1992Mark Schluchter
A new approach based on a log-normal survival model is outlined that allows general unbalanced data caused by staggered entry and unequally-timed visits, it utilizes all available data, including data from patients with only a single measurement, and it provides a unified method for estimating all model parameters.
Archives of General PsychiatryA Placebo-Controlled Comparison of Lithium and Triiodothyronine Augmentation of Tricyclic Antidepressants in Unipolar Refractory Depression
262 Citations1993Russell T. Joffe
This study suggests that both lithium and liothyronine may be considered as alternatives in augmenting antidepressant response in patients who do not respond to treatment with a tricyclic antidepressant.
American Journal of PsychiatryLithium and tricyclic augmentation of fluoxetine treatment for resistant major depression: a double-blind, controlled study
220 Citations1994Maurizio Fava, J F Rosenbaum +4 more
High-dose fluoxetine was the most effective treatment among partial responders to previous treatment, but high-dose influenza and fluoxettine plus lithium were the mosteffective treatments among nonresponders.
The Journal of Clinical PsychiatryFluoxetine Treatment of Patients With Major Depressive Disorder Who Failed Initial Treatment With Sertraline
204 Citations1997Michael E. Thase, Sharon L. Blomgren +3 more
Findings indicate that fluoxetine and sertraline, two widely used SSRIs, are not interchangeable and patients who either have had trouble tolerating or have not responded to sertRALine may do well on fluoxettine treatment.
Journal of Clinical PsychopharmacologyVenlafaxine for Treatment-Resistant Unipolar Depression
197 Citations1994Andrew A. Nierenberg, John P. Feighner +3 more
Venlafaxine is effective for a significant, but small, minority of patients with rigorously defined triple-resistant depression; the improvement was maintained for about half of the responders for the first 3 months of maintenance therapy.
JAMAMaintenance Phase Efficacy of Sertraline for Chronic Depression<SUBTITLE>A Randomized Controlled Trial</SUBTITLE>
184 Citations1998Martín Keller
Maintenance therapy with sertraline is well tolerated and has significant efficacy in preventing recurrence or reemergence of depression in chronically depressed patients.
Archives of General PsychiatryImipramine Treatment for Chronic Depression
177 Citations1988James H. Kocsis
Anti-depressant medication was effective for many moderately severe chronic depressions, which had previously been untreated or undertreated, presumably related to misdiagnosis.
The Journal of Clinical PsychiatryThe Treatment of Chronic Depression, Part 2
162 Citations1998Martín Keller, Alan J. Gelenberg +13 more
These results indicate that patients suffering from depression with high chronicity can achieve a good therapeutic response to acute treatment with either sertraline or imipramine, although sERTraline is better tolerated.
The Journal of Clinical PsychiatryA Randomized, Double-Blind, Placebo-Controlled Trial of Buspirone in Combination With an SSRI in Patients With Treatment-Refractory Depression
149 Citations1998Mikael Landén, Goran Bjorling +2 more
This study failed to demonstrate any difference in efficacy between buspirone or placebo augmentation of an SSRI, and it could be argued, however, that the study was inconclusive due to the unusually high placebo response.
The Journal of Clinical PsychiatryPredictors of Response to Acute Treatment of Chronic and Double Depression With Sertraline or Imipramine
124 Citations1998Robert M. A. Hirschfeld, James M. Russell +10 more
A higher baseline quality of life, living with spouse or partner, and having more education were the strongest predictors of response to acute pharmacotherapy among chronically depressed patients.
The British Journal of PsychiatryLithium Augmentation Therapy in Tricyclic-Resistant Depression
119 Citations1993George Stein, Morris Bernadt
Lithium in normal, but not in low, dose has a significant antidepressant effect in TCA-resistant depression and there was a significantly greater improvement on the MADRS for weeks 3-6 for those subjects on 750 mg lithium than for those on 250 mg lithium.
PubMedTreatment of imipramine-resistant recurrent depression, III: Efficacy of monoamine oxidase inhibitors.
114 Citations1992Michael E. Thase, Erica Frank +3 more
These findings provide strong evidence of the utility of MAOIs in tricyclic-resistant depression, especially in patients with features such as fatigue, volitional inhibition, motoric retardation, hypersomnia, and/or weight gain.
The British Journal of PsychiatryAre SSRIs a Cost-Effective Alternative to Tricyclics?
105 Citations1996Matthew Hotopf, Glyn Lewis +1 more
There is no evidence to suggest that SSRIs are more cost-effective than TCAs and the debate will only be concluded when a prospective cost-effectiveness study is done in the setting of a large primary care based RCT.
PubMedAre patients who are intolerant to one serotonin selective reuptake inhibitor intolerant to another?
95 Citations1995Walter A. Brown, Wilma Harrison
Results suggest that patients who discontinue one SSRI because of side effects can be treated successfully with another SSRI, and 79 of 110 patients evaluated for efficacy were "much" or "very much" improved relative to baseline.
The British Journal of PsychiatryPindolol augmentation of antidepressant therapy
81 Citations1998Robyn McAskill, Shameem Mir +1 more
Open-label studies strongly suggest that pindolol may accelerate and augment antidepressant response, but controlled studies do not wholly support these findings: only three of six studies clearly demonstrate benefit.
PubMedTreatment of chronic depression with sertraline or imipramine: preliminary blinded response rates and high rates of undertreatment in the community.
80 Citations1995Martín Keller, Wilma Harrison +8 more
Preliminary evidence is provided of the responsiveness of patients with chronic major or double depression to an SSRI or a tricyclic antidepressant to sertraline or its equivalent taken for at least 4 consecutive weeks.
Journal of Consulting and Clinical PsychologyRecent developments in the pharmacotherapy of mood disorders.
76 Citations1996Michael E. Thase, David J. Kupfer
Pharmacotherapy is the best studied and most widely validated approach for acute phase treatment and prevention of relapse-recurrence for patients with major depression, dysthymia, and bipolar affective disorder.
Acta Psychiatrica ScandinavicaTreatment strategy in depression
74 Citations1988Willem A. Nolen, J. J. van de Putte +5 more
Psychiatric AnnalsMeasurement of Severity and Treatment Response in Dysthymia
72 Citations1993Barbara J. Mason, James H. Kocsis +5 more
Journal of Affective DisordersSertraline versus imipramine to prevent relapse in chronic depression
66 Citations2001Lorrin M. Koran, Alan J. Gelenberg +12 more
Most chronic depression patients who remit with 12 weeks of sertraline or imipramine treatment maintain remission during 16 weeks of continuation treatment, and most patients with a satisfactory therapeutic response after 12 Weeks of treatment maintain it or further improve.
PubMedThe treatment of chronic depression, part 1: study design and rationale for evaluating the comparative efficacy of sertraline and imipramine as acute, crossover, continuation, and maintenance phase therapies.
53 Citations1998A. John Rush, L M Koran +12 more
Journal of Clinical PsychopharmacologyTrazodone in Treatment-Resistant Depression: An Open Study
27 Citations1981Jonathan Cole, Alan F. Schatzberg +3 more
Trazodone was well tolerated and reasonably effective in a group of 25 treatment-resistant depressed patients and had significant decreases in HAM-D, Brief Psychiatric Rating Scale, and Profile of Mood States Depression Factor scores by the end of the first week of treatment.
Archives of General PsychiatryPrevention of Relapse in Residual Depression by Cognitive Therapy
21 Citations1999Eugene S. Paykel, Jan Scott +9 more