ANTIDEPRESSANT THERAPY AND BEHAVIORAL COMPETENCE

Major depression can impair an individual's motivation to perform rout ine daily activities and cause a deterioration in cognitive and psycho motor function. Some antidepressants add to pathological dysfunction t hrough unwanted side-effects, Although most patients eventually recove r as a simultaneous consequence of tolerance and therapeutic response, some may not, Where side-effects continue to retard normal recovery t hey can be called behaviourally toxic, which can be classified as disr uptive, inhibitory or provocative, Disruptive behavioural toxic effect s are measured using either psychometric tests or simulations of real- life activities (for example, a driving test), There are no widely-acc epted tests for inhibitory or provocative behavioural toxicity, and as sessments of antidepressants are made on the basis of case studies, Th is review summarises the results of psychometric and real-life simulat ion tests and compares the effects of antidepressants on behaviour com petence. The purpose is to identify those drugs that seem to be the mo st and least likely to produce behavioural toxicity.