Comparison of Effect of and Venlafaxine in Treating Depression: A Double Blind Clinical Trial.

INTRODUCTION

Major depressive disorder is a chronic disease which may be associated with other mental illnesses. and venlafaxine, herbal and chemical drugs respectively, are used to treat depression. Despite pharmacotherapy, major depressive disorder has a complicated pattern of resistance and recurrence.

AIM

The aim of this study was to determine the effect of and venlafaxine in treating depression.

MATERIALS AND METHODS

For this study, 120 patients referred to the psychiatry clinic of the Shahrekord University of Medical Sciences, Shahrekord, Iran, were randomly selected. The participants were randomly assigned to three groups: venlafaxine (Control Group), venlafaxine + ( Group), and venlafaxine + placebo (Placebo Group). All the patients underwent treatment for six weeks. Depression test was administered to the three groups at different time intervals before the treatment, four weeks after the treatment and at completion of the treatment. The data were analysed by SPSS version17.0.

RESULTS

Depression scores of all the groups decreased over time (p=0.001). The depression scores were significantly different between the control and groups (p=0.004), and the control and placebo groups (p=0.002), but were not significantly different between the and placebo groups (p=0.95).

CONCLUSION

Adding or a placebo is equally effective in decreasing mean depression score and venlafaxine obviously decreased this score.