Yang WC, et al. – This study investigated the associations between depressive symptoms and health–related quality of life (HRQOL) measurements for inpatients with major depressive disorder (MDD) before and after 6–week fluoxetine treatment, and to clarify the factors related to the HRQOL changes. Findings revealed that fluoxetine treatment was related to an improvement in depressive symptomology and HRQOL. It was noted that depressive symptoms had a greater extent of change than HRQOL. The outcomes suggested that clinicians must consider the negative effects of adverse events caused by antidepressants on the improvement of HRQOL.

Methods

• For this investigation, one hundred thirty-one inpatients with MDD were enlisted to receive 20 mg of fluoxetine for six weeks.
• Symptom severity and adverse events were surveyed at weeks 0, 1, 2, 3, 4, and 6 utilizing the 17-item Hamilton Depression Rating Scale (HAMD-17) and UKU Side Effect Rating Scale, respectively.
• HRQOL was measured utilizing the Short Form 36 (SF-36), including 8 subscales, physical component summary (PCS) and mental component summary (MCS), at baseline and week 6.
• Spearman’s coefficient, Cohen’s d, and multiple linear regression model were utilized for statistical analysis.

Results

• The present study showed that 106 patients completing all measures at weeks 0 and 6 entered the analysis.
• Findings revealed that HAMD-17 negatively correlated with SF-36 at baseline and week 6.
• It was noted that the HAMD-17 had a larger effect size than SF-36.
• MCS, instead of PCS, indicated statistically significant improvement.
• After using multiple linear regression analysis, age at onset, HAMD-17 score change, and number of adverse events reported during the trial period were associated with MCS change after adjusting for confounding variables.