Handsome
02-02-2009, 08:34 AM
THURSDAY, Jan. 29 (HealthDay News) -- There are significant differences in terms of efficacy and acceptability between 12 new-generation antidepressants, according to an article published online Jan. 29 in The Lancet.
Andrea Cipriani, Ph.D., of the University of Verona in Verona, Italy, and colleagues conducted a meta-analysis of 117 randomized controlled trials (comprising 25,928 patients) that compared the effects of 12 antidepressants used to treat unipolar major depression.
The most efficacious drugs were mirtazapine, escitalopram, venlafaxine and sertraline, all of which out-performed duloxetine, fluoxetine, fluvoxamine, paroxetine and reboxetine, the investigators found. The least effective of the 12 was reboxetine, while the most acceptable drugs were escitalopram and sertraline, which led to substantially fewer discontinuations than other drugs, the researchers report.
"Our analysis suggests that sertraline is better than other new-generation drugs in terms of efficacy and acceptability, and could be used as a standard comparator in phase III and also in pragmatic (or effectiveness) trials to increase the real-world applicability of the results," the authors write. "The need of new treatments to show either greater efficacy or acceptability than an existing standard therapy would serve as a disincentive to the development of me-too agents that offer little to patients other than increased costs."
Several of the study authors disclosed financial relationships with various pharmaceutical companies.
Andrea Cipriani, Ph.D., of the University of Verona in Verona, Italy, and colleagues conducted a meta-analysis of 117 randomized controlled trials (comprising 25,928 patients) that compared the effects of 12 antidepressants used to treat unipolar major depression.
The most efficacious drugs were mirtazapine, escitalopram, venlafaxine and sertraline, all of which out-performed duloxetine, fluoxetine, fluvoxamine, paroxetine and reboxetine, the investigators found. The least effective of the 12 was reboxetine, while the most acceptable drugs were escitalopram and sertraline, which led to substantially fewer discontinuations than other drugs, the researchers report.
"Our analysis suggests that sertraline is better than other new-generation drugs in terms of efficacy and acceptability, and could be used as a standard comparator in phase III and also in pragmatic (or effectiveness) trials to increase the real-world applicability of the results," the authors write. "The need of new treatments to show either greater efficacy or acceptability than an existing standard therapy would serve as a disincentive to the development of me-too agents that offer little to patients other than increased costs."
Several of the study authors disclosed financial relationships with various pharmaceutical companies.