CLINICAL-EVALUATION OF VENLAFAXINE

Recent studies have shown venlafaxine to be an effective first-line ag ent for patients who have depression of varying severity. Two represen tative clinical trials to assess the efficacy of venlafaxine were revi ewed: one in severely ill hospitalized patients and the other in outpa tients. Efficacy was assessed using scores on several rating scales fo r 93 inpatients in the placebo-controlled trial and 224 outpatients in the active-control trial. Demographics and baseline scores were simil ar among study patients in each trial. In both trials, venlafaxine was significantly more effective than placebo. The study of inpatients de monstrated a rapid onset of antidepressant efficacy of venlafaxine and a reduction in comorbid symptoms of anxiety. In the study of outpatie nts, anticholinergic side effects commonly associated with tricyclic a ntidepressants such as imipramine were not found to be associated with venlafaxine, although some nausea occurred, Results of these clinical studies confirm those of previous studies that have shown venlafaxine to be an effective first-line agent for the management of depression in both hospitalized patients and outpatients.