RESUMO
OBJECTIVES: This study is to assess the effects of adjuvant therapy of atypical antipsychotics on the change clinical symptoms in patients with major depressive disorder. METHODS: We conducted a chart review of patients, who visited a university hospital. Ninety seven patients were divided into two groups : patients with adjuvant use of antipsychotics with antidepressants (AD+AAP ; n=32) and patients with only antidepressants (AD ; n=65). We compared and analyzed three clinical domains including depressive symptoms, anxiety symptoms and sleep qualities between two groups. Depressive symptoms, Anxiety symptoms, and sleep pattern were evaluated by Beck's Depression Inventory (BDI), Beck's Anxiety Inventory (BAI), and Pittsburgh Sleep Quality Index (PSQI) at baseline (first day of admission) and 1 year later. RESULTS: During 1 year, the BDI scores of AD+AAP group has been greatly decreased, compared to AD group (F=5.87, p=0.02). In the comparison of patients with severe symptoms of major depressive disorder (BDI score >21), there was significant difference in the change of BDI score between AD+AAP and AD (F=4.14, p=0.04). After 1 year, there were no significant differences in BAI score change (F=0.51, p=0.47), PSQI score change (F=0.89, p=0.35) between two group. However, the duration of adjunctive therapy and the type of atypical antipsychotics would not impact the results. CONCLUSION: Current study suggested that adjuvant therapy of atypical antipsychotics would be effective on depressive symptoms in patients with severe major depressive disorder, compared to the treatment with antidepressants alone.