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Early improvement predicts 8‐week treatment outcome in patients with generalized anxiety disorder treated with escitalopram or venlafaxine
Author(s) -
Qian Mincai,
Shen Zhongxia,
Lin Min,
Guan Tiefeng,
Yang Jianhong,
Li Liang,
Shen Xinhua,
Yuan Yonggui
Publication year - 2017
Publication title -
asia‐pacific psychiatry
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.654
H-Index - 21
eISSN - 1758-5872
pISSN - 1758-5864
DOI - 10.1111/appy.12270
Subject(s) - escitalopram , venlafaxine , generalized anxiety disorder , anxiety , rating scale , psychology , medicine , hamilton anxiety rating scale , psychiatry , antidepressant , developmental psychology
Abstract Introduction To investigate whether early improvement can predict 8‐week treatment outcome in generalized anxiety disorder (GAD) patients. Methods For 8 weeks, 226 GAD patients were randomly treated with escitalopram or venlafaxine. Early improvement was defined as a ≧20% reduction from baseline in Hamilton anxiety rating scale at week 1 or 2. The positive and negative predictive values were calculated. Results The positive and negative predictive values of early improvement in escitalopram or venlafaxine group at week 1 were (85.19%, 67.53%) vs (84.62%, 65.33%) Discussion The early improvement achieved within the first week treatment can predict a good 8‐week treatment outcome in GAD patients.