background Patients with depressive disorders may present with typical psychomotor symptoms such as retardation and/or agitation. So far, however,the prognostic significance of these symptoms is unclear.
aim To present an overview in which we assess to what extent psychomotor symptoms can predict the effect of the type of treatment that patients with depressive disorders receive.
method We searched the literature using Medline.
results Psychomotor symptoms might predict that the patient will respond more favourably to treatment with dopaminergic antidepressants and broad-spectrum antidepressants (tcas) and particularly to electroconvulsive therapy than to ‘single-acting serotonergic antidepressants’ – but, so far, the scientific evidence for the foregoing is limited.
conclusion In our view psychomotor symptoms do have a predictive value with regard to treatment response, but further research is needed.