Treatment with SSRIs rather than placebo was associated with clinical improvement by the end of the first week of use .
CONCLUSIONS Treatment with SSRIs is associated with symptomatic improvement in depression by the end of the first week of use , and the improvement continues at a decreasing rate for at least 6 weeks
CONTEXT Selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors ( SSRIs ) are often described as having a delayed onset of effect in the treatment of depression .
However , some trials have reported clinical improvement as early as the first week of treatment .
OBJECTIVE To test the alternative hypotheses of delayed vs early onset of antidepressant action with SSRIs in patients with unipolar depression .
A double-blind comparison of fluoxetine, imipramine and placebo in outpatients with major depression.
Fluoxetine is the first selective serotonin reuptake inhibitor antidepressant to be marketed in the U.S. In this double-blind trial fluoxetine was compared with imipramine and placebo among 198 out patients with DSM-III major depression , of whom 145 completed at least 2 weeks of active treatment and were evaluated for efficacy . Significantly fewer patients in each active drug group terminated early due to lack of efficacy compared to placebo . Both imipramine and fluoxetine were significantly superior to placebo on most measures . There were no consistently significant differences between the two active drugs although a trend favored imipramine on a number of measures . Fluoxetine was generally well tolerated . Significantly more imipramine than placebo patients terminated early due to side-effects while the fluoxetine-placebo difference was not significant . The results support previous studies which suggest fluoxetine 's superior side-effect profile and the approximate antidepressant equivalence of fluoxetine and TCAs
Treatment with SSRIs rather than placebo was associated with clinical improvement by the end of the first week of use .
CONCLUSIONS Treatment with SSRIs is associated with symptomatic improvement in depression by the end of the first week of use , and the improvement continues at a decreasing rate for at least 6 weeks
CONTEXT Selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors ( SSRIs ) are often described as having a delayed onset of effect in the treatment of depression .
However , some trials have reported clinical improvement as early as the first week of treatment .
OBJECTIVE To test the alternative hypotheses of delayed vs early onset of antidepressant action with SSRIs in patients with unipolar depression .