Neurotic depression an empirical guide to two specific drug treatments.

A frequent problem confronting the physician - which of two possible treatments to select - is discussed, utilizing a group of neurotically depressed patients with anxiety. In these patients, treated with a phenothiazine (thioridazine) or a benzodiazepine (diazepam), the average severity of crucial symptoms such as depressed mood and ideas of suicide decreased by over 50% and did so during the initial four weeks of treatment, comprising the span of this double-blind study. The severity of many other related related symptoms decreased by almost one-half during that period. The results revealed a moderate but fairly consistent advantage for thioridazine for most symptoms. Details of differential effectiveness, as well as features and problems in the treatment of neurotic depression by the practitioner, are described below.