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Organon Says Mirtazapine More Effective Than SSRIs

Posted by djmmm on October 1, 2003, at 17:16:46

Organon Says Mirtazapine More Effective Than SSRIs

LONDON (Reuters Health) Sept 22 - Organon's anti-depression drug Remeron SolTab (mirtazapine) works faster and is more effective than SSRIs, according to data on nearly 3000 patients released on Sunday.

Mirtazapine has a dual mechanism of action, enhancing noradrenaline and 5-HT transmission.

The new meta-analysis, presented at the 16th European College of Neuropsychopharmacology Congress in Prague, pooled the data from 12 clinical trials.

A total of 1485 patients were on mirtazapine and another 1485 patients were on SSRIs such as fluoxetine, paroxetine, citalopram, sertraline and fluvoxamine.

Michael Thase, professor of psychiatry at the University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine, said the findings showed that patients on mirtazapine "show a significantly quicker and significantly stronger response than patients receiving SSRIs."

For example, about 29% of patients on mirtazapine had responded to therapy after two weeks, compared with only 20% of patients on SSRIs. After four weeks, the response rates were 50% versus about 42%.

The time to first remission was significantly shorter with mirtazapine than with SSRIs, while the number of patients achieving remission was significantly larger with mirtazapine than SSRIs.

For example, about 12% of patients on mirtazapine were in remission after two weeks of therapy compared with about 7% of patients on SSRIs. After four weeks, it was 28% versus 22%.

"Onset of action of antidepressants can be considered a major factor for clinical success in the therapeutic treatment of depression," Dr. Thase said. "Patients often experience adverse events during the early weeks of treatment, so that a delayed onset hinders instant clinical improvement. Hence delayed onset can result in poor adherence to therapy."

The findings also showed that mirtazapine was significantly more effective than SSRIs in treating symptoms of anxiety, retardation and sleep disturbance.

There were no significant differences in rates of withdrawals from the study or adverse events between the two groups.


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