title: Antidepressant therapy and behavioural competence.
abstract: Major depression can impair an individual's motivation to perform routine daily activities and cause a deterioration in cognitive and psychomotor function. Some antidepressants add to pathological dysfunction through unwanted side-effects. Although most patients eventually recover as a simultaneous consequence of tolerance and therapeutic response, some may not. Where side-effects continue to retard normal recovery they can be called behaviourally toxic, which can be classified as disruptive, inhibitory or provocative. Disruptive behavioural toxic effects are measured using either psychometric tests or simulations of real-life activities (for example, a driving test). There are no widely-accepted tests for inhibitory or provocative behavioural toxicity, and assessments of antidepressants are made on the basis of case studies. This review summarises the results of psychometric and real-life simulation tests and compares the effects of antidepressants on behaviour competence. The purpose is to identify those drugs that seem to be the most and least likely to produce behavioural toxicity.
authors.affiliation: Institute for Human Psychopharmacology, University of Limburg, Maastricht, The Netherlands.
authors.forename: J F
authors.initials: JF
authors.lastname: O'Hanlon
mesh_terms: D000203:Activities of Daily Living; D000928:Antidepressive Agents / Q000009:adverse effects*; D001519:Behavior / Q000187:drug effects*; D006801:Humans; D011581:Psychological Tests
chemical_list: D000928:Antidepressive Agents