Does Venlafaxine Maintenance Therapy Prevent Depression Recurrences or Drug Discontinuation Reactions?

Letter to the Editor

Sir: We write in response to articles published in the Julyand August 2007 issues of the Journal describing the maintenancephases of the Prevention of Recurrent Episodes of Depressionwith Venlafaxine for Two Years (PREVENT) study.In this double-blind study, at the end of 8 months of venlafaxinetreatment at a median daily dose of 225 mg, 258 subjects were randomly assigned to continue venlafaxine or be tapered over 4weeks to placebo. The primary outcome for the maintenancephase was recurrence of depression, defined in terms of increasedscore on the Hamilton Rating Scale for Depression(HAM-D). Venlafaxine subjects did significantly better on thisoutcome than those randomly assigned to placebo.