A Comparative Study to Evaluate the Efficacy and Safety of Vortioxetine and Escitalopram in Patients with Depression

Introduction: Depression is a serious mental disease, with very serious consequences for people and for the health systems. The goals of this research are to evaluate the effectiveness, demographic distribution, and associated clinical variables with escitalopram and vortioxetine treatment of depression. Methods: Out of the 74 subjects with an ICD 10 diagnosis of depression, 37 received escitalopram and 37 were given vortioxetine. Examined were multiple demographic, clinical and treatment response variables: gender, comorbidities and their clinical enhancement measured by the Clinical Global Impression severity (CGI-S) over the course of a period of six weeks. Significance (p<0.05) of the results were ascertained by using statistical analyses. Results: No significant difference between groups constituted the gender distribution with about equal representation. Treatment allocation was not affected substantially by the size or structure of the family. The distribution of severity of diagnosis and frequency of prior depressive episodes was equally distributed among the groups. At six weeks therapy, CGI-S scores indicated clinical enhancement for both groups, with no differences between vortioxetine and escitalopram being significant at any time point. Incidence and hospitalization of hypertension were similar between groups. Conclusion: There were no significant differences in effectiveness or tolerability for either escitalopram or vortioxetine in relieving depression symptoms. Both medications show promising potential effectiveness as alternatives to treat depression and may allow customizing therapy according to patient wish, current clinical circumstances.