A multicenter, double-blind, placebo-controlled study followed outpatients with major depression through acute, continuation and two phases of maintenance therapy (12 months each) with venlafaxine extended release compared to fluoxetine and placebo. Due to study design, the fluoxetine group was included only as a reference during the maintenance phases.
The results demonstrated that patients taking venlafaxine extended release were significantly more likely to remain recurrence-free than patients taking placebo. In the first maintenance phase, the probability of recurrence was 23.1% among patients given venlafaxine extended release compared to 42% among patients given placebo.
The difference was even more pronounced in the second maintenance phase, with an 8% likelihood of recurrence among those given venlafaxine extended release versus 44.8% among those given placebo.
“Until about five years ago, antidepressant response was the standard for treatment; today, remission is the goal,” says Philip Ninan, vice president ofenuroscience at Wyeth Pharmaceuticals. “These data may encourage physicians to raise their expectations of treatment to include long-term prevention of new episodes of depression.”