Aaronson, Scott T

Summary The American Society of Clinical Psychopharmacology convened a 45-member international expert task force to identify circumstances supporting the deprescribing of core psychotropic medications for major depressive disorder (MDD) and bipolar disorders. Three Delphi survey rounds plus a selective literature review identified points of consensus (predefined as ≥75% agreement) about when antidepressant, antipsychotic, mood stabiliser and sedative-hypnotic deprescribing is warranted. Twenty out of 32 statements (63%) achieved consensus across seven thematic areas. In MDD, panellists favoured discontinuing antidepressants when mechanisms of action are duplicative, adequate trials produce ≤25% improvement or loss of prior efficacy cannot be regained through dose increases or augmentations. Indefinite antidepressant maintenance in MDD was favoured after three or more lifetime episodes. In bipolar disorder, antidepressant deprescribing was favoured in the setting of rapid cycling, mixed features or emerging mania/hypomania symptoms; and discouraged if prior antidepressant cessation led to relapse. In nonpsychotic mood disorders, panellists favoured deprescribing antipsychotics that caused significant weight gain or tardive dyskinesia over adding pharmacological antidotes. Deprescribing to achieve an eventual medication-free status was considered inappropriate, in bipolar type 1, but not necessarily bipolar type 2 disorder. Although individualised circumstances necessarily inform psychopharmacology management, clinical presentations that misalign with existing pharmacotherapies may signal the desirability of cautious deprescribing.

Objective: To describe the clinical characteristics of adolescents with antidepressant treatment-resistant major depressive disorder (MDD) and to examine the utility of the Antidepressant Treatment Record (ATR) in categorizing treatment resistance in this population. Methods: Adolescents with treatment-resistant MDD enrolled in an interventional study underwent a baseline evaluation with the ATR, Children's Depression Rating Scale-Revised (CDRS-R), and Clinical Global Impressions-Severity (CGI-S) scales. Demographic and clinical characteristics were examined with regard to ATR-defined level of resistance (level 1 to ≥3) using analysis of variance and χ 2 tests. Results: In adolescents with treatment-resistant MDD ( N = 97), aged 12–21 years, most were female (65%), white (89%), and had recurrent illness (78%). Patients were severely ill (median CGI-S score of 5), had a mean CDRS-R score of 63 ± 10, and 17.5% had been hospitalized for depression-related symptoms. Fifty-two patients were classified as ATR 1, whereas 32 were classified as ATR level 2 and 13 patients as ≥3, respectively. For increasing ATR-defined levels, illness duration increased from 12.0 (range: 1.5–31.9) to 14.8 (range: 1.8–31.7) to 19.5 (range: 2.5–36.2) months and the likelihood of treatment with serotonin norepinephrine reuptake inhibitors (SNRIs) and dopamine norepinephrine reuptake inhibitors (DNRIs) similarly increased ( p = 0.006 for both SNRIs and DNRIs) as did the likelihood of treatment with mixed dopamine serotonin receptor antagonists (χ 2 = 17, p < 0.001). Conclusions: This study underscores the morbidity and chronicity of treatment-resistant MDD in adolescents. The present characterization of related clinical features describes the use of nonselective serotonin reuptake inhibitors in adolescents with treatment-resistant depression and raises the possibility that those with the greatest medication treatment resistance are less likely to have had recurrent episodes. The study also demonstrates the utility of the ATR in categorizing treatment resistance in adolescents with MDD.