IMPROVEMENT IN SUBJECTIVE WORK PERFORMANCE AFTER TREATMENT OF CHRONICDEPRESSION - SOME PRELIMINARY-RESULTS

We analyzed the relationship between depression and patient-assessed o r clinician-rated work performance among chronically depressed patient s followed for 12 weeks in a large clinical trial. The data were colle cted in a double-blind design comparing sertraline, a selective seroto nin reuptake inhibitor, with imipramine, a tricyclic antidepressant, i n 12 academic centers nationwide, Incorporating work-related questions from a portfolio of rating scales used to assess depression, we const ructed several measures of work performance, assessed at baseline and at Week 12 of the clinical investigation, and examined how they change d with improvement in depressive symptoms. As depressive symptoms subs ided following treatment, patients reported substantial improvement in our measures of work performance. Eighty-six percent of the cohort re ported some improvement from baseline to Week 12, The extent of improv ement in work performance correlates highly with improvement in the de pressive symptoms measured on the Hamilton Rating Scale for Depression . Treatment of depression with antidepressant medications resulted in substantial improvement in subjective work performance among the patie nts studied.