Am J Psychiatry 1987; 144:86-88
Copyright © 1987 by American Psychiatric Association
Relapse in recurrent unipolar depression
DJ Kupfer and E Frank
Treatment of the acute phase of recurrent depression has become both
routine and successful in the last decade, but the rates of relapse and
recurrence remain a problem. In this study a combined
psychopharmacologic/psychotherapeutic approach to the acute and
continuation treatment of unipolar depressed patients was used. For 59
patients who completed the continuation phase of treatment, the relapse
rate after 8 weeks of recovery was 8.5%. Since other recent studies of
recurrent depression have reported relapse rates of 15%-22%, these results
suggest that there are advantages in combined treatment.
