Philadelphia, PA., May 19, 2003 Wyeth Pharmaceuticals, a division of Wyeth (NYSE:WYE), announced today that a landmark analysis of studies comparing antidepressant treatments demonstrated that significantly more patients achieved remission (virtual elimination) of their depression symptoms, and resolution of both emotional and physical symptoms, when treated with EFFEXOR/EFFEXOR XR (venlafaxine HCl) than with commonly used selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors (SSRIs) or placebo. The analysis was presented in two poster presentations at the American Psychiatric Association's (APA) annual meeting in San Francisco.
The analysis compared EFFEXOR®/EFFEXOR XR to the SSRIs PAXIL® (paroxetine), PROZAC® (fluoxetine), ZOLOFT® (sertraline), LUVOX® (fluvoxamine), and CELEXA (citalopram) and comprised the entire worldwide dataset of Wyeth-sponsored registration and post-marketing, published and unpublished, SSRI-controlled clinical studies of EFFEXOR/EFFEXOR XR to date.
"Given the urgency to treat a patient to remission, these data reinforce EFFEXOR XR as a first-line therapy for depression," says Dr. Eric Hollander, Professor of Psychiatry and Director of Psychopharmacology at Mount Sinai School of Medicine in New York City. "This is important information for physicians as remission is a critical milestone in preventing symptom recurrence and depression relapse."
In one poster it was determined that EFFEXOR/EFFEXOR XR-treated patients had significantly higher remission rates than those treated with the studied SSRIs using standard evaluations including scoring seven or less on the 17-item Hamilton Rating Scale for Depression (HAM-D17) and less than 10 on the Montgomery-Asberg Depression Rating Scale (MADRS).
Specifically, the HAM-D17 evaluation revealed a 41 percent remission rate for EFFEXOR/EFFEXOR XR patients, significantly greater than that of patients receiving an SSRI (35 percent, p<0.001), or a placebo (25 percent,
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Contact: Douglas Petkus, Wyeth Pharmaceuticals
484-865-5140
Porter Novelli
19-May-2003
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