To assess the efficacy of desvenlafaxine succinate (DVS) treatment in reducing symptoms of anxiety in patients with major depressive disorder (MDD).

Data were pooled from 7 randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled, 8-week DVS trials. All studies enrolled adult outpatients with DSM-IV MDD. Patients were excluded if an anxiety disorder was the primary diagnosis. Eligible patients were randomly assigned to treatment with 100–400 mg/d DVS (n=1186) or placebo (n=797) for 8 weeks. The primary efficacy outcomes in this analysis were the 17-item Hamilton Rating Scale for Depression (HAM-D17) item 10 (Anxiety/Psychic) and the Covi Anxiety total score (measured in 6 of the 7 trials). Patients with a Covi Anxiety score >9 or whose Covi score exceeded their Raskin Depression total score were not enrolled. Changes from baseline were analyzed using a mixed-effects model for repeated measures (MMRM) analysis, which included the fixed, categorical effects of treatment, protocol, visit, and the treatment-by-visit interaction, as well as the continuous, fixed covariate of baseline score. Secondary analyses evaluated changes from baseline to end point using analysis of covariance (ANCOVA, using last-observation-carried-forward [LOCF] and observed cases [OC] analyses).

Improvement from baseline at week 8, the study end point, was significantly greater for the DVS group than for the placebo group on both the HAM-D17 Anxiety/Psychic item and Covi Anxiety total scores in both the MMRM and ANCOVA (LOCF and OC) analyses.

In this pooled analysis, DVS was significantly superior to placebo in the treatment of anxiety symptoms associated with depression.