[Predicting antidepressive treatment success--critical review and perspectives]

Although antidepressants have been available for over 35 years, it is not possible to accurately predict the response to this kind of treatment. This article reviews both clinical and biological predictors of treatment response. Among the clinical predictors chronicity of depression, high neuroticism and psychotic features are associated with poor response. Tricyclic antidepressants remain the drugs of choice in "endogenous" depression, whereas monoamine oxidase inhibitors play an important role in the treatment of atypical depression. Biological predictors of response, despite a lot of interesting findings that may be important for the future, are not yet sufficiently established for clinical practicability.