New data suggest that Eli Lilly's Cymbalta (duloxetine HCl) 60 mg to 120 mg once daily delayed the onset of a new episode of depression in patients who had previously responded to the medication and who had recurrent depressive disorder, defined in the study as those patients who experienced at least three depressive episodes in the previous five years, compared with placebo (p < .001). Results from the 52- week maintenance phase of the longest controlled duloxetine study completed to date were presented at a meeting of a major scientific society.

Additionally, patients who were treated with duloxetine were less likely (p < .001) to experience a new episode of depression than those who received placebo (recurrence rates were 14.4 per cent vs. 33.1 per cent, respectively).

Previous research has shown that up to 85 per cent of patients with depression will experience depressive recurrences. The number of episodes, their duration and the presence of lingering depressive symptoms increase the risk of recurrence, or future episodes of depression.

In the placebo-controlled maintenance phase of the study that followed initial open-label acute and continuation treatment phases, the most common adverse events (those occurring in at least five per cent of patients in any treatment group) were headache, insomnia, dizziness, fatigue, back pain, common cold and flu.

Duloxetine is approved in the United States for the acute and maintenance treatment of major depressive disorder, the acute treatment of generalized anxiety disorder, and the management of diabetic peripheral neuropathic pain and fibromyalgia in adults aged 18 years and older.