Some
patient categories respond less well to
treatments for depression
Researchers
have studied the response to treatment of 338
primary care patients with dysthymia. In a
randomised controlled 11-week trial the patients
were treated with paroxetine, problem-solving
psychotherapy or placebo. At the end of the
study, 52% of all patients had recovered.
However in some patient categories, such as
elderly (> 60 years) women, people with lower
educational levels, with more severe medical
(non-psychiatric) illness, or with higher scores
on the neuroticism dimension of personality,
recovery rates were lower, independently of the
treatment received.
These findings show that neurotics, the
medically ill, the lower educated and elderly
women require special care when being treated
for depressive disorder. The authors encourage
developing special treatments for depression
that will be more efficacious in older female,
less educated and severe medically ill persons
and highly neurotics since these patient
categories represent a non-negligible proportion
of primary care populations. Gen
Hosp Psychiatry 24: 20-27, 2002