One year real world prospective follow-up study of a major depressive episode of patients treated with paroxetine and pindolol or paroxetine for 6 weeks.

The objective of our study was an assessment of outcome in a 1 year 'real world', prospective follow-up study of patients who were treated with paroxetine 20 mg plus pindolol 7.5 mg or paroxetine 20 mg plus placebo for 6 weeks. Eighty patients recruited to a double-blind placebo-controlled randomized 6 weeks study of paroxetine and pindolol were followed up for 6 months and interviewed after 1 year. A Kaplan-Meier survival analysis of the patients who relapsed having taken paroxetine and pindolol, compared with those who relapsed having taken paroxetine and placebo, shows that the pindolol group had a better clinical outcome. After 1 year patients who had responded to medication by 2 weeks had done better than the rest and they had been more compliant with medication for 6 months. There are indications that the earlier a patient responds to medication, the better the long-term outcome.