Comparison of escitalopram with citalopram in treatment of depression / 中国医师杂志

ABSTRACT

Objective To evaluate efficacy and safety of escitalopram in treating depression .Methods In this randomized , single-blind, citalopram parallel controlled, fixed dosage study, the study group was treated with escitalopram tablet 10mg/d and the control group with citalopram tablet 20mg/d.Observation duration was 6 weeks.Hamilton Rating Scale for Depression ( 17-item HAMD),Clinical Global Impression (CGI) and Hamilton Rating Scale for Anxiety (HAMA) were used to measure the efficacy.Items including Treatment Emergent Symptoms Scale (TESS), lab examination and vital signs for assessment of safety .Results Eighty-eight patients were randomly divided into study group (43 patients) and control group (45 patients).After 6 weeks treatment, a signif-icant greater reduction in HAMD 17 ,CGI-SI and HAMA total score was found for both study group and control group showing significant difference with their baseline ( P 0.05 ) .However , after 1 week treatment , the HAMD17 and CGI-SI score reductions between two groups were significant difference ( P 0.05 ) .In study group , the positive response rates was 81.4%,and in controls was 80.8%, there was no significant difference between two groups ( P >0.05 ) .There was no significant difference about the incidence of adverse reaction between two groups ( P >0.05 ) .Conclusions Escitalopram is a safe and effective antidepressant as citalopram , however , it has a more rapid reaction than the latter .