Time to antidepressant discontinuation: a comparison of controlled-release paroxetine and immediate-release selective serotonin-reuptake inhibitors.

Despite advances in depression therapy, early treatment discontinuation with antidepressants remains high and contributes to poor clinical outcomes. In clinical trials, treatment discontinuation with controlled-release paroxetine was similar to placebo and significantly better than immediate-release paroxetine. To examine whether this benefit noted in clinical trials translated into longer therapy duration in practice settings, survival-analysis models were constructed to compare the time to treatment discontinuation of controlled-release paroxetine with that of immediate-release selective serotonin-reuptake inhibitors (SSRIs). Survival analysis indicated that patients receiving controlled-release paroxetine were 28% less likely to discontinue therapy during a 180-day period when compared with patients receiving immediate-release SSRIs.