Early response to antidepressant treatment in bulimia nervosa.
BACKGROUND
Bulimia nervosa (BN) is a serious psychiatric disorder characterized by frequent episodes of binge eating and inappropriate compensatory behavior. Numerous trials have found that antidepressant medications are efficacious for the treatment of BN. Early response to antidepressant treatment, in the first few weeks after medication is initiated, may provide clinically useful information about an individual's likelihood of ultimately benefitting or not responding to such treatment. The purpose of this study was to examine the relationship between initial and later response to fluoxetine, the only antidepressant medication approved by the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) for the treatment of BN, with the goal of developing guidelines to aid clinicians in deciding when to alter the course of treatment.


METHODS
Data from the two largest medication trials conducted in BN (n=785) were used. Receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curves were constructed to assess whether symptom change during the first several weeks of treatment was associated with eventual non-response to fluoxetine at the end of the trial.


RESULTS
Eventual non-responders to fluoxetine could be reliably identified by the third week of treatment.


CONCLUSIONS
Patients with BN who fail to report a 60% decrease in the frequency of binge eating or vomiting at week 3 are unlikely to respond to fluoxetine. As no reliable relationships between pretreatment characteristics and eventual response to pharmacotherapy have been identified for BN, early response is one of the only available indicators to guide clinical management.
Sysko
R
R
Department of Psychiatry, College of Physicians and Surgeons of Columbia University, New York, NY, USA. syskor@childpsych.columbia.edu
Sha
N
N
Wang
Y
Y
Duan
N
N
Walsh
B T
BT
D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D018687:Antidepressive Agents, Second-Generation / Q000627:therapeutic use*; D052018:Bulimia Nervosa / Q000175:diagnosis / Q000188:drug therapy* / Q000523:psychology; D039721:Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders; D004305:Dose-Response Relationship, Drug; D004334:Drug Administration Schedule; D005260:Female; D005473:Fluoxetine / Q000627:therapeutic use*; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D015337:Multicenter Studies as Topic; D017410:Practice Guidelines as Topic; D012372:ROC Curve; D016032:Randomized Controlled Trials as Topic; D016896:Treatment Outcome; D055815:Young Adult
D018687:Antidepressive Agents, Second-Generation; D005473:Fluoxetine