Differential changes on variables of depression as measured objectively and subjectively

Summary

Starting from a discussion of methods, we carried out a study of a new antidepressive drug, trimeprimine. We began with a pilot study, then continued with an extensive evaluation of 140 depressive patients and, finally, made an intensive evaluation of 30 of these patients compared with 22 imipramine-treated patients.

The 140 patients were treated with 75–300 mg trimeprimine p.o. daily for an average of three weeks.

In the comparative evaluation of trimeprimine-treated and imipramine-treated patients, the methods used were clinical evaluation, standardized psychiatric ratings of depressive symptoms, and selfratings made by the patients of their subjective experiences of symptoms, improvements and side-effects (ADS), and anxiety (MAS). As to composition, the trimeprimine and imipramine groups are not completely comparable.

The results indicate that trimeprimine cannot be said to have greater therapeutic effects on symptoms of depression than can imipramine. Contrariwise, without being significant the improvement is really greater — consistently so in all evaluations except anxiety measured by ADS — in the imipramine than in the trimeprimine group.

Standardized ratings are shown in this study on depressive patients to have greater discriminatory efficiency within and between groups than has simple clinical-psychiatric classification. With these methods the effects and the subjective experiences of the patients are described better and in detail.