Escitalopram in Philippine Clinical Practice: Result of an Open-label, Observational Study in 2920 Outpatients with Depression

Aim: To evaluate the effectiveness and tolerability of escitalopram under naturalistic conditions inadult outpatients in the Philippines suffering from depression. Methods : A 4-week, open-label, multi-centre, observational study was conducted in the Philippines enrolling 3005 patients. Clinical effectiveness was evaluated with the Clinical Global Impression scales. Results: 91% of patients who received escitalopram completed 4 weeks of treatment. The mean CGI-S score decreased from 4.6±1.0 at baseline to 2.4±1.0 at Week 4. The percentage of patients achieving remission of depressive symptoms (CGI-S≤2) increased from baseline to Week 4, so that at Week 4, 54.3% of patients achieved remission. The percentage of patients with much or very much improvement in depression (CGI-I score≤2) increased from 17.2% at Week 1 to 78.4% at Week 4. The incidence of adverse events (<10%) and the incidence of patients who withdrew due to adverse events (<1%) was low. The most frequently reported adverse event was nausea (1.8%), followed by headache (0.9%). There were no deaths or otherserious adverse events, nor were there any attempted or completed suicides during the study. Conclusion: In patients in the Philippines with depression, treatment with escitalopram was welltolerated and associated with improvements in the patient’s severity of illness, and an increased proportion of patients achieving remission of depressive symptoms. No new safety findings with escitalopram were observed in the treatment of these patients. Keywords: Clinical Global Impression; escitalopram; depression; SSRI; observational study Philippine Journal of Internal Medicine, Vol. 49 No. 2: Apr-Jun 2011, pp 100-104