Related Articles

Objective

Controversy exists as to whether women with depression respond better to selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors (SSRIs) than men. The purpose of this report was to determine whether men and women differ in their responses to treatment with the SSRI citalopram using a large sample of real world patients from primary and psychiatric specialty care settings.

Method

As part of the Sequenced Treatment Alternatives to Relieve Depression (STAR*D) study, 2876 participants were treated with citalopram for up to 12-14 weeks. Baseline demographic and clinical characteristics and outcomes were gathered and compared between men and women.

Results

At baseline, women were younger, had more severe depressive symptoms and were more likely to have: early onset; previous suicide attempt(s); a family history of depression, alcohol abuse or drug abuse; atypical symptom features; and one or more of several concurrent psychiatric disorders. Despite greater baseline severity and more Axis I comorbidities, women were more likely to reach remission and response with citalopram than men.

Conclusions

Women have a better response to the SSRI citalopram than men, which may be due to sex-specific biological differences particularly in serotonergic systems.

Background

Nine DSM-IV-TR criterion symptom domains are evaluated to diagnose major depressive disorder (MDD). The Quick Inventory of Depressive Symptomatology (QIDS) provides an efficient assessment of these domains and is available as a clinician rating (QIDS-C16), a self-report (QIDS-SR16), and in an automated, interactive voice response (IVR) (QIDS-IVR16) telephone system. This report compares the performance of these three versions of the QIDS and the 17-item Hamilton Rating Scale for Depression (HRSD17).

Methods

Data were acquired at baseline and exit from the first treatment step (citalopram) in the Sequenced Treatment Alternatives to Relieve Depression (STAR*D) trial. Outpatients with nonpsychotic MDD who completed all four ratings within ±2 days were identified from the first 1500 STAR*D subjects. Both item response theory and classical test theory analyses were conducted.

Results

The three methods for obtaining QIDS data produced consistent findings regarding relationships between the nine symptom domains and overall depression, demonstrating interchangeability among the three methods. The HRSD17, while generally satisfactory, rarely utilized the full range of item scores, and evidence suggested multidimensional measurement properties.

Conclusions

In nonpsychotic MDD outpatients without overt cognitive impairment, clinician assessment of depression severity using either the QIDS-C16 or HRSD17 may be successfully replaced by either the self-report or IVR version of the QIDS.

Suicidal ideation is an uncommon but worrisome symptom than can emerge during antidepressant treatment. We have previously described association between treatment emergent suicidal ideation (TESI) and markers in genes encoding the glutamate receptors GRIK2 and GRIA3. The present genome-wide association study was conducted to identify additional genetic markers associated with TESI that may help identify individuals at high-risk who may benefit from closer monitoring, alternative treatments, and/or specialty care. A clinically-representative cohort of outpatients with non-psychotic major depressive disorder enrolled in the Sequenced Treatment Alternatives to Relieve Depression (STAR*D) trial were treated with citalopram under a standard protocol for up to 14 weeks. DNA samples from 90 white participants who developed TESI and a gender and race matched equal number of treated participants who denied any suicidal ideas were genotyped with 109,365 single nucleotide polymorphisms on the Illumina's Human-1 BeadChip. One marker was found to be associated with TESI in this sample at the experiment-wide adjusted p<0.05 level (marker rs11628713, allelic p= 6.2 × 10-7, OR = 4.7, permutation p=0.01). A second marker was associated at the experiment-wide adjusted p=0.06 level (rs10903034, allelic p = 3.02× 10-6, OR = 2.7, permutation p=0.06). These markers reside within the genes PAPLN and IL28RA, respectively. PAPLN encodes papilin, a protoglycan-like sulfated glycoprotein. IL28RA encodes an interleukin receptor. Together with our previous report, these findings may shed light on the biological basis of TESI and may help identify patients at increased risk of this potentially serious adverse event.

