Patient Compliance to a New Enteric-Coated Weekly Formulation of Fluoxetine During Continuation Treatment of Major Depressive Disorder

Background: A new formulation of enteric-coatedfluoxetine given once weekly could be a useful option for thelong-term treatment of depression, but compliance to once-weeklyfluoxetine treatment has not been assessed.

Method: Patients were adults from the UnitedKingdom who had responded to fluoxetine treatment for a currentepisode of depression (DSM-IV criteria). In the baselineassessment phase, all patients (N = 117) were continued on 20 mgof open-label fluoxetine once daily for 4 weeks. In the follow-upphase, patients (N = 109) were randomly assigned to once-weeklyor once-daily fluoxetine for 3 months. Patient compliance wasmonitored by electronic devices during both phases of the study.

Results: Compliance to once-weekly fluoxetinetreatment was higher than compliance to once-daily fluoxetine(85.9% vs. 79.4%, respectively).

Conclusion: Once-weekly fluoxetine treatmentallows for new flexibility for both the clinician and thepatient, and this study alleviates the concern that patients willforget weekly doses.