The advantages of paroxetine in different subgroups of depression

Paroxetine is a selective serotonin reuptake inhibitor that is now licensed in various countries in Europe. It has comparable efficacy with the reference tricyclic antidepressants and is well tolerated with few adverse effects which are usually mild, transient and do not appear to compromise treatment. Paroxetine has a number of advantages as an antidepressant; of particular interest is its ability to improve sleep early in treatment without daytime sedation or interference with psychomotor function. Paroxetine appears effective compared with placebo in different subgroups of depression: it is effective in both endogenous and reactive depression, as well as being effective in moderate and severe depression. Paroxetine appears particularly effective in treating the anxiety associated with depression and has been shown to have greater efficacy than imipramine. There is some evidence that the onset of antidepressant action occurs slightly earlier with paroxetine than with imipramine. As well as being effective in the acute episode, placebo-controlled, long-term data are available indicating paroxetine to be of value in the prevention of depressive relapse.