Summary

Objective

Hormone-based contraceptives affect mood in healthy women or in women with Premenstrual Dysphoric Disorder. No study has yet examined their association with mood in women with major depressive disorder (MDD). The purpose of this study was to determine whether estrogen-progestin combination or progestin-only contraceptives are associated with depression severity, function and quality of life, or general medical or psychiatric comorbidity in women with MDD.

Methods

This analysis focused on a large population of female outpatients less than 40 years of age with non-psychotic MDD who were treated in 18 primary and 23 psychiatric care settings across the United States, using data from the Sequenced Treatment Alternatives to Relieve Depression (STAR*D) study. Baseline demographic and clinical information was gathered and compared between three groups based on hormonal use: combination (estrogen-progestin)(N=232), progestin-only (N=58), and no hormone treatment (N=948).

Results

Caucasians were significantly more likely to use combined hormone contraception. Women on progestin-only had significantly more general medical comorbidities; greater hypersomnia, weight gain and gastrointestinal symptoms; and worse physical functioning than women in either of the other groups. Those on combined hormone contraception were significantly less depressed than those with no hormone treatment by the 16-item Quick Inventory of Depressive Symptomatology - Self-Rated. The combined hormone group also demonstrated better physical functioning and less obsessive-compulsive disorder comorbidity than either of the other groups.

Conclusions

Synthetic estrogen and progestins may influence depressive and physical symptoms in depressed women.

Background

Whether the acute outcomes of major depressive disorder (MDD) treated in primary (PC) or specialty care (SC) settings are different is unknown.

Objective

To compare the treatment and outcomes for depressed outpatients treated in primary versus specialty settings with citalopram in the Sequenced Treatment Alternatives to Relieve Depression (STAR*D) study (www.star-d.org), a broadly inclusive effectiveness trial.

Design

Open clinical trial with citalopram for up to 14 weeks at 18 primary and 23 specialty sites. Participants received measurement-based care with 5 recommended treatment visits, manualized pharmacotherapy, ongoing support and guidance by a clinical research coordinator, the use of structured evaluation of depressive symptoms and side effects at each visit, and a centralized treatment monitoring and feedback system.

Participants

A total of 2,876 previously established outpatients in primary (n = 1091) or specialty (n = 1785) with nonpsychotic depression who had at least 1 post-baseline measure.

Measurements and Main Results

Remission (Hamilton Depression Rating Scale for Depression [Hamilton] or 16-item Quick Inventory of Depressive Symptomatology-Self-Rated [QIDS-SR16]); response (QIDS-SR16); time to first remission (QIDS-SR16). Remission rates by Hamilton (26.6% PC vs 28.0% SC, p = .40) and by QIDS-SR16 (32.5% PC vs 33.1% SC, p = .78) and response rates by QIDS-SR16 (45.7% PC vs 47.6% SC, p = .33) were not different. For those who reached remission or response at exit, the time to remission (6.2 weeks PC vs 6.9 weeks SC, p = .12) and to response (5.5 weeks PC vs 5.4 weeks SC, p = .97) did not differ by setting.

Conclusions

Identical remission and response rates can be achieved in primary and specialty settings when identical care is provided.

Objective

Irritability is common during major depressive episodes, but its clinical significance and overlap with symptoms of anxiety or bipolar disorder remains unclear. We examined clinical correlates of irritability in a confirmatory cohort of Sequenced Treatment Alternatives to Relieve Depression (STAR*D) study participants with major depressive disorder (MDD).

Method

Logistic regression was used to identify features associated with presence of irritability on the clinician-rated Inventory of Depressive Symptomatology.

Results

Of 2,307 study participants, 1067(46%) reported irritability at least half the time during the preceding week; they were more likely to be female, to be younger, to experience greater depression severity and anxiety, and to report poorer quality of life, prior suicide attempts, and suicidal ideation. Bipolar spectrum features were not more common among those with irritability.

Conclusion

Irritable depression is not a distinct subtype of MDD, but irritability is associated with greater overall severity, anxiety comorbidity, and suicidality.

