QUALITY-OF-LIFE IN DEPRESSED-PATIENTS - COMPARISON OF FLUOXETINE AND MAJOR TRICYCLIC ANTIDEPRESSANTS

Quality of life ia one of the effectiveness measures used to assess th e impact of medical interventions. This gaper describes results of a s tudy on quality of life of depressed patients treated with fluoxetine or tricyclic antidepressants (TCAs) such as amitriptyline and clomipra mine. The quality of life of patients was measured using the Short For m (SF-36), a widely accepted and validated questionnaire. Depressed pa tients (n = 845) were observed using a cross-sectional design. Patient s who had been under treatment for at least I week (amitriptyline, clo mipramine or fluoxetine) and met the DSM-III-R criteria for major depr essive disorder were included. Similar sociodemographic profiles were found across treatment groups. However, more patients with a history o f depression were found in the TCA vs the fluoxetine group. Compliance was dramatically lower and length of treatment higher for TCA-treated groups. Controlling for confounding variables, the TCA-treated group also scored lower than the fluoxetine-treated one for general health p erception, and social and physical functioning. These differences are not explained by symptom severity since Hamilton scores mere similar a cross treatment groups. These results suggest that fluoxetine treatmen t may be associated with higher le, els of social functioning and heal th perception than usual TCA treatment.