Outcome of different types of long-term antidepressant treatments: a 3-year follow-up study of 14182 patients.

Background: Antidepressant efficacy studies are rare in large populations for prolonged periods.

Methods: The efficacy of antidepressants was investigated by using disability pensions due to major affective disorders as the efficacy variable from a large Finnish population (n = 14182) during a 3-year follow-up.

Results: Of all males, 345 (6.0%) were receiving disability pension due to major affective disorder, and of all females, 498 (5.9%). A logistic regression analysis showed a significantly higher risk (age-adjusted ORs, 1.42-4.09) for disability pension in every antidepressant group except the amitriptyline group when compared with fluoxetine group. Those who used a combination of antidepressive agents (age-adjusted OR 4.09) or moclobemide (age-adjusted OR 2.18) had the highest risks.

Conclusions: In the study population fluoxetine and amitriptyline were the most efficient antidepressants in the long-term treatment of depression.