OBJECTIVE

To describe how alcohol use disorders (AUDs) affect women, focusing on gender-specific implications for primary care physicians (PCPs).

DESIGN

An overview of literature from 1966 to 2000 identified by a medline, PsychINFO and HealthSTAR/Ovid Healthstar database search using key words “women,”“alcohol” and “alcoholism.”

MEASUREMENTS AND MAIN RESULTS

Although the prevalence of AUDs is greater in men than in women, women with AUDs are more likely to seek help, but less likely to be identified by their physicians. Psychiatric comorbidities (especially depression and eating disorders) are more common in women with AUDs than in men with AUDs. A past history of sexual and/or physical abuse places a woman at increased risk for AUDs. Women have a greater sensitivity to alcohol, have an accelerated progression from alcohol toxicity, and have increased mortality at lower levels of consumption compared to men. Women and men who are light-to-moderate drinkers have lower coronary artery disease mortality than do abstainers or heavy drinkers. Risk of breast cancer is increased in women who drink ≥1 drinks daily. Common barriers to treatment include: fear of abandonment by partner; fear of loss of children; and financial dependency. Brief interventions have been shown to be effective in reduction of alcohol consumption in women with at-risk drinking. It is unclear if women-only treatment programs improve outcomes.

CONCLUSION

PCPs should be alert to gender-specific differences for women with AUDs.

Objective:

The purpose of this study was to determine whether there are differences in depression characteristics among premenopausal, perimenopausal, and postmenopausal women with major depressive disorder. This study also evaluated these differences between postmenopausal women with major depressive disorder who are taking and not taking hormone therapy.

Methods:

Analyses conducted with data from the Sequenced Treatment Alternatives to Relieve Depression study focused on female outpatients with non-psychotic major depressive disorder seeking treatment in 41 primary or psychiatric care settings across the United States. Baseline demographic and clinical characteristics were compared among women not taking hormone therapy who were premenopausal (N=950), perimenopausal (N=380), or postmenopausal (N=562). These comparisons were also made between postmenopausal women (n=768) taking (N=171) or not taking (N=562) hormone therapy.

Results:

After adjusting for sociodemographic and clinical baseline differences, premenopausal women were more likely to present with irritability than either peri- or postmenopausal women, and were more likely to have decreased appetite and less likely to have early morning insomnia than perimenopausal women. Postmenopausal women were more likely to have suicidal ideation and poorer physical functioning than either of the other groups, and were more likely to have sympathetic arousal and gastrointestinal symptoms than premenopausal women. After adjusting for baseline differences, postmenopausal women taking hormone therapy had better physical functioning, fewer melancholic features, less sympathetic arousal, and more lack of involvement in activities than women not taking hormone therapy.

Conclusions:

Menopausal status and postmenopausal use of hormone therapy may influence the clinical presentation of major depressive episodes in women.

Background

Evidence suggests that comorbid depression influences the outcome of cognitive-behavioral treatment for patients presenting with social phobia. Little is known, however, about the influence of comorbid social phobia on the response to cognitive therapy (CT) for depression among adults presenting with recurrent major depressive disorder (MDD). These analyses seek to clarify this relationship.

Methods

Patients (N = 156) with recurrent DSM-IV MDD entered CT (20% also met DSM-IV criteria for social phobia). Every week during the course of CT, clinicians assessed depressive symptoms and patients completed self-report instruments measuring severity of depression and anxiety.

Results

At presentation, outpatients with comorbid social phobia reported greater levels of depressive symptoms and clinicians rated their impairment as more severe, compared to their counterparts without social phobia. Patients with or without comorbid social phobia did not differ significantly in (1) attrition rates; (2) response or sustained remission rates; (3) time to response or sustained remission; or (4) rate of improvement in symptoms of depression or anxiety.

Limitations

The lack of domain-specific measures limits inference with respect to the improvements in social anxiety that occur with CT of depression.

