Sociodemographic predictors of response to antidepressant treatment.
OBJECTIVE
Our goal was to assess whether sociodemographic variables such as gender, marital status, level of education, and employment status are related to the changes in social functioning that have been reported after drug treatment in outpatients with major depressive disorder.


METHODS
Eligible subjects were 166 depressed outpatients participating in a study involving open treatment with fluoxetine 20 mg/day for eight weeks. Diagnosis of major depressive disorder was made with the use of the Structured Clinical Interview for DSM-III-R-Patient Edition (SCID-P), and patients were required to have a seventeen-item Hamilton Rating Scale for Depression (HAM-D-17) score > or = at study entry. All subjects were administered the HAM-d-17 and the Social Adjustment Scale-Self-Report (SAS-SR) before and after treatment with fluoxetine.


RESULTS
We found that SAS-SR scores decreased significantly following treatment with fluoxetine from a mean score at baseline of 2.6 +/- 0.7 to a mean score at endpoint of 2.3 +/- 0.6. After adjusting for the degree of change in HAM-D-17 scores, we found a significant relationship between degree of change in SAS-SR and level of education. No statistically significant relationships were observed between SAS-SR change and age, gender, marital status, and employment status.


CONCLUSIONS
The degree of improvement in psychosocial functioning observed in depressed outpatients following antidepressant treatment appears to be related to the level of education at study entry, but not to other sociodemographic variables. Further studies need to investigate the nature of this relationship.
Spillmann
M
M
Clinical Psychopharmacology Unit, Massachusetts General Hospital, Boston 02114, USA.
Borus
J S
JS
Davidson
K G
KG
Worthington
J J
JJ
Tedlow
J R
JR
Fava
M
M
D000328:Adult; D000553:Ambulatory Care; D018687:Antidepressive Agents, Second-Generation / Q000008:administration & dosage* / Q000009:adverse effects; D003866:Depressive Disorder / Q000188:drug therapy* / Q000453:epidemiology / Q000523:psychology; D005260:Female; D005473:Fluoxetine / Q000008:administration & dosage* / Q000009:adverse effects; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D010555:Personality Inventory; D011569:Psychiatric Status Rating Scales; D012917:Social Adjustment; D012931:Social Environment; D012959:Socioeconomic Factors; D016896:Treatment Outcome
D018687:Antidepressive Agents, Second-Generation; D005473:Fluoxetine