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	Since this article does not have an abstract, we have provided the first 150 words of the full text and any section headings.

To the Editor: In a randomized, placebo-controlled trial of the preventive use of the SSRI escitalopram in poststroke depression, Dr Robinson and colleagues¹ classified the study by Rasmussen et al² in the group of trials that have failed to show a significant effect of SSRIs over placebo in preventing poststroke depression. This is not correct.

The study by Rasmussen et al² used the 6 depressive core items^3-4 on the HDRS. It demonstrated that the rate of clinical depression (a cutoff score of 9 or more on the 6-item HDRS subscale) was 28.1% for placebo and 11.5% for the SSRI sertraline over an observation period of 1 year (P = .02). Taking into account that the study by Robinson et al¹ used a rather low cutoff score on the 17-item HDRS, our results are similar. Robinson et al demonstrated that the rate of depression was 22.4% for placebo and 8.5% for . . . [Full Text of this Article]

Alice Rasmussen, MD
Anxiety Clinic
Rigshospitalet
Copenhagen, Denmark

Jamal A. Hanash, MD
hanash@dadlnet.dk
Liaison Psychiatric Clinic
Bispebjerg University Hospital
Copenhagen

Per Bech, MD
University of Copenhagen
Copenhagen

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