Additional Clinical Benefit of Agomelatine Treatment for Major Depressive Disorder in Naturalistic Treatment Setting

This study tried to observe additional benefit of agomelatine (AGO) treatment for major depressive disorder (MDD) in routine practice.

Retrospective chart review (n = 63) was conducted for additional benefit of combination with or switching to AGO in MDD patients without full remission. The primary endpoint was the mean change of Clinical Global Impression-Clinical Benefit (CGI-CB) total scores from baseline to the endpoint. Additional secondary endpoints were also collected.

The changes of CGI-CB (Z = -3.073, p = 0.002) and Montgomery-Åsberg Depression Rating Scale (Z = -3.483, p < 0.001) total scores were significantly decreased from baseline to the endpoint, respectively. At the endpoint, the remission rate was 22.6% (n = 18) and 28.6% of patient had improvement in CGI-CB total scores at the endpoint. No significant adverse events were observed.

This study has shown additional benefit of AGO treatment as combination or switching agent for MDD patients without full remission in routine practice. However, adequately-powered and well-controlled studies are necessary for generalization of the present findings.