Relapse after short-term drug therapy in neurotic outpatients.

A 6-month follow-up of 184 anxious depressed neurotic outpatients who reported improvement after controlled drug trials of several weeks duration revealed an astonishing relapse rate of 81% for anxious and 87% for depressed patients. Early as compared to late relapse was associated with more chronicity and less improvement at the end of the drug trial, while type of drug received did not affect relapse. Onset of relapse had no effect on help-seeking behavior. At time of follow-up, non-relapsed patients had lowest and untreated relapsed patients had highest symptom levels. It was concluded that short-term drug treatment alone does not represent sufficient therapy for chronic neurotic anxious or depressed outpatients.