Antidepressant treatment before hospitalization for major depression: often prescribed, often undertitrated.
Fifty-three patients hospitalised for major depression were given a semi-structured interview to collect data allowing to consider the question of treatment in the period preceding hospitalisation. Twenty-one patients were discarded because they did not consult any physician (n = 5) or because they did it too late ( n = 11) or for they reached the threshold of major depression too late to allow sufficient time for efficacy of the treatment (n = 5). There remained a subsample of 20 potentially treatable patients. The majority of them refused their treatment (17%), were given no antidepressant treatment (14%) or at an insufficient dose (41%). If they received a sufficient dose, it was too lately (3%) or it was a maintenance therapy, which had not been modified in spite of a recurrence (14%), and finally only 10% of the potentially treatable patients could be considered as adequately treated, from a psychopharmacological point of view.
Ferreres
F
F
Département Universitaire de Psychiatrie Adulte, Hôpital de Cery, Prilly, Lausanne, Switzerland.
Bertschy
G
G
Baumann
P
P
D000328:Adult; D000928:Antidepressive Agents / Q000008:administration & dosage / Q000627:therapeutic use*; D003866:Depressive Disorder / Q000188:drug therapy*; D005260:Female; D006760:Hospitalization; D006801:Humans; D007407:Interviews as Topic; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D010043:Outcome and Process Assessment, Health Care; D010349:Patient Compliance; D011787:Quality of Health Care; D012189:Retrospective Studies
D000928:Antidepressive Agents