This is primarily a study of maintenance therapies, not a study of acute therapeutic efficacy, in late-life major depression. The study aims to identify factors that encourage maintenance of treatment gains and to identify which patients need which kinds of treatment to remain well. The following questions are to be addressed:
* Is the probability of recurrence different among the treatment groups?
* What variables may be related to, or predictive of, differences among groups?
* After 1 to 2 years of maintenance therapy, will patients assigned to maintenance combined treatment with both paroxetine and interpersonal psychotherapy remain well at higher rates than patients assigned to paroxetine alone, interpersonal psychotherapy alone, or placebo?
* Will the time to recurrence differ across treatment groups, and what variables may be related to, or predictive of, time to recurrence?
The major study hypothesis is that combined treatment with paroxetine and interpersonal psychotherapy will be superior to either treatment alone (and to placebo) in preventing recurrence of major depressive episodes in patients aged 70 and above.
For information on related studies, please follow these links:
http://clinicaltrials.gov/show/NCT00000377
http://clinicaltrials.gov/show/NCT00177671