Conclusions

These findings introduce the hypothesis that CT for depression may be flexible enough to treat the depressive symptoms of patients presenting with MDD who also suffer from social phobia.

Background

Women have a higher prevalence of Major Depressive Disorder (MDD) and report more severe depressive symptoms than men. Several studies have suggested that gender differences in depression may occur because women report higher levels of somatic symptoms than men. Those studies, however, have not controlled or matched for non-somatic symptoms. The objective of this study was to examine if women report relatively more somatic symptoms than men matched on cognitive/affective symptoms.

Methods

Male and female patients receiving treatment for MDD in outpatient psychiatric clinics in New Jersey and Pennsylvania, USA were matched on Beck Depression Inventory-II (BDI-II) cognitive/affective symptom scores. Male and female BDI-II somatic symptom scores were compared using independent samples 2-tailed t-tests.

Results

Of 472 male and 1,026 female patients, there were 470 male patients (mean age = 40.1 years, SD = 15.1) and 470 female patients (mean age = 43.1 years, SD = 17.2) successfully matched on BDI-II cognitive/affective symptom scores. Somatic symptoms accounted for 35% of total BDI-II scores for male patients versus 38% for matched female patients. Female patients had somatic symptom scores on average 1.3 points higher than males (p<.001), equivalent to 4% of the total BDI-II scores of female patients. Only 5% of male patients and 7% of female patients scored 2 or higher on all BDI-II somatic symptom items.

Conclusions

Gender differences in somatic scores were very small. Thus, differences in the experience and reporting of somatic symptoms would not likely explain gender differences in depression rates and symptom severity.

Objective

At least three randomized, placebo controlled, double blind studies support the efficacy of computerized Attention Modification Programs (AMP) in reducing symptoms of anxiety in patients diagnosed with an anxiety disorder. In this study we examined patient characteristics that predicted response to AMP in a large sample of individuals diagnosed with Generalized Social Phobia (GSP).

Method

The sample comprised 112 individuals seeking treatment for GSP who completed a randomized clinical trial comparing AMP (n = 55) to a placebo condition (i.e., Attention Control Condition, ACC, n = 57). We examined the following domains of baseline predictors of treatment response: (1) demographic characteristics (gender, age, ethnicity, years of education), (2) clinical characteristics (Axis I comorbidity, trait anxiety, depression), and (3) cognitive disturbance factors (attentional bias for social threat, social interpretation bias).

Results

Results revealed that ethnicity predicted treatment response across both conditions: Participants who self-identified as non-Caucasian displayed better overall response compared to Caucasians. The only prescriptive variable to emerge was attentional bias for social threat at pre-assessment. Specifically, participants in the AMP group who exhibited larger attentional bias scores displayed significantly greater reductions in clinician-rated social anxiety symptoms relative to their counterparts in the ACC group.

Conclusions

These results suggest that AMP may be targeted to individuals most likely to benefit from it.

Major depressive disorder (MDD) is an often chronic, recurrent illness affecting large numbers of the general population. In recent years, the goal of treatment for MDD has moved from mere symptomatic response to that of full remission (ie, minimal/no residual symptoms). The recent Sequenced Treatment Alternatives to Relieve Depression (STAR*D) trial stewed that even with systematic measurement-based treatment, approximately one third of patients reach full remission after one treatment trial, with only two thirds reaching remission after four treatment trials. Treatment-resistant depression (TRD) is therefore a common problem in the treatment of MDD, with 60% to 70% of all patients meeting the criteria for TRD, Given the huge burden of major depressive illness, the low rate of full recovery remains suboptimal. The following article reports on some current treatment strategies available to improve rates of, and to sustain, remission in MDD.

Background

Psychotic major depression (PMD) is a severe mental disorder characterized by high levels of illness severity, chronicity, impairment, and treatment resistance. However, most past research on PMD has been conducted in inpatient hospital samples, and relatively little is known about PMD patients presenting for treatment in the community specifically.

