Citation

Seemüller F, Schennach-Wolff R, Obermeier M, Henkel V, Möller HJ, Riedel M. J. Affect. Disord. 2010; 124(1-2): 183-186.

Affiliation

Department of Psychiatry, Ludwig Maximilians University, Nussbaumstr. 7, Munich, Germany. florian.seemueller@med.uni-muenchen.de

Copyright

(Copyright © 2010, Elsevier Publishing)

DOI

10.1016/j.jad.2009.10.010

PMID

19889462

Abstract

OBJECTIVE: To investigate the association of early improvement and treatment emergent suicidal ideation in a large sample (N=705) of naturalistically treated inpatients with major depressive disorder. METHOD: In line with previous reports early improvement was defined as a 20% HAMD improvement within the first two weeks of antidepressant treatment. Treatment emergent suicidal ideation was defined by a sudden increase from 0 or 1 to at least 3 on HAMD item 3 and from 0.1 to at least 4 on MADR item 10 for suicidal ideation. Early improvers were compared with non-early improvers with respect to the occurrence of treatment emergent suicidality during treatment. RESULTS: Early improvers were 3 (MADRS) to 3.4 (HAMD) times less likely to experience new emergence of suicidal ideation during the treatment course than non-improvers. In addition, early improvement was associated with significantly less pessimistic thoughts. LIMITATIONS: The analysis is based on secondary analysis of prospectively collected data. No controlled study design. CONCLUSION: Early improvement is associated with significantly less treatment emergent suicidal ideation for it may provide rapid symptom relief and reduce hopelessness.

Language: en