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Atomoxetine Appears Beneficial for Patients with Mixed ADHD and Depressive/Anxiety Disorders: Presented at AACAP

By Jerry Ingram

MIAMI BEACH, FL -- October 21, 2003 -- Atomoxetine may prove to be effective for treatment of pediatric patients with ADHD and depressive/anxiety disorders, according to research presented here on October 18^th at the 50^th Anniversary Meeting of the American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry.

"In our study we compared atomoxetine with placebo to atomoxetine with fluoxetine and what we saw was no significant differences between the two groups in terms of reduction of depressive symptoms or reduction of anxiety symptoms, suggesting that atomoxetine has the potential to address both the ADHD as well as depressive/anxiety symptoms," said Christopher Kratochvil, MD, co-author of the study, Lilly Research Laboratories, Indianapolis, Indiana.

Researchers enrolled patients with comorbid ADHD and affective or anxiety symptoms. They randomized 46 patients to treatment with atomoxetine plus placebo and 127 to atomoxetine with fluoxetine. The 8-week study was double blind, placebo controlled, with 1:3 ratio of randomization.

To assess the efficacy of treatment, investigators utilized the Investigator-rated ADHD Rating Scale-IV (ADHD RS), which is based on parental reports, the Children's Depression Rating Scale-Revised (CDRS-R), the Children's Depression Inventory (CDI), Multidimensional Anxiety Scale for Children (MASC) and the Clinician's Global Impression of Severity (CGI-S).

There was an overall trend towards greater improvement in the atomoxetine/fluoxetine (A/F) group versus the atomoxetine (A) group. ADHD RS scores were 20.5 with atomoxetine and 24.0 with combination treatment (P=0.101); CDRS scores were 17.6 and 20.4 (P=0.32), MASC scores were 11.3 and 13.4 (P=0.489); CDI scores were 5.4 and 8.8 (P=0.043); and CGI-S scores were 1.9 and 2.3 (P=0.065).

Dr. Kratochvil and his team concluded that atomoxetine may be helpful in treating patents with mixed ADHD and depressive/anxiety disorders.


[Study title: Atomoxetine for Comorbid ADHD and Affective Symptoms. Abstract E29]

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