Comparative Onset of Improvement in Depressive Symptomatology with Drug Treatment, Electroconvulsive Therapy, and Placebo

Depressive symptomatology responds very similarly to treatment with trazodone, imipramine, placebo, and electroconvulsive therapy. In one study positive therapeutic response was evident within the 1st week of therapy in most patients. If this did not occur, an unfavorable response to treatment was likely to follow. The close resemblance of the electroconvulsive therapy response profiles to those of antidepressant drugs and placebo suggests that it exerts similar effects and that all of the treatments examined probably operate through a final common pathway in those patients who respond. Among the nonresponders, there were few features that distinguished the therapeutic groups.