Can Additional Drug Therapy Accelerate Response Time to Antidepressants: A Double-blind, Placebo-controlled Randomization Research Study for Major Depression

Major depression is an illness with substantial personal and economic morbidity (Greenberg et al.1993) and antidepressants are the cornerstone of treatment. As antidepressants usually require 3-6 weeks of use before a response occurs, an effective antidepressant acceleration strategy would reduce the time of onset for an effective antidepressant response. This has significant clinical implications, as it could lead to reduced symptom morbidity, potentially reduce health care cost (i.e. shorter hospital length of stay), and improve functional capacity and quality of life.

The goal of this study is to enhance our understanding of strategies that accelerate or produce a more rapid treatment response in depression. This could lead to reduced symptom morbidity, potentially reduce health care cost (i.e. shorter hospital length of stay), and improve functional capacity and quality of life.

The study goals are: 1.) To assess whether the simultaneous commencement of liothyronine or pindolol to an SSRI can accelerate the treatment response (i.e. faster rate of improvement), 2.) To assess whether the simultaneous commencement of liothyronine or pindolol to an SSRI can augment or enhance treatment response (i.e. greater reduction in depressive symptoms at end of study phase), adn 3.) To assess whether gender influences the acceleration of augmentation response rate of liothyronine or pindolol.