Expert consensus guidelines rely on a relevant methodological procedure complementary to based-evidence recommendations. They aim at offering support strategies derived from expert consensus for clinical situations where the levels of evidence are either absent or insufficient. Recommendations for resistant depressive disorders proposed by french association for biological psychiatry and fondamental foundation, were based on responses from 36 highly specialized experts in this field. They were invited to complete a comprehensive questionnaire with 118 issues. The questions raised covered a wide range of aspects from the evaluation of therapeutic resistance and clinical conditions increasing the risk for treatment failure to the adopted therapeutic strategies organized according the effects of previous treatment lines. Specific populations/situations especially including elderly, comorbidities (anxiety disorders, personality disorders and addictions) were also been studied through specific questions. Such recommendations are intended to substantially help the decision and therapeutic choice of clinician implied in the management of resistant depressive disorders in everyday clinical practice. We propose in this communication to compare the results of these recommendations with the various data from the evidence-based guidelines in order to demonstrate their complementarity for the management of resistant depressive disorders.Disclosure of interestThe authors have not supplied their declaration of competing interest.
Evidence-based guidelines for treating depressive disorders with antidepressants: A revision of the 2008 British Association for Psychopharmacology guidelines