Methods

In this study, we examined the prevalence and clinical characteristics of PMD in a large sample (n = 2,500) of treatment-seeking outpatients who were administered structured clinical interviews by trained diagnosticians.

Results

Of the patients diagnosed with major depression, 5.3% had psychotic features. PMD patients were more likely to be members of a racial/ethnic minority and to have lower educational attainment compared to those with nonpsychotic major depression. In addition, PMD patients were found to have greater current depression severity, suicidal ideation, and social and work impairment. These patients also were more likely to have histories of suicide attempts and psychiatric hospitalizations, to report an earlier age of illness onset, and to meet criteria for chronic depression. In terms of psychiatric comorbidity, PMD patients had higher rates of certain anxiety disorders as well as more somatoform and cluster A personality disorders.

Conclusions

Results indicated that PMD was present in a relatively small percentage of treatment-seeking outpatients but was associated with disproportionately high levels of severity and impairment. Similarities and differences between the current findings and those from past research are discussed, including clinical implications for the identification and treatment of PMD in routine practice settings.

The purpose of this study was to investigate the relationships of chronic stress, social undermining, and social support with symptom reduction and remission in depressed patients treated with antidepressant medication (citalopram), and to determine whether these relationships were moderated by ethnicity. A sample of 301 treatment-seeking adult patients with non-psychotic depression, including 169 African-American and 132 Caucasian men and women, were enrolled in an eight week, dose escalation clinical trial. Intent-to-treat analyses indicated that, consistent with expectations, more baseline social support was associated with greater symptom reduction and higher likelihood of remission, especially at higher levels of social undermining. Additionally, increases in social support from baseline to last visit were associated with more symptom reduction and higher likelihood of remission. However, contrary to expectations, higher levels of baseline social undermining were associated with more symptom reduction in Caucasians, but not in African-Americans. Results supported the treatment enhancing effect of available social support at the beginning of treatment and over the course of treatment. Efforts to enhance social support for patients on antidepressants should be considered as part of comprehensive treatment.

Major depression is a serious mental illness frequently associated with devastating consequences for those affected. Suicide rates are significantly elevated, creating a sense of urgency to identify effective yet safe treatment options. A plethora of antidepressants available on the market today, designed to act on different neurotransmitter systems in the brain, provides the clinician with several treatment strategies. There is, however, very little guidance as to which antidepressant may be most successful in a certain individual. Biomarkers that can predict treatment outcome would thus be of great value, shortening the time until remission and reducing costs for the healthcare system by reducing unsuccessful treatment attempts. The proven contribution of heredity to major depression risk suggests that genetic markers may be good biomarkers for treatment outcome. The Sequenced Treatment Alternatives to Relieve Depression (STAR*D) study and a large ancillary pharmacogenetic study on 1953 STAR*D participants constitute the largest effort to date to identify genetic predictors of antidepressant treatment outcome. In this review, results of candidate gene studies carried out so far are summarized and discussed, and some future directions are proposed.

Context:

An epidemic of chikungunya disease occurred in India during late 2005 through 2006 affecting nearly 1,400,000 people.

Aim:

To study the cutaneous manifestations in suspected cases of chikungunya disease.

Settings and Design:

Patients who attended our outpatient departments from January 2006 to September 2006 were prospectively included if they had symptoms of chikungunya disease according to the ‘case definition’ of the National Institute of Communicable Diseases, Directorate General of Health Services, Government of India. The criteria were an acute illness characterized by the sudden onset of fever and several symptoms such as joint pain, headache, backache, photophobia, and eruption during an epidemic of chikungunya fever in the absence of confirmatory serological tests.

Materials and Methods:

A total of 115 patients (65 men and 50 women) who satisfied the above criteria were enrolled for the study.

