Table 3. Mean test performance and depression severity at day 56 separated for study medication.
| Escitalopram (N = 73) |
Venlafaxine (N = 78) |
Lithium (N = 17) |
p-value* | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Mean ± SD | Mean ± SD | Mean ± SD | ||
| Trail Making Test (TMT A)1 | 22.0 ± 6.1 | 22.8 ± 9.6 | 29.4 ± 12.8 | 0.007 |
| Trail Making Test (TMT B) | 50.3 ± 16.7 | 51.6 ± 26.7 | 64.8 ± 27.9 | 0.063 |
| Phonemic verbal fluency | 46.3 ± 31.3 | 48.7 ± 28.9 | 33.1 ± 31.0 | 0.156 |
| Semantic verbal fluency | 42.6 ± 28.8 | 42.8 ± 29.3 | 32.0 ± 25.3 | 0.350 |
| HAMD17 sum score | 5.0 ± 4.4 | 11.1 ± 6.6 | 15.8 ± 7.7 | 0.000 |
1 According to the treatment algorithm of the EMC trial, all patients received Escitalopram for the first 2 weeks. In case of non-improvement (day 14) or non-response (day 28), they were switched to Venlafaxine and further on augmented with Lithium in case of non-improvement to Venlafaxine (day 28 or 42). Thus, the first time point to compare the test performance between the 3 antidepressants is day 56;
* one-way ANOVA; SD: standard deviation; HAMD: Hamilton Depression rating Scale