Patients with major depressive disorder (MDD) commonly have many gastrointestinal complaints. Gastrointestinal pain is classified into 2 categories: visceral and somatic pain. The main aim of this study is to compare somatic and visceral sensitivity between healthy people and pateints with MDD. These two sensitivities will be assessed by the 2 following tests: standardized rectal distension and Transdermal transcutaneous electric nerve stimulation. Thereafter, patients with MDD will be randomly allocated to escitalopram or reboxetine. After 6 weeks of treatment, somatic and visceral sensitivity will be reassessed.

Condition	Intervention	Phase
Major depression Pain Abdominal Pain	Drug: escitalopram (drug)reboxetine (drug)	Phase IV

Ages Eligible for Study:  18 Years   -   64 Years,  Genders Eligible for Study:  Both

Accepts Healthy Volunteers

Criteria

Inclusion Criteria:

• MDD according with DSM-IV-TR
• Hamilton depression scale > 21

Exclusion Criteria:

• history of gastrointestinal illness
• history of escitalopram, citalopram or reboxetine allergy.
• history of escitalopram, citalopram or reboxetine resistant depression.
• other axis I psychiatric disorder.
• a punctuation > 2 on the suicide item of the Ham-D.
• history of ECT during the past 6 months.
• pharmacolical failure of the present depressive episode.
• pregnancy or nursing.
• treatment with drugs that may interact with study medication.

Please refer to this study by ClinicalTrials.gov identifier  NCT00209807

Spain, Catalonia
      Hospital Universitari vall d''''Hebron, Barcelona,  Catalonia,  08036,  Spain

Study chairs or principal investigators

Casas Miguel, Prof.,  Principal Investigator,  Hospital University Vall d''''Hebron   

Study ID Numbers:  PFD-ESC
Last Updated:  September 20, 2005
Record first received:  September 13, 2005
ClinicalTrials.gov Identifier:  NCT00209807
Health Authority: Spain: Spanish Agency of Medicines
ClinicalTrials.gov processed this record on 2005-09-27