Results:

An erythematous maculopapular rash subsiding without any sequelae in 3-4 days was the most common cutaneous finding in our patients. Genital ulcers distributed predominantly over the scrotum and base of the penile shaft in men and labia majora in women were the second most common manifestation. Other manifestations included tenderness/edema of hands and feet, grouped hyperpigmented macules over the nose and cheeks, fixed drug eruptions, erythema nodosum, erythema multiformae, generalized urticarial eruptions, and flare up of pre-existing psoriasis and lichen planus.

Conclusions:

To conclude, a plethora of cutaneous manifestations were noted in suspected cases of chikungunya disease. Genital ulcers, to the best of our knowledge, have not been reported during the earlier epidemics but have been reported by others during the present one.

Predictors of treatment attrition were examined in a sample of 197 youths (ages 5–18) with clinically-significant symptoms of anxiety seeking psychotherapy services at a community-based outpatient mental health clinic (OMHC). Two related definitions of attrition were considered: (a) clinician-rated dropout (CR), and (b) CR dropout qualified by phase of treatment (pre, early, or late phases) (PT). Across both definitions, rates of attrition in the OMHC sample were higher than those for anxious youths treated in randomized controlled trials, and comorbid depression symptoms predicted dropout, with a higher rate of depressed youths dropping out later in treatment (after 6 sessions). Using the PT definition, minority status also predicted attrition, with more African-American youths lost pre-treatment. Other demographic (age, gender, single parent status) and clinical (externalizing symptoms, anxiety severity) characteristics were not significantly associated with attrition using either definition. Implications for services for anxious youths in public service settings are discussed. Results highlight the important role of comorbid depression in the treatment of anxious youth and the potential value of targeted retention efforts for ethnic minority families early in the treatment process.

Background

There is concern that people seeking treatment over the Internet for anxiety or depressive disorders may not resemble the general population or have less severe disorders than patients attending outpatient clinics or cases identified in community surveys. Thus the response to treatment in Internet based trials might not generalize.

Methodology

We reviewed the characteristics of applicants to an Australian Internet-based treatment clinic for anxiety and depression, and compared this sample with people from a national epidemiological survey and a sample of patients at a specialist outpatient anxiety and depression clinic. Participants included 774 volunteers to an Internet clinic, 454 patients at a specialist anxiety disorders outpatient clinic, and 627 cases identified in a national epidemiological survey. Main measures included demographic characteristics, and severity of symptoms as measured by the Kessler 10-Item scale (K-10), the 12-item World Health Organisation Disability Assessment Schedule second edition (WHODAS-II), the Penn State Worry Questionnaire (PSWQ), the Body Sensations Questionnaire (BSQ), the Automatic Cognitions Questionnaire (ACQ), the Social Interaction Anxiety Scale (SIAS) and the Social Phobia Scale (SPS).

Principal Findings

The severity of symptoms of participants attending the two clinics was similar, and both clinic samples were more severe than cases in the epidemiological survey. The Internet clinic and national samples were older and comprised more females than those attending the outpatient clinic. The Internet clinic sample were more likely to be married than the other samples. The Internet clinic and outpatient clinic samples had higher levels of educational qualifications than the national sample, but employment status was similar across groups.

Conclusions

The Internet clinic sample have disorders as severe as those attending an outpatient clinic, but with demographic characteristics more consistent with the national sample. These data indicate that the benefits of Internet treatment could apply to the wider population.

A retrospective data analysis was conducted to evaluate the usefulness of baseline characteristics in predicting treatment response to antidepressant medication in 97 outpatients with nonpsychotic major depression treated for up to sixteen weeks with nefazodone. Baseline demographics (gender), illness features (symptom severity, length of illness, length of current episode, number of episodes, age of onset, longitudinal subtype, endogenicity, melancholia, family history of mood disorders), and social features (living status) were evaluated. Response to treatment was defined as a ≥ 50% reduction in the 17-item Hamilton Rating Scale for Depression (HRSD17) score. The results of a survival analysis indicated that patients with shorter histories of illness (< 4 years), a negative family history of depression, and those who were either married or were living with someone were more likely to have a positive outcome during the acute phase treatment of depression. The main findings are consistent with extensive previous literature indicating a better short-term outcome of depression where illness is shorter, where there is no family history, and where there is better social support.

