Acute stimulant response prediction of chronic trazodone effects

1. Depressed patients who acutely improve after taking a stimulant drug have a better eventual response to chronic antidepressant treatment than do stimulant non-responders. Unlike the stimulants and most antidepressants, trazodone (TRZ) is not a potent monoamine reuptake inhibitor. 2. The authors tested the hypothesis that acute methylphenidate (MPH) and d-amphetamine (d-AMP) response would not correlate with eventual trazodone response because its site of action was different from other antidepressants. 3. It was found that acute MPH-induced improvement correlated with eventual TRZ-induced improvement to a limited degree. 4. This correlation might reflect serotonin reuptake inhibition by trazodone and suggests that this effect is therapeutically relevant.