Comparison Of Pharmacotherapy Research Articles

Treatment of posttraumatic stress disorder: Focus on pharmacotherapy.

Current clinical practice guidelines for the treatment of posttraumatic stress disorder offer varying recommendations regarding the use of pharmacotherapy. Many direct head-to-head comparisons of pharmacotherapy are lacking, and recommendations are based on meta-analyses and small trials. While selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors and serotonin norepinephrine reuptake inhibitors are considered first-line pharmacotherapy, clear distinctions do not exist when considering other classes of psychotropic medications. Ultimately, when selecting an appropriate medication for a patient diagnosed with posttraumatic stress disorder, the clinician needs to consider the current symptomatology being experienced, comorbid conditions, and evidence for efficacy of specific treatments prior to initiating medications.

322 - Comparison of Pharmacotherapy, Argon Plasma Coagulation and Combination Therapy in the Treatment of Weight Regain after Roux-En-Y Gastric Bypass

322 - Comparison of Pharmacotherapy, Argon Plasma Coagulation and Combination Therapy in the Treatment of Weight Regain after Roux-En-Y Gastric Bypass

A Comparison of Pharmacotherapy in Inpatients with Major Depressive Disorders Between Patients With Single Episodes and Patients With Recurrent Episodes

A Comparison of Pharmacotherapy in Inpatients with Major Depressive Disorders Between Patients With Single Episodes and Patients With Recurrent Episodes

Psychopharmacological comparison of schizophrenia spectrum disorder with and without cannabis dependency

Although incidence of schizophrenia is higher among cannabis users and marijuana is the most common abused drug by adolescents, etiological linkage between schizophrenia and cannabis use is still not clarified. Clinical experiences suggest that regular cannabis user can show similar psychotic episode to schizophrenic disorders but it is still unclear if chronic cannabis use with schizophreniform disorder is a distinct entity requiring special therapy or it can be treated as classical schizophrenia. There are no data available on the comparison of pharmacotherapy between schizophreniform patients with and without cannabis use. Clinical data of 85 patients with schizophrenia spectrum disorder were analyzed retrospectively. Cannabis use was not reported by 43 persons (Cnbs0 subgroup) and 42 patients used regularly cannabis during at least 1 year (Cnbs1 subgroup). Comparison of anamnesis, family history, social-demographic condition, positive and negative symptoms, acute and long-term therapies recorded by clinical interviews was performed with chi square tests, logistic binary regression and t-tests using SPSS 13.0 for Windows software. Men were over-represented in cannabis dependent group while mean age was lower among them compared to Cnbs0 subgroup. Prevalence of suicidal attempt was increased in men without cannabis use (OR = 5.25, p = 0.016). Patients without cannabis use spent more time in hospital (p = 0.026) and smoking was more frequent among them (OR = 1.36, p = 0.047). The chance to get olanzapine for acute therapy and aripiprazol for long term therapy was more than two fold in Cnbs1 subgroup (OR = 2.66, OR = 3.67, respectively). However, aripiprazol was used for acute therapy with significantly lower risk in Cnbs1 subgroup (OR = 0.47, p = 0.023). Olanzapine was administered for long term therapy in a higher dose to Cnbs0 patients (p = 0.040). Also higher dose of risperidon LAI was used in women without cannabis dependency compared to women of Cnbs1 subgroup (p=0.020). Positive and negative symptoms and family history did not differ significantly between the two subgroups. Although symptom profile was similar, hospitalization time, suicidal anamnesis, smoking habit and also dosage, intensity and lasting of therapy were different between the two subgroups. Further prospective studies are required for the investigation of the clinical and molecular background of this discrepancy in order to determine a relevant protocol of prevention and treatment of the chronic cannabis use related psychotic disorder.

Psychotherapy, Pharmacotherapy, or Both for Chronic Insomnia?

There have been few randomized comparisons of pharmacotherapy, cognitive-behavioral therapy, and their combination for treating chronic insomnia. In

Review: antidepressants and psychotherapy may be equally effective for promoting remission in major depressive disorder

Casacalenda N, Perry C, Looper K. Remission in major depressive disorder: a comparison of pharmacotherapy, psychotherapy, and control conditions. Am J Psych2002 Aug; 159 : 1354 –60. [OpenUrl][1][CrossRef][2][PubMed][3][Web of Science][4]...

