SOCIODEMOGRAPHIC PREDICTORS OF RESPONSE TO ANTIDEPRESSANT TREATMENT

Objective: Our goal was to assess whether sociodemographic variables s uch as gender, marital status, level of education, and employment stat us are related to the changes in social functioning that have been rep orted after drug treatment in outpatients with major depressive disord er. Method: Eligible subjects were 166 depressed outpatients participa ting in a study involving open treatment with fluoxetine 20 mg/day for eight weeks. Diagnosis of major depressive disorder was made with the use of the Structured Clinical Interview for DSM-III-R-Patient Editio n (SCID-P), and patients were required to have a seventeen-item Hamilt on Rating Scale for Depression (HAM-D-17) score greater than or equal to 16 at study entry. All subjects were administered the HAM-D-17 and the Social Adjustment Scale-Self-Report (SAS-SR) before and after trea tment with fluoxetine. Results: We found that SAS-SR scores decreased significantly following treatment with fluoxetine from a mean score at baseline of 2.6 +/- 0.7 to a mean score at endpoint of 2.3 +/- 0.6. A fter adjusting for the degree of change in HAM-D-17 scores, we found a significant relationship between degree of change in SAS-SR and level of education. No statistically significant relationships were observe d between SAS-SR change and age, gender, marital status, and employmen t status. Conclusion: The degree of improvement in psychosocial functi oning observed in depressed outpatients following antidepressant treat ment appears to be related to the level of education at study entry, b ut not to other sociodemographic variables. Further studies need to in vestigate the nature of this relationship.