%0 Journal Article
%T History of suicide attempts among patients with depression in the GENDEP project
%J Journal of affective disorders
%D 2010
%A Perroud, N.
%A Uher, R.
%A Hauser, Joanna
%A Rietschel, Marcella
%A Henigsberg, Neven
%A Placentino, Anna
%A Kozel, Dejan
%A Maier, W.
%A Mors, Ole
%A Souery, Daniel
%A Dmitrzak-Weglarz, Monika
%A Jorgensen, Lisbeth
%A Kovacic, Z.
%A Giovannini, Caterina
%A Mendlewicz, J.
%A Zobel, Astrid
%A Strohmaier, Jana
%A McGuffin, P.
%A Aitchison, K. J.
%A Farmer, A.
%V 123
%N 1-3
%P 131-137
%X BACKGROUND: It has been proposed that a history of suicide attempts could be a correlate of severe depressive disorder and that suicide attempters (SA) could represent a particular subtype of subjects suffering from major depressive disorder. We investigated clinical and demographic characteristics associated with SA and tested the hypothesis that a history of suicide attempts predicts poor response to antidepressants. METHODS: One-hundred-and-forty-one SA and 670 non-SA subjects with major depressive disorder (MDD) were treated for twelve weeks with escitalopram or nortriptyline in GENDEP, a part-randomized multi-center clinical and pharmacogenetic study. Baseline characteristics were compared using linear and logistic regression. Linear mixed models were used to analyse continuous outcomes during the twelve weeks of follow-up. RESULTS: At baseline, SA subjects suffered from more severe depression (mean Montgomery-Asberg Depression Rating Scale: 30.29 (7.61) vs 28.43 (6.54), p=0.0002), reported higher level of suicidal ideation (1.21 (0.82) vs 0.73 (0.48), p<0.0001), had a younger age of onset and experienced more depressive episodes, had higher harm avoidance scores and poorer socio-demographic environment than non-SA individuals. However, during the twelve weeks of treatment and after adjustment for baseline severity of depression there was no difference in treatment response between SA and non-SA. LIMITATIONS: Due to its retrospective design, it is possible that more severely depressed subjects might report more suicide attempts than less depressed individuals. CONCLUSIONS: While SA differed from non-SA in several clinical and demographic characteristics, the antidepressants were similarly effective in SA as in comparably severely depressed subjects without a history of suicide attempts.<p /> <p>Language: en</p>
%G en
%I Elsevier Publishing
%@ 0165-0327
%U http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.jad.2009.09.001