Fifty-one elderly depressed outpatients who had responded to antidepressants and completed continuation therapy were observed under double-blind conditions for 1 year. Twenty-three had been switched to placebo, while 13 and 15 took nortriptyline hydrochloride and phenelzine sulfate, respectively. Patients administered phenelzine did significantly better with 13.3% recurrences than patients administered either nortriptyline (53.8% recurrences) or placebo (65.2% recurrences). In addition, patients who had higher Hamilton scores and who had an earlier age of onset of the first depressive episode were significantly more likely to have recurrences.
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Georgotas et al. (1989) studied this question.