Zeitschrift für Suchtverhalten, Therapie und Rehabilitation

Mirtazapine In Comorbid Major Depression And Alcohol Use Disorder: A Long-Term Follow-Up Study

Jack R Cornelius, Antoine B Douaihy, Duncan B Clark, Dennis C Daley, Tammy A Chung, Maribeth A Wesesky, D Scott Wood and Ihsan Salloum

Mirtazapine In Comorbid Major Depression And Alcohol Use Disorder: A Long-Term Follow-Up Study

Background/Objective: To date, pharmacotherapy trials of depressed alcoholics (MDD/AUD) have focused on SSRI medications, with disappointing results, so effective treatments for that comorbid population are lacking. Mirtazapine is an FDAapproved medication for treating MDD with a unique pharmacological profile whose efficacy may exceed that of SSRIs. Results from our recent open label study suggest robust acute phase efficacy for mirtazapine for decreasing both the depression and the drinking of that population. However, to date, no studies have evaluated the longer-term efficacy of mirtazapine in that population. We now report findings from a first long-term (two-year) naturalistic followup evaluation involving subjects from the acute phase trial. We hypothesized that the improvements would persist at follow-up.