Use of antidepressants in depressed patients during inpatient psychotherapy

Depressed participants of an inpatient psychotherapy program are often offered an antidepressive medication. Little is known about which patients opt for such agents and whether or not this decision influences the psychotherapeutic process or the outcome. In the study presented, 123 patients on antidepressants were compared with 167 unmedicated subjects during inpatient psychotherapy. Clients taking antidepressants were older, less often working, hod been hospitalised more frequently and for longer periods and had more often received medication previously. They less often planned outpatient psychotherapy subsequent to their discharge. Pretreatment BDI scores were higher in medicated patients, whereas there were no differences in other scales or effect sizes. Apparently older and more severely depressed patients tend more to taking antidepressants. They might plan subsequent outpatient psychotherapy less often because they have not experienced it as that effective as patients not treated with antidepressants. Possibly antidepressants both add to and interfere with the effects of psychotherapy resulting in similar effect sizes.