[Comparison of the efficacy of traditional antidepressive agents and the new generation of antidepressives in the treatment of depressive disorders].
BACKGROUND
Considerable efforts have been made throughout the last 20 years to develop drugs that can replace tricyclic antidepressants as the primary treatment for depression. These efforts are well justified since tricyclic antidepressants, although therapeutically quite efficient, cause several problems, such as side effects and toxicity at therapeutic doses, causing particular problems in the elderly and in patients with congestive heart disease, and giving severe toxicity when taken in overdose. A number of compounds that are pharmacodynamically different from the tricyclics have been developed, and Selective Serotonin Reuptake Inhibitors are such. This group of antidepressives has been developed and widely marked as antidepressant therapy which offers safety and tolerability advantages over tricyclics. Tricyclic antidepressants have been the standard drug treatment for depressive illness, against which the efficacy of new compounds is compared in this investigation.


METHODS
30 female inpatients were examined. All patients had to fulfill the inclusion criteria for moderate depressive disorders, according to International Classification of Diseases. The primary efficacy parameters in the study were the changes from baseline Hamilton Rating Scale for Depression with 19 items, total score at endpoint. Patients were evaluated weekly for efficacy and adverse events. Clinicians also rated patients on the Hamilton Rating Scale for Anxiety. In statistical analysis X and T test were used.


RESULTS
There was no significant difference between two groups of patients in response to tricyclic antidepressants and selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors. Selective Serotonin Reuptake Inhibitors show less adverse effects compared to tricyclics, so they appeared to be better tolerated.


CONCLUSIONS
The traditional and new antidepressive drugs appeared to be equally effective in the treatment of moderate depressive disorders, but new drugs: Selective Serotonin Reuptake Inhibitors show less adverse effects, compared to the traditional, tricyclic antidepressants.
Cvjetković-Bosnjak
M
M
Institut za neurologiju, psihijatriju i mentalno zdravlje, Medicinski fakultet, Novi Sad.
Knezević
A
A
Soldatović-Stajić
B
B
D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D000639:Amitriptyline / Q000627:therapeutic use; D018687:Antidepressive Agents, Second-Generation / Q000627:therapeutic use; D000929:Antidepressive Agents, Tricyclic / Q000009:adverse effects / Q000627:therapeutic use*; D002997:Clomipramine / Q000627:therapeutic use; D003866:Depressive Disorder / Q000188:drug therapy*; D005260:Female; D005473:Fluoxetine / Q000627:therapeutic use; D006801:Humans; D008875:Middle Aged; D017367:Selective Serotonin Reuptake Inhibitors / Q000009:adverse effects / Q000627:therapeutic use*
D000639:Amitriptyline; D018687:Antidepressive Agents, Second-Generation; D000929:Antidepressive Agents, Tricyclic; D002997:Clomipramine; D005473:Fluoxetine; D017367:Selective Serotonin Reuptake Inhibitors