Early Symptom Trajectories as Predictors of Treatment Outcome for Citalopram Versus Placebo.

ABSTRACT:

Objectives

The high percentage of failed clinical trials for anti-depressant medications, especially in elderly populations, obscures the fact that some patients may benefit greatly from treatment. Early detection of patients who may benefit most from antidepressant medication may improve treatment decisions. We examined whether depressed patients in a large clinical trial exhibit distinct trajectories of early symptom change that predict differential response to medication or placebo.

Methods

We reanalyzed data of 174 patients aged 75 years and older with unipolar depression who were randomly assigned to citalopram or placebo. We used growth mixture modeling to identify trajectories of early change (weeks 1-4) on the Hamilton Rating Scale for Depression in the citalopram an

SUBMITTER: Zilcha-Mano S 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC5429879 | biostudies-literature | 2017 Jun

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature