No statistical comparison was published between the active treatment groups but visual inspection of the figures in the publication16 does not suggest such differences. The response rates in patients treated

for at least 3 weeks were 52.8%, 60.6%, and 48.4% on fluoxetine 20, 40, and 60 mg/day, respectively, and significantly Mdm2 inhibitor different for each group of active substance from the 27.3% response on placebo on the HAMD. In a second study by Wernicke et al17 in a different patient population (Table) J, fluoxetine 5, 20, and Inhibitors,research,lifescience,medical 40 mg/day were more effective than placebo on change on the HAMD total score on ITT-LOCF at the end of 6 weeks. No statistical comparison was made between fluoxetine 5, Inhibitors,research,lifescience,medical 20, and 40 mg/day, but visual inspection of the data in the publication17 suggest that there was no difference. The weekly analysis with patients who remained in the study showed more efficacy for the 3 doses of fluoxetine compared with placebo on change on the HAMD total score at the end of 6 weeks. No statistical comparison was shown between the active treatment groups but visual inspection

Inhibitors,research,lifescience,medical of the figures in the publication17 did not suggest any differences. The response rates in patients treated for at least 3 weeks were 54.4%, 64.3%, and 64.7% on 5, 20, and 40 mg/day, respectively, which were significantly different for each group with active treatment from the 32.7% response on placebo on the HAMD. Beasley et al23 pooled the data from the two studies by Wernicke et al.16’17 They found that the efficacy of fluoxetine 60 mg/day did not differ from placebo, and that Inhibitors,research,lifescience,medical there were no significant differences among the doses of 5, 20, and 40 mg/day on change on the HAMD total score on ITT-LOCF. Response rate (49.4% for 5 mg/day and 54% for 20 mg/day) and remission rate defined as HAMD total score decreased to 10 or less after at least 3 weeks Inhibitors,research,lifescience,medical (40.2% for 5 mg/day and 43.5% for 20 mg/day)

showed a similar pattern. The authors concluded that fluoxetine 5 mg/day might be a threshold dose for therapeutic efficacy. The study by Fabre and Putman24 (not included Cell press in Table I) included patients with different degrees of depression. In the 38 patients with mild illness (HAMD of 14 to 19), with 20 who completed the study, there was no significant improvement at any of the fluoxetine dose level of 20, 40, or 60 mg/day compared with placebo at the end of 6 weeks. In the 46 patients with moderate-to-severe depression (HAMD of >20), with 27 who completed the study, change in the HAMD total score was not significantly different between active treatment groups, but was significantly different for the placebo group compared with all fluoxetine dose groups, except for the 40-mg/day group. Dunlop et al25 have studied 372 patients with mild depression (HAMD of 15 to 19) (not included in Table I.