Switching from an antidepressant medication to psychotherapy or vice versa may improve symptoms in chronically depressed patients who prove unresponsive to their initial treatment, according to an article in the May issue of Archives of General Psychiatry.

“A substantial proportion of patients treated for depression do not respond to the initial trial of either an antidepressant medication or depression-targeted psychotherapy,” according to background information in the article. For those resistant to treatment there are several options available, including switching medication, enhancing or combining medications, and switching to or enhancing treatment with psychotherapy.

Alan F. Schatzberg, MD, and his American colleagues studied chronically depressed patients who were treated with either nefazodone or cognitive behavioral analysis psychotherapy for 12 weeks. Participants in the nefazodone group received an initial dose of 200 mg per day (100 mg twice daily), increased to a maximum of 600 mg per day. Patients in the psychotherapy group attended sessions twice weekly during the first four weeks and then once weekly until week 12. If unresponsive to either the nefazodone or psychotherapy, patients were switched to the other treatment.

Of the 156 nonresponders, 140 (89.7 percent) agreed to crossover therapy. Both the switch from nefazodone to psychotherapy and psychotherapy to nefazodone resulted in improvement of symptoms. The response rates were 57 percent for those who crossed over from nefazodone to psychotherapy and 42 percent for the switch from psychotherapy to nefazodone. Remission rates did not significantly differ between groups.

“Among chronically depressed individuals, CBASP [psychotherapy] appears to be efficacious for nonresponders to nefazodone, and nefazodone appears to be effective for CBASP nonresponders,” the authors wrote. “For patients with chronic depression, the present results provide a strong basis for switching to CBASP after a medication does not produce a response and, conversely, for switching to medication after patients do not respond to an adequate trial of psychotherapy.”