title: How symptomatic do depressed patients remain after benefiting from medication treatment?
abstract: Symptom Check List-90 (SCL-90) scores of 318 moderately depressed, nonmelancholic outpatients treated with phenelzine, imipramine, or placebo were compared with scores obtained from a demographically matched control group of 69 "normal" subjects. Pretreatment scores of depressed patients were significantly higher than those of the control group; after 6 weeks of treatment, they were indistinguishable from scores of the control group. These results suggest that symptoms of moderately depressed patients who benefit from treatment not only decrease from baseline, but are reduced to a level of symptomatology that is psychiatrically normal.
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychiatry, Columbia University, New York, NY.
authors.forename: V
authors.initials: V
authors.lastname: Agosti
authors.forename: J W
authors.initials: JW
authors.lastname: Stewart
authors.forename: F M
authors.initials: FM
authors.lastname: Quitkin
authors.forename: K
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Ocepek-Welikson
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D000928:Antidepressive Agents / Q000627:therapeutic use*; D003866:Depressive Disorder / Q000175:diagnosis / Q000188:drug therapy*; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007099:Imipramine / Q000008:administration & dosage / Q000627:therapeutic use*; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D010624:Phenelzine / Q000008:administration & dosage / Q000627:therapeutic use*; D011569:Psychiatric Status Rating Scales; D016896:Treatment Outcome
chemical_list: D000928:Antidepressive Agents; D010624:Phenelzine; D007099:Imipramine