Relapse in recurrent unipolar depression.

Treatment of the acute phase of recurrent depression has become both routine and successful in the last decade, but the rates of relapse and recurrence remain a problem. In this study a combined psychopharmacologic/psychotherapeutic approach to the acute and continuation treatment of unipolar depressed patients was used. For 59 patients who completed the continuation phase of treatment, the relapse rate after 8 weeks of recovery was 8.5%. Since other recent studies of recurrent depression have reported relapse rates of 15%-22%, these results suggest that there are advantages in combined treatment.