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Longitudinal analysis of the suicidal behaviour risk in short-term placebo-controlled studies of mirtazapine in major depressive disorder.

Author(s): Kasper S, Montgomery SA, Moller HJ, van Oers HJ, Jan Schutte A, Vrijland P, van der Meulen EA

Affiliation(s): Department of Psychiatry and Psychotherapy, Medical University of Vienna, Vienna, Austria. sci-biolpsy@meduniwien.ac.at

Publication date & source: 2010-02, World J Biol Psychiatry., 11(1):36-44.

Publication type: Randomized Controlled Trial

OBJECTIVE: To examine suicidal behaviour risk in the short-term placebo-controlled studies of mirtazapine in Major Depressive Disorder (MDD). METHOD: Longitudinal Generalized Estimating Equations analyses were performed on pooled data from 15 placebo-controlled, randomized, double-blind, short-term trials of mirtazapine, using the suicide item scores from the Hamilton Depression Rating Scale (HAMD) as a proxy outcome measure for suicidality risk. RESULTS: The overall analysis using the convention that a patient is at risk if the HAMD suicide item score is > or =3, and excluding patients at risk at baseline, demonstrated a statistically significantly lower risk for mirtazapine- compared to placebo-treated patients on the HAMD (odds ratio mirtazapine versus placebo 0.38; 95% confidence interval 0.21-0.66; P= 0.0008). CONCLUSION: Our results based on pooled data from 15 placebo-controlled, short-term studies of mirtazapine in MDD using the suicide item scores from the HAMD as a proxy outcome measure for suicidality risk, demonstrate that mirtazapine was associated with statistically significantly lower suicidality risk compared to placebo.

Page last updated: 2010-10-05

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