Citalopram versus fluoxetine: a double-blind, controlled, multicentre, phase III trial in patients with unipolar major depression treated in general practice

The effect of study sponsorship on a systematically evaluated body of evidence of head-to-head trials was modest: secondary analysis of a systematic review

“…Twenty studies were clearly funded by the pharmaceutical industry [40,41,43,44, 46,47,50e52,54,56e61,63,65,67,68]. Six studies were probably funded by the industry [42,45,48,55,62,66]. One study reported a mixed funding source of public and industry monies [49].…”

“…Most trials were funded by the following: H. Lundbeck A/S, the manufacturer of citalopram and escitalopram (seven studies, 2,691 patients) [43,46,54,55,58,59,62]; Pfizer, Inc., New York, NY, USA, the manufacturer of sertraline (six studies, 1,520 patients) [40e42, 61,66,68]; and Glaxo Smithkline, London, United Kingdom, the [44,45,48,50,65,67]. Eli Lilly and Company, Indianapolis, IN, USA, the producer of fluoxetine [51,52,57], and Solvay Pharmaceuticals, Brussels, Belgium, the producer of fluvoxamine [47,56,60,63], financially supported three and four RCTs each (1,169 and 439 patients, respectively).…”

A pharmacoeconomic evaluation of escitalopram, a new selective serotonin reuptake inhibitor

“…For fluoxetine these comparisons were made using citalopram as a common reference. The difference in outcomes of the two comparative trials of fluoxetine and citalopram reported by Patris et al [9] and Bougerol et al [10] were added to the difference between citalopram and escitalopram in the 8-week flexible-dose European study. The probabilities with venlafaxine comparable to those with escitalopram were derived using fluoxetine as a common reference, as reported in comparative trials [11,12,13,14] with the exception of the calculation of the relapse rate described below.…”

Palpebral Twitching in a Depressed Adolescent on Citalopram

“…Pooled comparative studies have shown its tolerability profile to be superior to that of tricyclic antidepressants and similar to other SSRIs (Muldoon 1996). There is also some evidence of a faster onset of action for citalopram compared with fluoxetine (Patris et al 1996). Initial data suggest that citalopram is effective in the prevention of depressive relapse and in the treatment of poststroke depression (Andersen et al 1994).…”

“…Early on in the course of his treatment he developed a palpebral twitch that may have represented a treatment side effect, as it responded favorably to dose redistribution. The rationale behind employing citalopram in this case included the fact that, like fluoxetine, this medication has been well tolerated in children and adolescents with other conditions and that it might have a more rapid onset of action (Patris et al 1996).…”