The effect of alexithymic features on response to antidepressant medication in patients with major depression
| Autor: | Zeynep Gulcat, Adnan Cansever, Özcan Uzun, Aytekin Özşahin |
|---|---|
| Rok vydání: | 2003 |
| Předmět: |
medicine.medical_specialty
medicine.diagnostic_test Hamilton Rating Scale for Depression medicine.disease Paroxetine Psychiatry and Mental health Clinical Psychology Antidepressant medication Toronto Alexithymia Scale Alexithymia Internal medicine medicine Antidepressant In patient Psychology Depression (differential diagnoses) medicine.drug Clinical psychology |
| Zdroj: | Depression and Anxiety. 18:62-66 |
| ISSN: | 1091-4269 |
| DOI: | 10.1002/da.10117 |
| Popis: | There has been no follow-up study regarding the effect of alexithymic features on antidepressant treatment. This study was planned to observe whether alexithymia effects short-term treatment outcome in depression. The study included 32 alexithymic and 33 nonalexithymic outpatients with major depression. Depression was assessed on the basis of the Structured Clinical Interview for DSM-IV (SCID-I). Level of depression was measured using the 17-item Hamilton Rating Scale for Depression (HAM-D). Alexithymia was screened using the Turkish version of Toronto Alexithymia Scale (TAS-20). All patients received 20 mg/d paroxetine for 10 weeks. Alexithymic and nonalexithymic patients were compared on the HAM-D scores, TAS-20 scores, and rate of response to antidepressant medication. The rate of responders, defined by a reduction of >50% from baseline in HAM-D total score, was 21.9% in the alexithymic group and 54.5% in the nonalexithymic group. Changes in the HAM-D scores were significantly correlated with the TAS-20 scores. TAS-20 scores dropped below 61 in only 31.2% of the alexithymic patients, and 68.8% of patients remained alexithymic. Whereas 50% of patients whose TAS-20 scores dropped below 61 responded to antidepressant medication, this rate was only 9.1% among patients who remained alexithymic. These findings indicated that the stability of alexithymic features had a negative effect on antidepressant treatment in depression. |
| Databáze: | OpenAIRE |
| Externí odkaz: |
|