Retreatment for relapse following desipramine discontinuation in dysthymia.

OBJECTIVE

It is an accepted yet unproven belief that prior favorable response to an antidepressant medication predicts good response to the same antidepressant during a subsequent depressive episode. The authors studied desipramine retreatment for dysthymic patients who had responded to desipramine during acute and continuation treatment and then subsequently relapsed after discontinuation of desipramine.

METHOD: The subjects were 12 patients who had pure dysthymia or dysthymia with major depression who relapsed while taking placebo during maintenance treatment. Each patient received open desipramine treatment at a dose equal to or greater than that received during the continuation phase.

RESULTS

Eleven (91.7%) of the 12 relapsed patients achieved full remission after an average of 4.7 weeks (range = 2-8 weeks, median = 4 weeks) of desipramine retreatment, a significant response rate.

CONCLUSIONS

Positive response to desipramine strongly predicts favorable response to retreatment for depressive relapse following desipramine discontinuation.