Health
Antidepressant effectiveness
NEWS IN BRIEF — Posted Feb. 9, 2009
A meta-analysis of 12 new generation antidepressants has shown that sertraline and escitalopram have clear advantages of efficacy and acceptability over the others. The finding was published online Jan. 29 in The Lancet.
The study analyzed 117 randomized, controlled clinical trials that compared the effects of these antidepressants in more than 25,000 patients with major depression. The drugs tested were bupropion, citalopram, duloxetine, escitalopram, fluoxetine, fluvoxamine, milnacipran, mirtazapine, paroxetine, reboxetine, sertraline and venlafaxine.
Escitalopram and sertraline had the best profile of acceptability, leading to significantly fewer discontinuations of treatment than did several others, the researchers said. Sertraline, however, costs less in most countries, they noted, giving it the edge over escitalopram.
Note: This item originally appeared at http://www.ama-assn.org/amednews/2009/02/09/hlbf0209.htm.
