Aim: To assess the attitudes and preferences of patients currently being treated for depression or anxiety disorders with traditional oral antidepressants relative to a placebo orodispersible (ODT) formulation of escitalopram.
Methods: This was an open study collecting patient-reported outcome data from patients with anxiety or depression that were treated with oral antidepressant medication on Day 0 before and after receiving a single placebo ODT, and on Day 3 or 4 after receiving two further daily doses of placebo ODT. Patients aged 18-80 years who were currently receiving treatment with oral antidepressants were recruited from general practice and by advertising. Patients with significant symptoms of anxiety or depression (scoring ≥9 on either the depression or anxiety subscales of the Hospital Anxiety and Depression Scale) were included in the study.
Results: A total of 150 patients were enrolled in and completed the study. About 37% of the patients had had trouble with swallowing tablets, and patients with higher depression scores reported more general swallowing problems than those with lower scores (P = 0.002). Most patients (75.3%) believed that an ODT might work faster but that it would make no difference to the effectiveness of the medication (63.1%) or the number of side effects (81.3%). About 96% of the patients reported experiencing a pleasant taste following the placebo ODT, although seven patients did not like its taste or aftertaste. This study found that 80.7% of patients reported that the tablets were easy or very easy to get out of the packaging.
Conclusion: Based on the results of the placebo version of escitalopram ODT, the escitalopram ODT is likely to be well accepted by patients suffering from anxiety or depressive symptoms.
Keywords: ODT; antidepressant; anxiety; depression; swallowing difficulties.