[Comparison of the Hamilton Depression Rating Scale and the Self Rating Scale BS (v. Zerssen) within a double blind study on the antidepressant effects of trazodone verus amitriptyline (author's transl)].

From October 1977 until March 1978 a prospective study was performed on 30 depressive patients of both sexes, age 20 to 60 years. In a double-blind design patients received either amitriptyline or trazodone for 28 days. The course of therapy was controlled six times by means of the Hamilton Rating Scale for Depression (HRS) and the Zerssen-Contentment Scale (BS). The following results were obtained: By the statistical analysis of the HRs scores no difference in the antidepressant properties of trazodone and amitriptyline can be demonstrated. The same result is obtained by use of the BS scores. Therefore the antidepressant efficacy of the two medications can be called equal. When comparing day 10 to day 0, a correlation between the two data pools of RSp = 0.719 (p less than 0.01) according to Spearmen was found. Upon comparing the 28th day with the pre-treatment day, RSp comes out to be 0.809. When applying Anova no significant correlation for the pre-treatment day can be demonstrated (RL = 0.260); yet at the end of the study the correlation comes out to be extremely high (RL = 0.940, p less than 0.1). When considering each day of the study, RL results to be 0.808 (p less than 0.001). Thus, a high correlation can be demonstrated for the HRS and BS.