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Professor David J. Demko, gerontologist and editor AgeVenture News Service, Boca Raton, Florida 05-24-2000 Psychotherapy combined with the antidepressant Serzone improved mood in 85 percent of chronically depressed patients, says a study by UT Southwestern Medical Center at Dallas. Dr. John Rush and Dr. Madhukar Trivedi concluded that this combination therapy was overwhelmingly more effective than either medication or psychotherapy alone for treating chronic depression. The patients in the study had each been depressed continuously for at least two years; most had experienced chronic depression for an average of 20 years. Over the 12-week study period, 55 percent of the Serzone-only group reported a positive response, and 52 percent of the psychotherapy-only group experienced a treatment response, whereas 85 percent of those who took both Serzone and psychotherapy had a positive response to treatment. Serzone is traditionally prescribed for the acute treatment of depression, as well as prevention of relapse in patients treated for depression. Those who took the drug, either alone or in combination with psychotherapy, reported improvement in mood much sooner than those in psychotherapy only. Patients taking Serzone did not experience the side effects of weight gain or sexual dysfunction typical of most antidepressants and reported improvement in insomnia, which is common among chronically depressed patients. With 14 million Americans suffering from chronic depression, Trivedi hopes that insurance companies are taking note. "We expect that our findings will help with our battles about paying for the most effective treatments for depression," he said. Depression costs the U.S. economy $53 billion each year. This approach has proven the kind of treatment we should be using with our chronically depressed patients." Dr. Martin Keller, chairman of psychiatry and human behavior at Brown University, is the study coordinator. Bristol-Myers Squibb Company, manufacturer of Serzone, funded the study. See related articles in the AgeVenture archives. AgeVenture Lifestyle Features AgeVenture Headline News
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