Response to treatment with antidepressants of patients with severe or moderate nonpsychotic depression and of patients with psychotic depression.

Overview

Hospitalized patients were divided into nonpsychotic severely depressed (N = 53), nonpsychotic moderately depressed (N = 54), and psychotic depressed (N = 25) groups and treated with either imipramine or amitriptyline, up to 250 mg/day, for 4 weeks. Good response occurred in 39% of the 38 severely depressed, 67% of the 49 moderately depressed, and 32% of the 19 psychotic depressed patients who completed treatment. The response of the patients with nonpsychotic severe depression did not differ significantly from the response of those with psychotic depression, and both groups fared worse than the group with nonpsychotic moderate depression.