Clinical controlled study of citalopram versus amitriptyline in treatment of depressive disorder

Objective The purpose of this study was to investigate the clinical efficacy and adverse reactions of citalopram in the treatment of depressive disorder.Methods 46 patients with depressive disorder were randomly divided into two groups.The citalopram group of 23 patients was treated with citalopram 20～40mg/d -1 ,po,for 6 wk.The amitriptyline group of 23 patients was treated with amitriptyline 150～300mg/d -1 ,po,for 6 wk.HAMD were adopted to evaluate the efficacy.Safety was evaluate by TESS,laboratory and physical examination.Results After 6 wk treatment,the significant improvement rate and the response rate of citalopram group was 74% and 91%.The significant improvement rate and the response rate of amitriptyline group was 65% and 87% respectively.There were no significant differences between the two groups( P 0.05).However the adverse reactions of citalopram were lower and lighter than amitriptyline.Conclusion The results indicate that both citalopram and amitriptyline is effective in the treatment of depressive disorder,but citalopram showed more advantages for its convenient administration and low daily dosage and the adverse reactions of it were light.