Significant improvement in the quality of life of Brazilian depressed outpatients 12 weeks following the start of antidepressants

• Published in: Psychiatry research Vol. 153; no. 3; pp. 253 - 259
• Main Authors: Berlim, Marcelo T, Pargendler, Joana, Brenner, Juliana, Fleck, Marcelo P.A
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Shannon Elsevier Ireland Ltd 03-12-2007; Elsevier
• Subjects: Adult; Adult and adolescent clinical studies; Aged; Ambulatory Care; Antidepressive Agents - therapeutic use; Biological and medical sciences; Brazil - ethnology; Depression; Depressive Disorder, Major - diagnosis; Depressive Disorder, Major - drug therapy; Depressive Disorder, Major - ethnology; Ethnic Groups - psychology; Ethnic Groups - statistics & numerical data; Female; Follow-Up Studies; Health Status; Humans; Male; Medical sciences; Middle Aged; Mood disorders; Neuropharmacology; Personality Inventory - statistics & numerical data; Pharmacology. Drug treatments; Psychiatry; Psychoanaleptics: cns stimulant, antidepressant agent, nootropic agent, mood stabilizer; Psychoanaleptics: cns stimulant, antidepressant agent, nootropic agent, mood stabilizer..., (alzheimer disease); Psychology. Psychoanalysis. Psychiatry; Psychopathology. Psychiatry; Psychopharmacology; Quality of Life; Regression Analysis; Severity of Illness Index; Surveys and Questionnaires; Treatment Outcome; Brazil; Treatment outcome; Depression; Quality of life; Mood disorder; Human; Chemotherapy; Treatment; Psychotropic; Antidepressant agent
• ISSN: 0165-1781; 1872-7123
• DOI: 10.1016/j.psychres.2006.07.006

Abstract Studies on the impact of depression should go beyond estimating its prevalence and the severity of symptoms to include investigations that seek to establish how it influences the quality of life (QOL) of the affected individuals. Although some depression trials have included QOL measures, assessments were mostly retrospective and relatively infrequent. In the present investigation, 73 patients presenting a severe episode of major depression were assessed by the WHOQOL BREF and the Beck Depression Inventory (BDI) at the start of antidepressant treatment and again after a mean of 12 weeks. After analyses, depressed patients' QOL scores significantly improved in all the assessed domains (i.e., physical health, psychological, social relations, environmental, and overall QOL) over the study period. Additionally, there was a significant improvement in depressive symptoms between test and retest. Effect sizes for these differences ranged from 0.49 to 1.08 (i.e., medium to large effects). After multiple regression analyses, age, psychiatric comorbidity, and depressions scores were independent predictors of some of the QOL domains (i.e., physical, psychological, and overall). In conclusion, antidepressant treatment seems to be associated with significant improvements in multiple QOL domains in patients with severe major depression. However, our findings are preliminary and suggest that additional controlled and long-term studies are needed.