Saturday, October 27, 2007

Forest Laboratories' Lexapro Still Leads First-Line Therapy in the Treatment of Major Depression, but Atypical Antipsychotics Are Coming On Strong

Decision Resources, one of the world's leading research and advisory firms focusing on pharmaceutical and healthcare issues, finds that Forest Laboratories' Lexapro leads first-line therapy in the treatment of major depression. According to the new report entitled Treatment Algorithms in Major Depression, selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors (SSRIs), which include Lexapro, serve 63.6 percent of patients on first-line therapy. Surveyed physicians say the reasons for SSRIs being so heavily used are efficacy, cost and physician familiarity. Eighty percent of surveyed psychiatrists and 70 percent of surveyed primary care physicians (PCPs) say they choose SSRIs over benzodiazepines because of efficacy. Forty-nine percent of surveyed psychiatrists cite cost as the prime reason they choose SSRIs over serotonin/norepinephrine reuptake inhibitors (SNRIs), while 49 percent of PCPs say they choose SSRIs over SNRIs owing to familiarity with the former class.

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