Successful Treatment of Recurrent Brief Depression with Reboxetine - A Single Case Analysis

Recurrent Brief Depression (RBD) is a prevalent condition among the depressive illnesses, and is characterized by depressive episodes of a few days' duration occurring almost every month that are unrelated to the menstruation cycle [1] [2]. So far, RBD has not been shown to respond to antidepressive treatment in controlled clinical trials with citalopram, fluoxetine, flupenthixol, paroxetine, or mianserin using a “classical” parallel group design [1] [2]. However, succesful RBD treatment on about sixty patients has so far been reported in one open trial with fluoxetine and in several cases with lithium, mirtazapine, and tranylcypromine [2] [3] [4]. Furthermore, successful treatment of RBD has been reported in a few patients with carbamazepine, nimodipine, and verapamil in controlled double-blind single-case analyses using a flexible cross-over design [2] [5].

References

• 1 Kasper S, Stamenkovic M, Pezawas L. Recurrent Brief Depression - diagnosis, epidemiology and potential pharmacological options. In: Palmer KJ, editor. Managing Depressive Disorders Auckland. Sidney: Adis International; 2000: p. 29-36
• 2 Pezawas L, Stamenkovic M, Kasper S. Recurrent brief depressive episodes epidemiology, clinical diagnostics, and therapy.  Nervenarzt. 2001;  72 169-180
• 3 Stamenkovic M, Blasbichler T, Riederer F, Pezawas L, Brandstatter N, Aschauer H N, Kasper S. Fluoxetine treatment in patients with Recurrent Brief Depression (RBD). Int Clin Psychopharm 2001 16: 221-226
• 4 Stamenkovic M, Pezawas L, De Zwaan M, Aschauer H N, Kasper S. Mirtazapine in Recurrent Brief Depression.  Int Clin Psychopharm. 1999;  13 39-40
• 5 Post R M, L’Herrou T, Luckenbaugh D A, Frye M A, Leverich G S, Mikalauskas K. Statistical approaches to trial durations in episodic affective illness.  Psychiat Res. 1998;  78 71-87