Hostname: page-component-7dd5485656-2pp2p Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2025-10-30T08:33:00.891Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Mianserin and Lithium in the Prophylaxis of Depression

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  29 January 2018

Alec Coppen ,
Karabi Ghose ,
Rama Rao ,
John Bailey  and
Malcolm Peet
Alec Coppen*
Affiliation:
Medical Research Council Neuropsychiatry Laboratory, West Park Hospital, Epsom, KT19 8PB, Surrey
Karabi Ghose
Affiliation:
Medical Research Council Neuropsychiatry Laboratory, West Park Hospital, Epsom, KT19 8PB, Surrey
Rama Rao
Affiliation:
Medical Research Council Neuropsychiatry Laboratory, West Park Hospital, Epsom, KT19 8PB, Surrey
John Bailey
Affiliation:
Medical Research Council Neuropsychiatry Laboratory, West Park Hospital, Epsom, KT19 8PB, Surrey
Malcolm Peet
Affiliation:
The Medical Unit, Organon Scientific Development Group, OSS, Holland
*
Reprint requests to Dr A. Coppen.
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Summary

Forty-one out-patients with a history of at least three attacks of depressive illness were randomly allocated to treatment on a double-blind basis for one year with either mianserin 20 mg three times daily plus placebo lithium tablets, or to lithium tablets once daily plus placebo mianserin tablets. After one year, the dosage of mianserin was increased to 30 mg t.d.s. for a further six months. All but three of the patients had previously been stabilized on prophylactic lithium therapy. Lithium was found to be significantly superior to mianserin in avoiding admission to hospital or ECT. The overall affective morbidity index, calculated from global rating, showed no significant difference between drugs, but the index of the mianserin group was higher in the second six months than in the first. The lithium group showed no such change. Lithium remains the choice for the prophylaxis of unipolar recurrent depressive illness.

Information

Type
Research Article
Information
The British Journal of Psychiatry , Volume 133 , Issue 3 , September 1978 , pp. 206 - 210
Copyright
Copyright © Royal College of Psychiatrists, 1978 

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

Article purchase

Temporarily unavailable

References

Coppen, A., Peet, M., Bailey, J., Noguera, R., Burns, B., Swani, M., Maggs, R. & Gardner, R. (1973) Double-blind and open studies of lithium prophylaxis in affective disorders. Psychiatry, Neurology, Neurochirurgy, 76, 501–10.Google Scholar
Coppen, A., Montgomery, S. A., Gupta, R. K. & Bailey, J. (1976a) A double-blind comparison of lithium carbonate and maprotiline in the prophylaxis of the affective disorders. British Journal of Psychiatry, 128, 479–85.Google Scholar
Coppen, A., Gupta, R., Montgomery, S., Ghose, K., Bailey, J., Burns, B. & de Ridder, J. J. (1976b) Mianserin hydrochloride—a novel antidepressant. British Journal of Psychiatry, 129, 342–5.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Coppen, A., Ghose, K., Rama Rao, V. A. & Peet, M. (1977) Mianserin in the prophylactic treatment of affective illness. International Pharmacopsychiatry, 12, 95–9.Google Scholar
de Ridder, J. J. (1977) Advances in mass spectrometry. In Biochemistry and Medicine (ed Frigerio, A.). Spectrum Publications, New York.Google Scholar
Ghose, K. (1977) Lithium salts: therapeutic and unwanted effects. British Journal of Hospital Medicine, 18, 578–83.Google Scholar
Mindham, R. H. S., Howland, C. & Shepherd, M. (1973) An evaluation of continuation therapy with tricyclic antidepressants in depressive illness. Psychological Medicine, 3, 5–17.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Murphy, J. E., Donald, J. F. & Molla, A. L. (1976) Mianserin in the treatment of depression in general practice. Practitioner, 217, 135–8.Google Scholar
Paykel, E. S., Di Mascio, A., Klerman, G. L., Prusoff, B. A. & Weismann, M. M. (1976) Maintenance therapy of depression. Pharmacopsychiatry, 9, 127–36.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Prien, R. F., Cafey, E. M. & Klett, J. (1973) Prophylactic efficacy of lithium carbonate in manic-depressive illness. Archives of General Psychiatry, 28, 337–41.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Submit a response

eLetters

No eLetters have been published for this article.