Treatment of Resistant Depression Review on the efficacy of various biological treatments, specifically in major depression resistant to cyclic antidepressants

Abstract

The biological treatment of depression includes administration of psychoactive drugs (cyclic antidepressants, MAO-inhibitors, neuroleptics and lithium), use of certain substances which in small amounts are normally present in food such as, L-tryptophan (L-TP) and L-5-hydroxytryptophan (L-5HTP), electroconvulsive therapy (ECT) and various manipulations of the sleep-wake rhythms. This paper reviews the literature on the efficacy of these treatments in patients resistant to earlier adequate treatment(s) with cyclic antidepressants. Subsequently the following strategy for the biological treatment of (non-psychotic) major depression is suggested: (1) administration of a cyclic antidepressant; (2) if after a period of 4 to 6 weeks a patient has not responded to an adequate dose, another cyclic antidepressant should be tried, adding lithium if the patient still does not respond; (3) MAO-inhibitors and (4) ECT. In psychotic depression the suggestions for the first, third and fourth steps are the same. In the second step, the cyclic antidepressant should be combined with a neuroleptic.