Psychometric Assessment of the Therapeutic Efficiency of Antidepressant Agents

Abstract

A clinical trial of four weeks duration was conducted involving a total of thirty depressed patients, of both sexes, aged between twenty and thirty-four years. The total number of patients was divided into three groups of ten patients each. One group received amitriptyline, the second group was administered noxiptyline and the third group was given dibenzepine. All drugs were administered orally. Patients were submitted to psychometric testing before and after drug administration. The tests used included the 'Hamilton Rating Scale for depression', the 'Hildreth Feeling Scale' and the 'D Scale' and the 'Trail Making Test' for the evaluation of psychomotor retardation. It was concluded that the Hamilton Rating Scale was the most relatively sensitive test utilized in assessing the depressive state and its improvement. Amitriptyline was found to be mostly anxiolytic; noxiptyline controlled both depression and anxiety to approximately the same extent; and dibenzepine was found to be a mood-elevating drug with an energizing action.

Antidepressants and memory: A review

“…Of these, 14 did not involve any measures that could be considered memory tests. However, it is noteworthy that one paper reported improvement in test performance in association with amitriptyline (Kupietz and Balka, 1976), and one no effect (Elwan et al, 1976) and the remainder reported detrimental effects of the drug (Landauer et al, 1969;Seppala et al, 1975;Seppala, 1977;Bye et al, 1978;Crome and Newman, 1978;Chan et al, 1980;Scott et al, 1982;Culig et al, 1983;Hindmarch et al, 1983;Linnoila et al, 1983;Hanks, 1984;Burns et al, 1986). Of the fifteen studies including memory tests (see Table l), nine involved administration to healthy volunteers ranging from 25 mg to 75 mg, all but one as a single dose.…”

Non-MAOI antidepressant drugs and cognitive functions: a review

“…Deficits in test scores, however, were recorded when alcohol was taken in addition; these impairments were greater than those observed following alcohol alone (Linnoila et al 1975). Four weeks of dibenzapine (240-480 mg/day) and 4 weeks of noxiptyline (150-300 mg/day) given to depressed patients did not interfere with their performance on a tracking test (Elwan et al 1976). Liljequist et al (1981) reported that maprotiline retarded the learning rate in some individuals on a paired associates learning test, and that the occurrence of such an effect was related to subjective reports of the degree of sedation experienced.…”

“…Only one study reviewed failed to detect any influence of this drug on psychological performance. Elwan et al (1976) prescribed 75-150 mg a day to 10 depressed patients for 4 weeks. This treatment regime did not significantly alter patients' performance on a tracking task, the authors' sole measure of mental function.…”

“…Two studies involved unipolar endogenous depressives (Aminet al 1980;Sternberg&Jarvik, 1976). The other studies involved bipolar affective disorder and unipolar depressives (Henry et al 1973); patients with primary depression (Glass et al 1978); neurotic depressives (Seppala et al 1978); patients complaining of 'various depressive syndromes' (Elwan et al 1976); depression as the primary symptom (Legg & Stiff, 1976); patients with a depressive state of at least one month's duration, half the sample having additional diagnoses, for instance personality disorders and schizophrenia (Rothman et al 1962); patients with a primary diagnosis of anxiety or depressive reaction, with 40% of the sample having been referred from an alcoholic treatment unit (Pishkin et al 1978). Even when the authors defined the sample of patients tested, interpretation is further complicated because of controversy and confusion over the classification of depression, and the criteria used by the authors are usually not specified.…”