Fluvoxamine versus other anti-depressive agents for depression

Major depression is a severe mental illness characterised by a persistent and unreactive low mood and loss of all interest and pleasure, usually accompanied by a range of symptoms including appetite change, sleep disturbance, fatigue, loss of energy, poor concentration, psychomotor symptoms, inappropriate guilt and morbid thoughts of death. Although pharmacological and psychological interventions are both effective for major depression, antidepressant (AD) drugs remain the mainstay for treatment of moderate or severe depression. Fluvoxamine is one of the oldest selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors (SSRIs) and is prescribed to patients with major depression in many countries. This review reports trials comparing fluvoxamine with other antidepressants for treatment of major depression. We found no strong evidence that fluvoxamine was either superior or inferior to any other antidepressants in terms of efficacy and tolerability in the acute phase treatment of depression. However, there is evidence of differing side-effect profiles, especially when comparing gastrointestinal side effects between fluvoxamine and tricyclic antidepressants (TCAs). Based on these findings, we conclude that clinicians should focus on practical or clinically relevant considerations including these differences in side effect profiles.