63,64 In another trial, Fava et al65 added CBT to patients who experienced a response but not a remission to sertraline and found similar results. Paykel et al66 randomly assigned 158 patients with major depression who had experienced only partial remission with at least 8 weeks of antidepressant treatment (either fluoxetine or a TCA) to continue monotherapy with the antidepressant or receive Inhibitors,research,lifescience,medical 20 sessions of CT in addition to continuing antidepressant treatment for 1 year. While 47% of patients selleck products receiving only antidepressant treatment

relapsed, only 29% of patients receiving combination treatment relapsed (P=0.02). Our own group observed a substantial advantage for sequencing IPT and the combination as opposed to combination therapy from the outset in an effort to achieve sustained remission.67 We noted that when combination therapy was provided from the outset Inhibitors,research,lifescience,medical of treatment to a group of patients with moderately severe episodes of recurrent depression, 66% achieved sustained remission of symptoms, while when we took the approach of adding pharmacotherapy to the IPT of patients who appeared unable to Inhibitors,research,lifescience,medical achieve full remission with IPT alone, 78.6% achieved remission (x 2=6.55, P=0.02). Our interpretation of this finding is that the failure

to achieve remission with IPT monotherapy stands as a kind of marker for those most likely to benefit from the addition of pharmacotherapy. On the basis of our results and those of other groups, we see the sequencing of monotherapy followed by combination Inhibitors,research,lifescience,medical when monotherapy alone falls to bring about remission as a particularly

efficient strategy and one that is likely to lead to considerable cost savings as compared with a strategy that involves treating all patients with a pharmacotherapy-psychotherapy combination from the outset of acute treatment. Maintenance treatment: sequential strategies to preventing relapse and recurrence As noted above, Fava and colleagues have been interested in the protective effect of the addition of cognitive therapy for patients with unipolar Inhibitors,research,lifescience,medical depression. For instance, in a series also of reports investigating the long-term protective effects of CBT, Fava and colleagues63,64 demonstrated that providing a short course of CT to patients with highly recurrent depression and who had already responded to antidepressant treatment was additive: 25% of patients in the CT group relapsed compared with 80% of patients in the clinical management group by year 2. In another report, Fava and colleagues17 demonstrated that, following successful antidepressant treatment and discontinuation, only 35% of patients who received CT during drug discontinuation relapsed compared with 70% of patients who received only clinical management. Our own group has examined the benefit of maintenance IPT in combination with pharmacotherapy in both midlife and elderly patients.