Differential change in specific depressive symptoms during antidepressant medication or cognitive therapy

Cognitive therapy and antidepressant medications are effective treatments for depression, but little is known about their relative efficacy in reducing individual depressive symptoms. Using data from a recent clinical trial comparing cognitive therapy, antidepressant medication, and placebo in the treatment of moderate-to-severe depression, we examined whether there was a relative advantage of any treatment in reducing the severity of specific depressive symptom clusters. The sample consisted of 231 depressed outpatients randomly assigned to: cognitive therapy for 16 weeks (n = 58); paroxetine treatment for 16 weeks (n = 116); or pill placebo for 8 weeks (n = 57). Differential change in five subsets of depressive symptoms was examined: mood, cognitive/suicide, anxiety, typical-vegetative, and atypical-vegetative symptoms. Medication led to a greater reduction in cognitive/suicide symptoms relative to placebo by 4 weeks, and both active treatments reduced these symptoms more than did placebo by 8 weeks. Cognitive therapy reduced the atypical-vegetative symptoms more than placebo by 8 weeks and more than medications throughout the trial. These findings suggest that medications and cognitive therapy led to different patterns of response to specific symptoms of depression and that the general efficacy of these two well-validated treatments may be driven in large part by changes in cognitive or atypical-vegetative symptoms.