Effectiveness and tolerability of agomelatine versus mirtazapine in patients with depressive disorder
Leung Shek Ming
Registered Pharmacist and Lecturer, Hong Kong
: J Neurosci Clin Res
Abstract
Agomelatine is an antidepressant with novel mechanism of action, and is also classified as an atypical antidepressant. It was proven in studies that it was effective for depression, anxiety and sleep. With the above properties, agomelatine had become an antidepressant that attracted researchers. Nevertheless, there were obstacles for researchers to evaluate it. Most of the head-to-head comparison trials were using SSRIs or SNRIs as comparators, but there were few, if any, studies comparing agomelatine with other atypical antidepressants. The clinical role of agomelatine among atypical antidepressants was not clear. This study compared the effectiveness and tolerability between agomelatine and mirtazapine, two atypical antidepressants with similar clinical role but different mechanisms, and identified the factors affecting the pattern of treatment result and therapeutic outcome of agomelatine by using two-year retrospective clinical data from psychiatric hospital at Hong Kong.
Biography
Mr. Shek Ming Leung has completed his Master of Clinical Pharmacy at the age of 25 from University of Sunderland, England. He had years of clinical experience in psychiatry and geriatric at Hong Kong. He is a lecturer of an institute at Hong Kong and has often been invited as guest lecturer for postregistration courses on topics of psychiatry.
