Korean J Psychopharmacol.
2010 Jan;21(1):5-13.
Antidepressants in the Treatment of Various Subtypes of Depressive Disorders
- Affiliations
-
- 1Department of Neuropsychiatry and Stress Research Institute, College of Medicine, Inje University, Seoul, Korea.
- 2Department of Psychiatry, College of Medicine, The Catholic University of Korea, Seoul, Korea. wmbahk@catholic.ac.kr
Abstract
- Depressive disorders have many faces in clinical features, long-term course, prognosis, and the patients with depressive disorders are not homogeneous group. So, there have been many subtypes of depression suggested and described by clinicians and researchers. But, there is few evidences which support unique pathophysiology and clinical implication about each subtype. The treatment of various subtype of depression is not also specified according to scientific evidence. Nowadays, the rapid development of psychopharmacology and many new antidepressants are making it more possible for clinician to choose antidepressant according to the subtypes of depression and to the characteristics of patients. Therefore, we reviewed the clinical evidence of the treatment for various subtypes of depressive disorders and tried to recommend more efficient antidepressant treatment, although there is a few data for subtypes of depressive disorders. We concluded that the specific choice of antidepressant for each subtypes of depression is not yet possible, because the current subtyping of depression is not clear in many aspects, and the clinical trials have focused mainly in depression in a whole. From now on, more efforts is needed about the more specified subtyping and more specified treatment in order to get more efficacy, safety, and the satisfaction of patients with depressive disorders.
