Gender differences in clinical profile, response and remission of depressive patients treated with venlafaxine extended release

Abstract

Introduction. The primary objectives of this study are to evaluate gender-specific differences in the clinical profile of primary care depressive patients as well as in the clinical response and remission to venlafaxine extended release.

Methods. We have analyzed a sample of 6,719 adult outpatients (1,713 men and 4,925 women) with diagnosis of depressive syndrome with associated anxiety symptoms included in an observational, prospective, multicenter and open study. Venlafaxine extended release was administered for 24 weeks at a dosage of 75-225 mg/day.

Results. In this study, we have not found overall differences regarding the baseline severity of the depressive episode, as assessed by means of the HAM-D17 and Clinical Global Impression Scale of Severity (CGI-S). However, women showed higher scores on items of the HAM-D17 and HAM-A scales related with anxious and somatic complaints at baseline and endpoint. The percentage of remission on the HAM-D17 scale reached 75.4% for men and 74.3% for women (p = 0.4339) at week 24. In the case of HAM-A: 84.1% vs. 80.6% (men vs. women, p=0.004).

Conclusions. We did not observe baseline differences in the mean score of the HAM-D17 nor the remission rates between women and men (HAM-D17) at the final visit. Women showed lower anxiety remission rates (HAM-A) and maintained more anxious and somatic complaints throughout the study.