[Prediction test of nomifensine prescription from symptomatic pre-therapeutic status (author's transl)]

Heighty two outpatients, suffering from reactive or neurotic depression have been treated with a daily 100 mg dose of nomifensine. The symptomatic status before treatment was appreciated by a self-rating scale, the Hopkins Symptoms Check List (HSCL). At the end of the study, the patient again filled out this same rating scale, and also a seven-score amelioration questionnaire. The investigator filled out this same questionnaire and a fourscore global impression scale. We tried to find out if by appreciating initial symptoms with the HSCL, it was possible to predict which patients would be responders to the treatment. The only highly significant result was obtained with a discriminant analysis, which combines 22 items of the pre-therapeutic HSCL and with which it is possible to predict the amelioration measured by the difference between the total pre- and post-therapeutic HSCL notations. The authors point out to the interest of this method in psychopharmacology.