Am J Psychiatry 1995; 152:926-928
Copyright © 1995 by American Psychiatric Association
Retreatment for relapse following desipramine discontinuation in dysthymia
RA Friedman, J Mitchell and JH Kocsis
Payne Whitney Clinic, New York Hospital-Cornell Medical Center, NY 10021, USA.
OBJECTIVE: It is an accepted yet unproven belief that prior favorable
response to an antidepressant medication predicts good response to the same
antidepressant during a subsequent depressive episode. The authors studied
desipramine retreatment for dysthymic patients who had responded to
desipramine during acute and continuation treatment and then subsequently
relapsed after discontinuation of desipramine. METHOD: The subjects were 12
patients who had pure dysthymia or dysthymia with major depression who
relapsed while taking placebo during maintenance treatment. Each patient
received open desipramine treatment at a dose equal to or greater than that
received during the continuation phase. RESULTS: Eleven (91.7%) of the 12
relapsed patients achieved full remission after an average of 4.7 weeks
(range = 2-8 weeks, median = 4 weeks) of desipramine retreatment, a
significant response rate. CONCLUSIONS: Positive response to desipramine
strongly predicts favorable response to retreatment for depressive relapse
following desipramine discontinuation.
