Fluvoxamine and lithium in long-term treatment of unipolar subjects with high recurrence rate.

We prolonged from 24 to 36 months a follow-up study of unipolar subjects with a high probability of recurrence treated with fluvoxamine (n = 32) or lithium (n = 32). During the extra observation period, two patients developed mania and were excluded from the study. There were no further recurrences in either the lithium or the fluvoxamine group. In our sample, previous prescriptions of tricyclics seem to predict a worse prognosis.