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March 24, 2006

New Strategies Help Depressed Patients Become Symptom-Free

Results of the nation’s largest depression study show that one in three depressed patients who previously did not achieve remission using an antidepressant became symptom-free with the help of an additional medication and one in four achieved remission after switching to a different antidepressant. The study, funded by the National Institutes of Health’s National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH), shows that people whose depression is resistant to initial treatment can achieve remission — the virtual absence of symptoms — when treated with a second strategy that either augments or switches medications. This is the first study to examine the effectiveness of different treatment strategies for those who did not become symptom-free after initial medication.

Posted by Gary Holden at March 24, 2006 1:10 PM