Prediction of response to fluoxetine and placebo in children and adolescents with major depression: a hypothesis generating study

Background: The results of multivariate analyses to identify potential pred ictors of response to fluoxetine or placebo separately in 96 child and adol escent outpatients with major depressive disorder from a recent controlled trial are presented. Methods: A variety of clinical, demographic and labora tory factors were examined as possible predictors of response to fluoxetine or placebo using logistic regression models. Results: No single variable o r combination of variables strongly predicted response to fluoxetine. For t he placebo group, a younger age, a shorter duration of depressive episode, and a lower socioeconomic status predicted response with an overall predict ive power of 81%. Conclusions: This study is limited by the small sample si ze and should be considered hypothesis generating rather than confirming. ( C) 1999 Elsevier Science BN. All rights reserved.