The Strategy of Combining Antidepressants in the Treatment of Major Depression: Clinical Experience in Spanish Outpatients

Table 3

Characteristics of each database and the global sample.

	MAR	DIANA	MEDAS	GLOBAL
Year of study	November 97	September 98	February 01
	February 98	January 99	July 01
Number of psychiatrists	300	150	100	550
Sample size	1261	877	704	2842
Mean (±) Age, years	47.1 ± 14.2	47.5 ± 14.4	48.0 ± 15.0	47.4 ± 14.5
Sex
Women	68.2%	69.2%	66.0%	68.0%
Men	31.8%	30.8%	34.0%	32.0%
Marital status
Unmarried	—	16.4%	19.2%	17.6%
Married	—	62.7%	61.2%	62.1%
Separated	—	11.2%	10.7%	11.0%
Widowed	—	9.0%	8.3%	8.8%
Unknown	—	0.6%	0.4%	0.5%
Age of onset	37.3 ± 14.5	36.4 ± 15	38.4 ± 13.8	37.3 ± 14.5
Previous suicide attempts (any)	7.8%	8.9%	8.9%	8.5%
Mean number of suicides/patient	0.14	0.15	0.14	0.14
Any previous depressive episode
No	51.1	49.8	51.5	50.8
Yes	48.9	50.2	48.5	49.2
Other previous psychiatric pathologies	15%	27.9%	26.9%	21.7%
Unleashing factors	45.6%	50.4%	57.2%	50.0%
Episode duration (%)
2 weeks	5.2	3.4	—	3.4
2 weeks-1 month	22.2	22.2	22.2	22.2
1–6 months	46.6	49.4	47.4	47.6
7–12 months	12.0	11.5	15.3	12.7
Over 1 year	14.0	13.6	15.2	14.2
Level of Depression
Mild (7–17)	20.7	22.3	14.0	19.5
Moderate (18–24)	39.5	50.1	46.5	44.5
Severe (25–52)	39.7	27.6	39.6	36.0
Antidepressants taken
No ADs	69.9	72.1	70.3	70.7
1 AD	27.4	25.8	28.2	27.1
ADs combination	2.7	2.1	1.5	2.2