Effexor Shows Rapid Onset Of Efficacy Versus Prozac

A study comparing the onset of antidepressant activity with aggressivedoses of Wyeth-Ayerst's serotonin/noradrenaline reuptake inhibitor Effexor (venlafaxine) and Eli Lilly's serotonin reuptake inhibitor Prozac (fluoxetine) has found that venlafaxine achieves a more rapid response.

The 460-patient study was presented at a Wyeth-sponsored satellite symposium to the European College of Neuropsychopharmacology in Paris, and showed (for the first time in a prospective controlled trial) that pharmacological treatment could achieve an antidepressant response after just one week of treatment in some patients.

David Bakish, professor of psychiatry at the University of Ottawa in Ontario, Canada, told the Marketletter that an antidepressant with a rapid onset of action could make a critical difference in some subsets of depressive patients, such as those who are at high risk of committing suicide. Between 40% and 60% of depressed patients have suicidal ideation, he said, and 20% of these would be considered at high risk of killing themselves.