ArticleAnnals of general psychiatry2016
Effect of mirtazapine versus selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors on benzodiazepine use in patients with major depressive disorder: a pragmatic, multicenter, open-label, randomized, active-controlled, 24-week trial.
Article in Annals of general psychiatry, 2016. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 4 papers.
What it found
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The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
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Who cites it
4 citing papers in PubMed, 13 citations in OpenAlex.
- Influence of SSRI and SNRI co-prescription on benzodiazepine prescription trajectories.Drug and alcohol dependence reports · 2025Article
- Sleep Disturbance, Sleep Disorders and Co-Morbidities in the Care of the Older Person.Medical sciences (Basel, Switzerland) · 2021Review
- Depression in sleep disturbance: A review on a bidirectional relationship, mechanisms and treatment.Journal of cellular and molecular medicine · 2019Review
- Effects of Antidepressants on Sleep.Current psychiatry reports · 2017Review
Corrections and comments
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Authors and funding
12 authors at 3 institutions in 1 country.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
backgroundThis study aimed to evaluate whether selecting mirtazapine as the first choice for current depressive episode instead of selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors (SSRIs) reduces benzodiazepine use in patients with major depressive disorder (MDD). We concurrently examined the relationship between clinical responses and serum mature brain-derived neurotrophic factor (BDNF) and its precursor, proBDNF.
methodsWe conducted an open-label randomized trial in routine psychiatric practice settings. Seventy-seven MDD outpatients were randomly assigned to the mirtazapine or predetermined SSRIs groups, and investigators arbitrarily selected sertraline or paroxetine. The primary outcome was the proportion of benzodiazepine users at weeks 6, 12, and 24 between the groups. We defined patients showing a ≥50 % reduction in Hamilton depression rating scale (HDRS) scores from baseline as responders. Blood samples were collected at baseline, weeks 6, 12, and 24.
resultsSixty-five patients prescribed benzodiazepines from prescription day 1 were analyzed for the primary outcome. The percentage of benzodiazepine users was significantly lower in the mirtazapine than in the SSRIs group at weeks 6, 12, and 24 (21.4 vs. 81.8 %; 11.1 vs. 85.7 %, both
conclusionThis study demonstrated mirtazapine as the first-choice antidepressant for current depressive episodes may reduce benzodiazepine use in patients with MDD.
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