Long term pharmacotherapy of depression

BMJ 1998;316:1180-1181 ( 18 April )

Editorials

Long term pharmacotherapy of depression

Can reduce relapses and recurrences in major depression

The first 150 words of the full text of this article appear below.

The high rates of persistent morbidity, recurrence, and death among patients treated for depression ^1-2 have highlightedthe importance of long term psychological and pharmacologicaltreatment. What evidence do we have that long term drug treatmentis effective, and how should we choose between individual drugs?

Long term drug treatment comprises continuation and maintenance treatment. Continuation treatment helps to consolidate recoveryfrom depressive episodes and prevent relapses (worsening of continuingor recently treated episodes). Maintenance or prophylactic treatmenthelps to prevent occurrence of new episodes and is usually recommendedfor patients who have had at least three depressive episodes inthe preceding five years. The distinction between continuationand maintenance treatment is somewhat arbitrary and may not reflectunderlying biological processes, but most researchers agree thatfour to six months' remission should occur before a recurrenceis diagnosed.

Differences in methods between the many trials of long term pharmacological treatment make . . . [Full text of this article]

CiteULike

Complore

Connotea

Del.icio.us Add to Digg

Digg

StumbleUpon Add to Technorati

Technorati What's this?

Relevant Article

Long term pharmacotherapy of depression: Damian Gamble, Jogin Thakore, Robert Tobiansky, Chris Manning, and J Guy Edwards
BMJ 1998 317: 1157. [Extract] [Full Text]

This article has been cited by other articles:

Griffith, D. (1999). Reasons for not seeing drug representatives. BMJ 319: 69-70 [Full text]
Gamble, D., Thakore, J., Tobiansky, R., Manning, C., Edwards, J G. (1998). Long term pharmacotherapy of depression. BMJ 317: 1157-1157 [Full text]