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Possible predictors of response to fluvoxamine for depression
Shigeru Morishita1, Seizaburo Arita
1Department of Psychiatry, Kawasaki Medical School, Kurashiki, Okayama, Japan. morisita@med.kawasaki-m.ac.jp
Introduction:
An investigation of the characteristics of patients being treated with antidepressants would seem to be useful in determining which patients would be most likely benefit from antidepressant medication.
Aims:
The purpose of this preliminary study was to examine the possible predictors of response to fluvoxamine for depression.
Method:
A retrospective cohort analysis was carried out among depression patients treated in the Department of Psychiatry, Kawasaki Medical School Hospital, Kurashiki, Japan, in 2000. Seventy two patients were identified who were receiving fluvoxamine to treat depression.
Results:
A variety of clinical factors including age, gender, type of depression, frequency of episodes, family history and daily dose of fluvoxamine were examined as possible predictors of the response to fluvoxamine. A Weibull regression analysis showed age, frequency of episodes and daily dose to be the independent predictive factors of improvement in fluvoxamine treatment. The most influential factor was age (ecoef = 2.109), followed by daily dose (ecoef = 0.648) and frequency of episode (ecoef = 0.512). An age of 49 years or younger (chi(2) = 6.767, df = 1, p = 0.0093), a first episode (chi(2) = 9.079, df = 1, p = 0.0026) and a daily dose of 100-150 mg (chi(2) = 5.353, df = 1, p = 0.02) were significantly better predictors of improvement.
Conclusions:
Age, the frequency of episodes and the daily dose of fluvoxamine may be considered as predictors of the response to fluvoxamine treatment for depression. This result should be examined in future prospective study.