Follow-up of patients who improved during placebo washout

Depressed patients who showed significant improvement after a 10-day placebo washout trial were followed for 3 months. Twenty-five relapsed and 20 remained well. Relapsing patients more frequently had a family history of depression, more had prior psychiatric treatment, their illness course was more chronic once ill, mean age of onset was younger, and fewer had obvious precipitants. More relapser had RDC diagnoses of intermittent depressive disorder. Among those with major depressive disorder, fewer relapsers met subtype criteria for simple, situational, or recurrent. Nonaffective psychiatric disorders were present in 64% of relapsers and no placebo responders who remained well. Overall, 10-day placebo responders included patients with different clinical characteristics and subsequent course.