Quetiapine effective adjunctive treatment for comorbid depressive and anxiety disorders
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Quetiapine showed to be an effective adjunctive treatment in addressing comorbid anxiety with depressive disorders, according to a randomized, placebo-controlled study published in the Journal of Clinical Psychiatry.
“Comorbidity of anxiety and depression is associated with poorer outcomes for both illnesses, including greater severity, protracted course and more functional impairment than with either alone,” Nisha Ravindran, MD, of the Centre for Addiction and Mental Health in Toronto, and colleagues wrote.
Researchers sought to assess the safety and tolerability of quetiapine in conjunction with customary first-line medications prescribed for patients with major depressive disorder, other depressive disorders and comorbid anxiety disorders.
The study was conducted as a multicenter trial between June 2008 and June 2013, involving 76 adults who had been diagnosed with unipolar depression and at least one other anxiety disorder according to DSM-4-TR criteria.
Participants were given flexible doses of extended-release quetiapine (between 50 and 300 mg) or placebo for 12 weeks in a 2:1 ratio. Assessments were made over the course of the trial for levels of depression, anxiety, life satisfaction and any adverse events.
Results showed that depression, anxiety and functionality improved markedly in both the quetiapine and placebo groups. Ravindran and colleagues found that quetiapine outperformed placebo in improving both depression (-3.64; 95% CI, -7.01 to -0.27) and anxiety symptoms (-4.02; 95% CI, -7.41 to -0.64).
Quetiapine also produced greater, but not statistically significant, improvement over placebo in secondary outcomes across several metrics measured by standard depression scales and self-reporting questionnaires. The drug was well tolerated, with only reports of minor adverse effects.
“Evaluating this treatment strategy for other common comorbidities (e.g., [social anxiety disorder], PTSD) to depression, both unipolar and bipolar, would be of benefit to those difficult-to-treat patients,” Ravindran and colleagues wrote.