The treatment of psychotic depression in later life: a comparison of pharmacotherapy and ECT

The treatment of psychotic depression in later life: a comparison of pharmacotherapy and ECT

Comparison of pharmacotherapy before and after electroshock therapy for maintenance treatment in senile depressive patients

Comparison of pharmacotherapy before and after electroshock therapy for maintenance treatment in senile depressive patients

The treatment of psychotic depression in later life: a comparison of pharmacotherapy and ECT

Response to combination pharmacotherapy and to electroconvulsive therapy (ECT) was evaluated in elderly patients with psychotic depression. Twenty-five patients, aged 60 years and older, with DSM-III-R unipolar psychotic major depression, were treated in an open, non-randomized fashion with either 6 weeks of nortriptyline and perphenazine (N = 8) or ECT (N = 17). Response was defined as a Hamilton score of < or = 10 and the absence of delusions and hallucinations. Patients who failed to respond to combined antidepressant-antipsychotic medication underwent 2 weeks of lithium augmentation. Two (25.0%) patients responded to the first 6 weeks of pharmacotherapy whereas 15 (88.2%) patients responded to ECT (Fisher's exact test, p = 0.004). Even after lithium augmentation, there was a trend for patients to be less responsive to medication than to ECT (50.0% versus 88.2%, Fisher's exact test, p = 0.059). Survival analysis, based on 8 weeks of observation, demonstrated that patients took longer to respond to pharmacotherapy than to ECT (mean (SE) of 7(0) weeks versus 4(0) weeks; log rank chi2 = 10.43, df = 1, p = 0.001). We found that elderly patients with psychotic depression had a significantly lower frequency of response to nortriptyline and perphenazine than to ECT. However, patients responded more slowly to pharmacotherapy than to ECT and longer duration of treatment may have improved the outcome of the medication group. These findings suggest the need for a randomized controlled trial comparing the efficacies of drug treatment and ECT in late life psychotic depression.

The New Personality Self-Portrait: Why You Think, Work, Love, and Act the Way You Do

The New Personality Self-Portrait: Why You Think, Work, Love, and Act the Way You Do

Atypical depression: clinical aspects and noradrenergic function.

The authors assessed the frequency of atypical depression in depressed outpatients and compared clinical and biological features of patients with atypical and nonatypical depression. Depressed outpatients (N = 114) were diagnosed with the Schedule for Affective Disorders and Schizophrenia (SADS) according to Research Diagnostic Criteria. Patients were assessed for presence or absence of atypical depression with the Atypical Depressive Disorder Scale. Atypical depression was defined as the presence of mood reactivity during the depressive episode, along with at least one of four associated features: hypersomnia, hyperphagia, leaden paralysis, and rejection sensitivity. All patients completed the SCL-90 and were rated with the Hamilton Depression Rating Scale, extracted from the SADS. To assess biological functioning, the authors examined cortisol response to 75 mg of desipramine, a relatively selective norepinephrine reuptake inhibitor. Twenty-nine percent of patients met criteria for atypical depression. Patients with atypical depression were significantly more likely to be female. Patients with atypical and nonatypical depression did not differ on SCL-90 subscale scores. Although extracted Hamilton depression scale scores were significantly higher for patients with nonatypical depression, the difference was not clinically significant. Patients with atypical depression exhibited a significantly different cortisol response to desipramine injection than patients with nonatypical depression, which suggested that nonatypical depression may be associated with a more impaired norepinephrine system. In view of data in this study, as well as earlier studies, atypical depression has a unique symptom profile, may be widely prevalent, has a distinct treatment response, and may indicate a less impaired biological system than nonatypical depression. Since this is the first report to evaluate the frequency of atypical depression as well as the norepinephrine system in atypical depression, this study needs to be replicated. Nonetheless, the data support the inclusion of atypical depression as a subtype of the depressive disorders in DSM-IV.