Antidepressants from an Internet-patients' viewpoint

The study aimed at evaluating effectiveness and side-effects of antidepressants as reported by patients via the internet in comparison with the Asolo-scheme worked out by psychiatrists. After the patients' self-assessment regarding their depressive symptoms according to the DSM-IV-criteria of major depression, the effectiveness of the prescribed antidepressive drugs should be valued by means of 16 items on 6-step rating scales using the internet-questionnaire located at the web-site www.psychiatriefragebogen.de. Almost 80% of the 98 participants - average age of 23 years at onset of illness and average duration of current episode of 52 weeks - were treated with new antidepressive drugs. A differential treatment for a specific depressive symptomatic could not be shown. Approximately 80% of the patients took their antidepressants as prescribed. The participants rated antidepressants mostly as little effective. Venlafaxine was stated to be significantly more effective with respect to the core criterion "drive normalizing" and was also assessed better than the Asolo-experts did. The side effects spontaneously reported by 26% of the patients are all well-known from other studies. Neither a significant coincidence between side effects and a specific group of antidepressants nor between side effects and compliance could be found. An internet-survey is mainly attractive for problematic patients with chronic and therapy-resistant depressions respectively, and could therefore be a supplement to clinical trials. The range of consultation connected with the internet-questionnaire could enlarge psychiatric care.