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CompletedNCT00427128Updated Dec 15, 2011

Prozac Treatment of Major Depression: Discontinuation Study

A Phase 4 interventional study of fluoxetine and placebo in Major Depression, sponsored by New York State Psychiatric Institute. Completed at 2 sites in United States. Open to participants aged 18 Years to 65 Years. Per ClinicalTrials.gov, last updated 2011-12-15.

Sponsored by New York State Psychiatric Institute · Phase 4, Interventional, and Treatment

Phase
Phase 4
Study type
Interventional
Enrollment
627
Allocation
Randomized
Ages
18 Years to 65 Years
Sex
All
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Study summary

This study randomized two stratifications of acute phase MDD SSRI responders, categorized as having either "true drug" response or "placebo response" pattern, to continuation with SSRI vs placebo in a double-blind trial to determine if stratification category predicted continuation outcome.

Read the detailed description

This study enrolled 627 subjects with Major Depressive illness at New York State Psychiatric Institute and Massachusetts General Hospital. Subjects were treated with fluoxetine 10-60mg over a 12 week period. The "responder" group was defined by those no longer meeting criteria for Major Depression at week 12, along with CGI ratings of "much improved" or "very much improved" as determined by an independent evaluator. At week 12 "non-responders" were withdrawn from the study and received open label treatment; responders were randomized in double-blind fashion to either fluoxetine continuation (20-80mg daily) at response dose or placebo switch for up to 24 weeks. The responder group was stratified by "specific or true" drug response (late onset and persistent once attained) and "nonspecific or placebo" response (early onset or nonpersistent) patterns. Subjects were evaluated at one week and two week intervals at different phases of continuation treatment, and depression relapse was determined by agreement between study psychiatrist and independent evaluator CGI and Ham-D ratings, as well as administration of the MDD section of the Mood Disorders Module of the Structured Clinical Interview for DSM-IV Disorders at those visits. A subset of study participants also provided DNA samples to determine whether there are any DNA markers of response type. Data were analyzed to test the following hypotheses: that during continuation fluoxetine treatment improved patients with a "true drug" acute response pattern randomized to placebo had a poorer outcome than those maintained on active drug; that during continuation fluoxetine treatment improved patients with a "placebo" acute response pattern randomized to placebo had no worse an outcome than those maintained on drug; that during continuation fluoxetine treatment patients with a "true drug" acute response pattern randomized to continue on fluoxetine were more likely to maintain their benefit than those with a "placebo" pattern.

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Conditions studied

  • Major Depression

Keywords

  • Major Depression
  • "true drug" response
  • "placebo response" pattern
  • continuation treatment outcomes
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In context

Depression

8,057 studies on the registry are indexed under Depression; 1,641 are open to participants now.

This study's enrollment of 627 is above the median of 84 across 6,720 interventional studies indexed under Depression.

Browse Depression studies →

Lead sponsor

New York State Psychiatric Institute is the lead sponsor of 425 studies on the registry; 26 are open to participants now.

Of its 50 completed or terminated interventional studies of FDA-regulated products, 45 (90%) have results posted.

Counted across the registry records on this site, refreshed daily.

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Who can participate

Ages eligible
18 Years to 65 Years
Sexes eligible
All
Accepts healthy volunteers
No

Inclusion criteria

  1. men and women ages 18-65
  2. meets criteria for DSM IV Major Depression
  3. signs informed consent and able to comply with study

Exclusion criteria

Exclusion Criteria:

  1. pregnant women and women of child-bearing potential who are not using a medically accepted means of contraception.
  2. women taking oral contraceptives, the initiation of which was temporally associated with the onset of depression; women who are breast-feeding.
  3. Patients with serious suicidal risk, including any patient who became suicidal with previous discontinuation of an antidepressant.
  4. Patients with a history of seizure disorder.
  5. Patients with unstable physical disorders (cardiovascular, hepatic, renal, respiratory, endocrine, neurologic, or hematologic) or any physical disorder judged to significantly affect CNS function.
  6. Patients meeting criteria for the following DSM-IV diagnoses: organic mental disorders; substance use disorders, including alcohol, active within the last 6 months; schizophrenia; delusional disorder; psychotic disorders; bipolar disorder; antisocial personality disorder; or presence of psychotic features
  7. Patients with a history of non-response to an adequate trial of a selective serotonin reuptake inhibitor in a past or current depressive episode, defined as a four-week trial of a minimum of 40mg/day of fluoxetine or paroxetine, or 100mg/day of sertraline.
  8. Concurrent use of exclusionary drugs
  9. Clinical or laboratory evidence of hypothyroidism without adequate stable replacement (eg, low total T4 or elevated TSH by a high sensitivity method).
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Study design

Phase
Phase 4
Primary purpose
Treatment
Allocation
Randomized
Intervention model
Parallel assignment
Masking
Double (Participant, Investigator)
Enrollment
627 participants (actual)

Interventions

  • Drugfluoxetine

    10mg/day increased over 12 weeks to 20-80 mg/day; 20-80 mg/day maintained from week 13-36.

    Also known as: Prozac

  • Drugplacebo

    Week 13-36.

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What researchers measure

Primary outcomes

  1. MDD section of Mood Disorders Module of Structured Clinical Interview for DSM-IV (SCID)

    Time frame: up to 9 mos.

  2. Ham-D

    Time frame: up to 9 mos.

  3. CGI

    Time frame: up to 9 mos.

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Study locations

2 sites
  • Massachusetts General Hospital
    Boston, Massachusetts 02114, United States
  • New York State Psychiatric Institute
    New York, New York 10032, United States
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References and documents

Publications

  • McGrath PJ, Stewart JW, Quitkin FM, Chen Y, Alpert JE, Nierenberg AA, Fava M, Cheng J, Petkova E. Predictors of relapse in a prospective study of fluoxetine treatment of major depression. Am J Psychiatry. 2006 Sep;163(9):1542-8. doi: 10.1176/ajp.2006.163.9.1542. PubMed 16946178 ↗
  • Posternak MA, Baer L, Nierenberg AA, Fava M. Response rates to fluoxetine in subjects who initially show no improvement. J Clin Psychiatry. 2011 Jul;72(7):949-54. doi: 10.4088/JCP.10m06098. Epub 2011 May 31. PubMed 21672502 ↗
  • Yang H, Sinicropi-Yao L, Chuzi S, Youn SJ, Clain A, Baer L, Chen Y, McGrath PJ, Fava M, Papakostas GI. Residual sleep disturbance and risk of relapse during the continuation/maintenance phase treatment of major depressive disorder with the selective serotonin reuptake inhibitor fluoxetine. Ann Gen Psychiatry. 2010 Feb 26;9:10. doi: 10.1186/1744-859X-9-10. PubMed 20187924 ↗
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Updates

Tracking since Sep 25, 2026
No changes since tracking began. The registry record was last updated on Dec 15, 2011, before this site started recording changes on Sep 25, 2026. Its history is on ClinicalTrials.gov ↗
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Registry details

Key details

Study ID
NCT00427128
Lead sponsor
New York State Psychiatric Institute
Collaborators
Massachusetts General Hospital
Responsible party
Sponsor
First posted
Jan 26, 2007
Start date
Nov 1995
Completion
Mar 2003
Last update
Dec 15, 2011

Study contacts

Patrick J McGrath, MD
principal investigator · New York State Psychiatric Institute
Maurizio Fava, MD
principal investigator · Massachussets General Hospital
View the source record on ClinicalTrials.gov ↗

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This study is completed, as verified in Dec 2011. You cannot join it, but the record below documents what was studied.

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