[Citalopram in depression (results of an open multicenter study in phase IV of the clinical trial)].

Abstract

249 depressed patients were treated by 35 psychiatrists in an open multicenter trial during 6 weeks with citalopram. The protocol enabled that naturalistic treatment conditions could be kept. The results were rated with the help of the Clinical Global Impression (CGI) scale. The treatment was successful in 77% of the patients. 5 patients dropped out because of adverse effects, 8 patients did not finish the trial due to insufficient efficacy. In 160 patients (64.2%) no adverse effects were registered. Transient mild headaches in 8.4% and nausea in 4% were the most frequent adverse events. The best effects were observed in patients who were rated as moderately ill (82.8% ameliorated) at pretreatment. Nevertheless, also 66.7% of those rated as severely ill before the treatment improved substantially. In patients treated with higher doses than 20 mg/day, the improvement rate was not higher than in those treated with 20 mg daily.