Pharmacological management of treatment-resistant depression.

Treatment-resistant depression might be considered as the failure of two families of antidepressant therapy given sequentially at sufficient dosage, for an adequate length of time and with continuous compliance. Patients with treatment-resistant depression should be assessed as though they were new referrals, and factors which may be contributing should be dealt with whenever possible. A sequence of therapies based on a tricyclic antidepressant and a monoamine oxidase inhibitor, each combined with putative adjuvant therapies, is proposed as a working model pending further studies and developments.