The gastric emptying was evaluated with 99mTc-labeled solidphase meal in 11 patients who met DSM-III-R criteria for Major Depression, before and after treatment with fluoxetine (20 to 40mg/day) for nine weeks. After teatment the patients did not show increased velocity to reduction of half probe meal radioactivity in gastric area (T1/2). On the other hand, we observed two groups of patients: 1) The group that responded to antidepressant (Hamilton Depression Scale score reduction >50%), that showed a significant decrease of T1/2 (p<0,001) and 2) The group without response to treatment (Hamilton Depression Scale score reduction £50%) who did not show a significant decrease of T1/2 (p>0,10). We conclude that the modification in the gastric emptying velocity is related to the degree of response to antidepressant teatment, and velocity reduction or increase cannot be attributed to fluoxetine pharmachological activity over stomach but in fact to the impact of depression relief on gastric motility.
Depression; treatment; stomach; peristalsis
