Response to treatment in minor and major depression: results of a double-blind comparative study with paroxetine and maprotiline

Patient Beliefs Predict Response to Paroxetine Among Primary Care Patients with Dysthymia and Minor Depression

“…The initial phase was a semistructured clinical interview to determine eligibility. 13 For patients meeting criteria, a complete description of the study was provided, and written informed consent approved by the local institutional review board was obtained. Those who agreed to participate were then administered additional baseline measures and randomized to one of the three treatment arms.…”

“…The Seattle and Lebanon sites enrolled patients in both a younger age cohort (18 -59 years) and an older age cohort (Ն60 years), whereas San Antonio and Pittsburgh enrolled only the older age cohort. To be included, a participant needed to have three or four of the DSM-IV symptoms of depression on the Prime-MD major depression module, 13 one of which was depressed mood or anhedonia as assessed by clinical interview, and to have a 17-item Hamilton Rating Scale for Depression (HAM-D) score of 10 or greater.…”

“…A structured psychiatric interview administered at baseline included mood, anxiety, and alcohol modules from the Prime-MD 13 and the substance abuse and psychosis modules of the Structured Clinical Interview for Diagnosis. 19 Only the diagnosis of dysthymia versus minor depression was used for the present analyses.…”

“…Most trials of treatment of minor depression have been in selected nonrepresentative populations and have not been well controlled. 13,14 We recently published reports of the Treatment Effectiveness Project, a large, primary care-based, multicenter, randomized controlled trial comparing paroxetine, problem-solving therapy, and placebo in patients with minor depression or dysthymia. Paroxetine showed moderate benefit compared with placebo for depressive symptoms and mental health function in elderly patients with dysthymia and in elderly patients with minor depression who had more severe functional impairment.…”

The DSM‐IV ‘minor depression’ disorder in the oldest‐old: prevalence rate, sleep patterns, memory function and quality of life in elderly people of Italian descent in Southern Brazil

“…The term minor depression has been used by different authors to describe different phenomena (Szegedi et al, 1997). In a literature review comprising papers published between 1991±1996, in which minor depression was a component of the study, Feldman and colleagues (Feldman et al, 1998) reported that some studies equated minor depression with dysthymia, some used the diagnostic research criteria proposed by Spitzer and colleagues (Spitzer et al, 1978), some used a measure of the degree of severity of depressive symptoms, and others used the occurrence of fewer depressive symptoms than those required for major depressive disorder as diagnostic criteria for minor depression.…”