The effects of fluoxetine and dothiepin on cognitive function in depressed patients in general practice

✍ Scribed by D. B. Fairweather; N. Stanley; J. S. Yoon; I. Hindmarch

• Publisher: John Wiley and Sons
• Year: 1999
• Tongue: English
• Weight: 177 KB
• Volume: 14
• Category: Article
• ISSN: 0885-6222
• DOI: 10.1002/(sici)1099-1077(199907)14:5<325::aid-hup102>3.0.co;2-3

✦ Synopsis

The objective of this study was to assess whether there are any dierences between ¯uoxetine and dothiepin on cognitive function of patients with major depression (DSMIII-R). A randomized, double-blind, parallel group design, 6 week trial in patients in general practice was employed where patients were randomly allocated to one of two treatment groups, i.e. ¯uoxetine 20 mg mane or dothiepin 75 mg nocte (increasing to 150 mg in the 2nd week). Eighty-four depressed patients aged 18±70 (mean 43 . 8) years were admitted to the study. Cognitive function was assessed by a valid battery of tests before and during treatment. The severity of depression was assessed using the Hamilton Depression Rating Scale (HAMD) at the start and end of the study. Both treatments were similarly ecacious in reducing the HAMD and performance tended to improve with both drugs during treatment. There were signi®cant dierences between the drugs on the critical ¯icker fusion task where the ¯uoxetine group performed signi®cantly better than the dothiepin group (p 5 0.05). The ¯uoxetine group also had better scores on a mental arithmetic task. No signi®cant dierences were observed in the adverse event pro®les. The results of this study show that ¯uoxetine and dothiepin cannot be dierentiated in terms of ecacy manifest by changes in the HAMD, but do possess dierent pro®les of action on the battery of cognitive tests.