Vortioxetine in Patients With Depression Coexisting With General Anxiety Disorder (GAD)

The Montgomery and Åsberg Depression Rating Scale (MADRS) is a 10-item rating scale designed to assess the severity of the symptoms in depressive illness and to be sensitive to treatment effects. Symptoms are rated on a 7-point scale from 0 (no symptom) to 6 (severe symptom). The total score of the 10 items ranges from 0 to 60, with higher values indicating worse outcome.

The HAM-A is an anxiety rating scale consisting of 14 items that assess anxious mood, tension, fear, insomnia, intellectual (cognitive) symptoms, depressed mood, behavior at interview, somatic (sensory), cardiovascular, respiratory, gastrointestinal, genitourinary, autonomic and somatic (muscular) symptoms. Each symptom is rated from 0 (absent) to 4 (maximum severity). Total scores range from 0 to 56 where <17 indicates mild severity, 18-24 mild to moderate severity and 25-30 moderate to severe. Total scores above 30 indicate very severe anxiety.

The HADS is a patient-rated scale designed to screen for anxiety and depressive states in medical patients. It consists of two sub-scales: the D-scale measures depression and the A-scale measures anxiety. Each sub-scale contains 7 items, and each item is rated from 0 (absent) to 3 (maximum severity). The score of each sub-scale ranges from 0 to 21.

The FAST is a valid and reliable instrument, easy to apply which requires a short period of time to administer. Evaluates functioning taking into account the last 15 days. It was developed for the clinical evaluation of the main difficulties presented by psychiatric patients, and has been validated in several languages for patients with bipolar disorder. The FAST scale consists of 24 items which allow the assessment of six specific areas of functioning: autonomy, occupational functioning, cognitive functioning, financial issues, interpersonal relationships and leisure time. Each item is rated on a 4-point scale from 0 (no difficulty) to 3 (severe difficulty). The items are summed to yield a total score ranging from 0 to 72 with higher scores reflecting more serious difficulties.

The Clinical Global Impression severity of illness (CGI-S) provides the clinician's impression of the patient's current state of mental illness. The clinician uses his or her clinical experience of this patient population to rate the severity of the patient's current mental illness on a 7-point scale ranging from 1 (normal - not at all ill) to 7 (among the most extremely ill patients).

The Clinical Global Impression - global improvement CGI-I provides the clinician's impression of the patient's improvement (or worsening). The clinician assesses the patient's condition relative to a baseline on a 7-point scale ranging from 1 (very much improved) to 7 (very much worse).

The original Q-LES-Q is a patient self-rated scale designed to measure the degree of enjoyment and satisfaction experienced by patients in various areas of daily life. It consists of 93 items to measure: physical health, feelings, work, household duties, school, leisure time activities, social relations, and general activities. Each item is rated on a 5-point scale ranging from 1 (very poor) to 5 (very good).