Escitalopram in clinical practice in Greece: treatment response and tolerability in depressed patients

OBJECTIVE: To evaluate the effectiveness and tolerability of escitalopram (10-20 mg/day) in adult outpatients suffering from major depressive disorder in naturalistic settings. METHODS: An open-label, 3-month, surveillance study was conducted in 434 investigative sites in Greece enrolling 5175 patients. Clinical Global Impression-Severity (CGI-S) scale and patient-rated Sheehan Disability Scale (SDS) were used as efficacy measurements and treatment discontinuation rates due to adverse events was used to assess tolerability. RESULTS: Clinically significant improvement in CGI-S scores was recorded after 3 months. At baseline, patients reported marked or extreme disability for work (38%), social life (41%) and family life (37%), whereas after 3 months of treatment, 80.6%, 79.5% and 83.5% of patients indicated either no or mild disability, respectively. Escitalopram had good tolerability, demonstrated by a very low rate of discontinuations due to adverse events. CONCLUSION: In this large naturalistic study, escitalopram was well tolerated and improved both depressive symptoms and function.