The pharmacological treatment of psychotic depression

Psychotic depression is a severe form of mood disorder characterized by delusions or hallucinations. Patients with psychotic depression have a considerably better response rate to the combination of a tricyclic antidepressant with an antipsychotic or the combination of serotonin selective reuptake inhibitors (SSRIs) with an antipsychotic, amoxapine, or electroconvulsive therapy. The SSRIs alone or atypical antipsychotics alone have yet to receive any widespread recognition, despite some recent studies which indicate that they might be recommended as first-line treatment in psychotic depression. In this paper, the studies about the pharmacological treatment of psychotic depression were reviewed.