A double-blind study of fluoxetine and imipramine in major depression.

Eighteen outpatients with major depression (diagnosis was made according to DSM-III criteria) were treated in a 5-week double-blind parallel group comparison of the new antidepressant fluoxetine with imipramine. From these results it can be shown that the drugs were comparable in efficacy, although because of the small sample size a moderate clinical difference between treatments may not have been detected. Imipramine and fluoxetine have already been compared in other studies, but never at such a low dosage (20 mg) for fluoxetine. At this dosage the fluoxetine safety profile seems to be very different from previous scheduled studies with higher dosages. In fact clinical efficacy seems to remain comparable while side-effects are significantly less frequent.