Am J Psychiatry 1986; 143:345-348
Copyright © 1986 by American Psychiatric Association
Tricyclic nonresponders: phenomenology and treatment
SP Roose, AH Glassman, BT Walsh and S Woodring
In an attempt to identify characteristics of tricyclic antidepressant
nonresponders, the authors reviewed the records of inpatients with
unipolar, nondelusional depression who had received adequate treatment
(confirmed by plasma level determination) with tricyclics. The 17 patients
who failed to respond were compared to a group of tricyclic responders with
respect to demographic and phenomenologic variables. Although the
nonresponders tended to have more previous episodes of depression and
higher anxiety scores on the pretreatment Hamilton scale than the
responders, they could not be distinguished from the responders by clinical
or demographic data. All of the patients who failed to respond to
tricyclics subsequently responded to monoamine oxidase inhibitors and/or
ECT.
