Escitalopram and Citalopram effective on Depressive Symptoms in Schizophrenia patients?

Schizophrenia is a serious neurodevelopmental psychiatric disorder characterized by impaired thought process and cognition, poor emotional responsiveness, abnormal social behaviors, and other negative symptoms that needs early management and consideration, as the clinical manifestations of this disorder typically occur in late adolescence or early adulthood, and most patients experience notable disability and lose their educational and social interaction and functioning throughout the illness.

A recent study, presents an interesting double-blinded RCT study involving 60 patients, where two anti-depressant drugs citalopram and escitalopram were tested to study reduction of depressive symptoms in patients suffering from Schizophrenia. The studyin Global Journal of Medical Pharmaceutical and Biomedical Update published in Scientific Scholar (Scientific scholar) and reports that both drugs are efficient in treating the depressive symptoms with no side-effects, with Escitalopram appearing to be slightly more efficient on an 8 weeks course.

The patients who had depression based on the Calgary Depression Scale for Schizophrenia (CDSS) were included in the study. The first group received 10-40 mg/day of citalopram, and the second group received 5-20 mg/day of escitalopram. The patients were treated for 8 weeks. Any reduction in depressive symptoms was considered the primary outcome of the research.

Although the two groups had no significant difference in CDSS score at the initial assessment, after 8 weeks, the depressive symptoms decreased and a significant difference was observed between the two groups. The two groups had no significant difference in drug side effects, except for anorexia.

Depressive symptoms decreased significantly after 8 weeks of treatment with both citalopram and escitalopram; however, these symptoms had more reduction in patients taking escitalopram than the individuals receiving citalopram.

Reference:

Hamzehpour R, Mohammadkhani M, Khafri S, Moudi S. Comparative effect of escitalopram and citalopram on depressive symptoms of patients with schizophrenia: A double-blind randomized controlled trial. Glob J Med Pharm Biomed Update 2022;17:20.