Abstract

Background

The higher prevalence and cost of depression for women compared with men and the possible gender differences in treatment response demand the inclusion of women in clinical trials of depression treatments. The 1993 National Institutes of Health (NIH) Revitalization Act set a new standard, requiring investigators to consider the inclusion of women and analyze outcomes by gender, yet compliance with these standards in depression research has not been examined systematically. The purpose of this study is to examine the inclusion of women and gender-specific analyses in recent randomized clinical trials (RCTs) for depression.

Methods

RCTs were identified through a MEDLINE search for trials published between January 1 and December 31, 2007, and a Clinicaltrials.gov search of self-identified interventional studies to treat depression.

Results

Of the 150 RCTs for depression published in 2007, 15% did not report the gender composition of their sample, 50% of studies did not analyze outcomes by gender, and 12% controlled for gender but did not analyze for gender differences. Of the 768 trials reviewed on Clinicaltrials.gov, 89% reported recruiting male and female participants, yet <1% reported an intention to analyze results by gender.

Conclusions

Many recent studies of depression treatments include women but do not examine outcomes by gender. Understanding how women differ from men in response to treatment is critical for enhancing treatment efficacy for the greatest number of adults with depression.

Background

The Hospital Anxiety and Depression Scale (HADS) is a common screening instrument excluding somatic symptoms of depression and anxiety, but previous studies have reported inconsistencies of its factor structure. The construct validity of the Japanese version of the HADS has yet to be reported. To examine the factor structure of the HADS in a Japanese population is needed.

Methods

Exploratory and confirmatory factor analyses were conducted in the combined data of 408 psychiatric outpatients and 1069 undergraduate students. The data pool was randomly split in half for a cross validation. An exploratory factor analysis was performed on one half of the data, and the fitness of the plausible model was examined in the other half of the data using a confirmatory factor analysis. Simultaneous multi-group analyses between the subgroups (outpatients vs. students, and men vs. women) were subsequently conducted.

Results

A two-factor model where items 6 and 7 had dual loadings was supported. These factors were interpreted as reflecting anxiety and depression. Item 10 showed low contributions to both of the factors. Simultaneous multi-group analyses indicated a factor pattern stability across the subgroups.

Conclusion

The Japanese version of HADS indicated good factorial validity in our samples. However, ambiguous wording of item 7 should be clarified in future revisions.

Objectives. The aim of this naturalistic study was to investigate whether treatment with clozapine and other atypical antipsychotics for at least 2 years was associated with a reduction in psychotic and depressive symptoms and an improvement in chronic schizophrenia patients' awareness of their illness. Methods. Twenty-three adult outpatients (15 men and 8 women) treated with clozapine and 23 patients (16 men and 7 women) treated with other atypical antipsychotics were included in the study. Psychotic symptoms were evaluated using the Positive and Negative Syndrome Scale (PANSS), depressive symptoms were assessed with the Calgary Depression Scale for Schizophrenia (CDSS), and insight was assessed with the Scale to Assess Unawareness of Mental Disorder (SUMD). Results. The sample as a whole had a significant reduction in positive, negative, and general symptoms, whereas the reduction in depression was significant only for patients with CDSS scores of 5 and higher at the baseline. At the follow-up, patients treated with other atypical antipsychotics reported a greater reduction in depression than patients treated with clozapine, but not when limiting the analyses to those with clinically relevant depression. Conclusions. Atypical antipsychotics may be effective in reducing psychotic and depressive symptoms and in improving insight in patients with chronic schizophrenia, with no differences in the profiles of efficacy between compounds.

Objective

The present study examined the relationship between medical burden in bipolar disorder and several indicators of illness severity and outcome. It was hypothesized that illnesses of the endocrine/metabolic system would be associated with greater psychiatric symptom burden and would impact the response to treatment with lithium and valproate.

