Control study of mirtazapine versus sertraline in the treatment of depression

Objective To evaluate the therapeutic effect and safety of mirtazapine and sertraline in treatment of depression.Methods66 patients with diagnosis of depressive disorder according to ICD-10 criteria were randomized into mirtazapine group and sertraline group,which were treated with mirtazapine(15～45mg/d) and sertraline(20-40mg/d) respectively for 6 weeks.Atidepressive effect and side effect were evaluated with 17-item Hamilton depression rating scale for depresssion(HAMD-17) and treatment emergent symptom scale(TESS).ResultsAt the end of 1st week,the score of HAMD in mirtazapine group was significantly lower than in sertraline group(P0.05).At the end of 6th week,there were no significant differences in effective rate(91.6% vs 88.2%) or recovery rate(62.5% vs 61.8%) between mirtazapine group and sertraline group(P0.05).The scores of TESS at every viewpoints in mirtazapine group were significantly lower than those in sertraline group(P0.05).ConclusionMirtazapine is a safe,effective antidepressant with rapid response.