[Review of studies of trazodone at the Feighner Research Institute in ambulatory and hospitalized patients].

The effectiveness of trazodone in the treatment of endogenous depression and related anxiety was reported by Pozzi et al. in 1967. Since that time other studies conducted primarily in Europe and Canada and in more recent years in the United States have confirmed the antidepressant properties of trazodone. We have conducted two major trials comparing the efficacy of trazodone under double blind circumstances, one involving seriously ill depressed inpatients with comparison to placebo and imipramine. The other compares imipramine and trazodone under double blind circumstances on a maintenance antidepressant study over 12 months. Both studies demonstrate that trazodone is an effective antidepressant and is statistically superior to placebo. In both studies, trazodone showed an overall trend of greater improvement with fewer dropouts than imipramine and on several parameters reached statistical superiority over imipramine.