Method

Data were analyzed from two studies evaluating lithium and valproate for rapid-cycling presentations of bipolar I and II disorder. General medical comorbidity was assessed by the Cumulative Illness Rating Scale (CIRS). Descriptive statistics and logistic regression analyses were conducted to explore the relationships between medical burden, body mass index (BMI), substance use disorder status, and depressive symptom severity.

Results

Of 225 patients enrolled, 41.8% had a recent substance use disorder, 50.7% were male, and 69.8% had bipolar I disorder. The mean age of the sample was 36.8 (SD = 10.8) years old. The mean number of comorbid medical disorders per patient was 2.5 (SD = 2.5), and the mean CIRS total score was 4.3 (SD = 3.1). A significant positive correlation was observed between baseline depression severity and the number of organ systems affected by medical illness (p = 0.04). Illnesses of the endocrine/metabolic system were inversely correlated with remission from depressive symptoms (p = 0.02), and obesity was specifically associated with poorer treatment outcome. For every 1-unit increase in BMI, the likelihood of response decreased by 7.5% [odds ratio (OR) = 0.93, 95% confidence interval (CI): 0.87–0.99; p = 0.02] and the likelihood of remission decreased by 7.3% (OR = 0.93, 95% CI: 0.87–0.99; p = 0.03). The effect of comorbid substance use on the likelihood of response differed significantly according to baseline BMI. The presence of a comorbid substance use disorder resulted in a lower odds of response, but only among patients with a BMI ≥ 23 (p = 0.02).

Conclusion

Among patients with rapid-cycling bipolar disorder receiving lithium and valproate, endocrine/metabolic illnesses, including overweight and obesity, appear to be associated with greater depressive symptom severity and poorer treatment outcomes.

A recent randomized controlled trial found nearly equivalent response rates for antidepressant medications and cognitive therapy in a sample of moderate-to-severely depressed outpatients. In this article, we seek to identify the variables that were associated with response across both treatments as well as variables that predicted superior response in one treatment over the other. The sample consisted of 180 depressed outpatients: 60 of whom were randomly assigned to cognitive therapy; 120 were assigned to antidepressant medications. Treatment was provided for 16 weeks. Chronic depression, older age, and lower intelligence each predicted relatively poor response across both treatments. Three prescriptive variables were identified: marriage, unemployment, and having experienced a greater number of recent life events predicted superior response to cognitive therapy compared to antidepressant medications. Thus, six markers of treatment outcome were identified, each of which might be expected to carry considerable clinical utility. The three prognostic variables identify subgroups that might benefit from alternative treatment strategies; the three prescriptive variables identify groups who appear to respond particularly well to cognitive therapy.

Objectives

A recent study has reported a significant association of variants in phosphodiesterase (PDE) genes with antidepressant treatment outcome in a Mexican American sample (Wong et al. 2006). We set out to investigate these findings in a large sample of patients from the Sequenced Treatment Alternatives for Depression (STAR*D) study. STAR*D is a longitudinal study of antidepressant outcome in depressed outpatients.

Methods

We genotyped three single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) in PDE11A (rs1880916), PDE1A (rs1549870), and PDE9A (rs729861) for replication and we also report three additional SNPs in PDE11A (rs3770016, rs4893975, rs6433687) that had been genotyped for a previous study.

Results

Single marker analysis of remission within the Hispanic subsamples (n = 268) revealed no significant evidence of association with markers in PDE11A, PDE9A or PDE1A. Additional analyses of remission within the total STAR*D sample (n=1,914) were also largely negative, as were analyses utilizing a narrower definition of remission. Haplotype analyses were performed with the four PDE11A SNPs we genotyped; these also failed to show significant evidence of association in the STAR*D sample.

Conclusions

We could not reproduce the reported association between PDE genes and antidepressant outcome in a sample of subjects comparable to that reported previously. We conclude that PDE11A, PDE9A, and PDE1A are unlikely to play an important role in antidepressant outcome in this sample.