Changing anti-depressants may be effective

CAMBRIDGE, Mass., April 1 (UPI) -- U.S. psychiatrists say they've found depressed people not responding to an anti-depressant should switch to a different type of medicine.

Researchers from Harvard, the University of Pittsburgh and the University of Pennsylvania pooled results from four studies that examined people whose depressive symptoms didn't respond to treatment with a type of anti-depressant called a selective serotonin reuptake inhibitor, or SSRI. Fluoxetine (Prozac), citalopram (Celexa) and sertraline (Zoloft) are frequently used SSRIs, the scientists said.

Some patients who didn't respond were switched to another SSRI, while others were switched to a different class of anti-depressant medicines, such as venlafaxine (Effexor) or buproprion (Wellbutrin or Zyban).

Harvard Professor Dr. George Papakostas, one of the study's authors, said the results showed switching from a selective serotonin reuptake inhibitor to a drug with a different mechanism of action was found to be slightly more effective and slightly less-well tolerated than switching to another SSRI drug.

The study appears in the journal Biological Psychiatry.