Mann listed criteria for describing a depressed patient's response to antidepressant therapy. The author is from Columbia University College of Physicians and Surgeons in New York City.
Parameters:
(1) percent reduction in the clinical symptoms of depression
(2) follow-up
Percent Reduction in Baseline Symptom Severity
Term
0 - 24%
nonresponse
25 - 49%
partial response
50 - 99%
partial remission
100%
remission
where:
• The severity of depressive symptoms before and during antidepressant therapy is measured using a standard instrument for determining the clinical severity.
• The significance of a percent change depends on the starting level of depression. A 50% reduction for a person with very severe depression would be a moderate depression. A 50% reduction for a patient with mild depression might be less striking.
Follow-up
Term
new onset of symptoms after remission
relapse
long-term remission
recovery
new onset of symptoms while in recovery
recurrence
where:
• In the implementation I used the term relapse for patients who had not achieved remission but who had worsening of the depressive symptoms.
• The implementation could have been done by recording the symptom score over time, with remission indicated by a 0 symptom score. Recovery might be indicated by a 2 to 5 year period without depressive symptoms based on dates for severity scores.
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