Am J Psychiatry 1975; 132:716-719
Copyright © 1975 by American Psychiatric Association
Depression, Delusions, and Drug Response
AH Glassman, SJ Kantor and M Shostak
Depressed patients with delusions were found to be markedly unresponsive to
tricyclic drug therapy during an ongoing study of depressed patients. After
four weeks of administration of imipramine hydrochloride, only 3 of 13
delusional depressed patients had responded to the drug, but 14 of 21
nondelusional depressed patients had responded. The authors conclude on the
basis of these data and those of other researchers that delusional
depressed patients should not be treated with tricyclic antidepressants and
that current research with depressed patients should be reevaluated in the
light of this finding.
