The Road to Recovery in MDD: From Partial Response to Remission and Beyond

While many patients with major depressive disorder (MDD) achieve symptomatic improvement with first-line therapy, partial response and persistent residual symptoms remain common—and clinically consequential. Anhedonia, anxiety, sleep disturbance, cognitive dysfunction, and low energy often linger despite treatment, increasing the risk of relapse, functional impairment, and reduced quality of life. Recognizing and systematically addressing these residual domains is essential to achieving true remission. This clinically focused session will equip psychiatric clinicians with practical strategies to detect partial treatment response using measurement-based care and targeted symptom assessment. Faculty will review the latest clinical evidence supporting adjunctive pharmacotherapies—including atypical antipsychotics and other emerging options—highlighting their efficacy across specific residual symptom clusters and discussing tolerability and safety considerations. Participants will develop patient-centered augmentation strategies that integrate shared decision-making, individualized risk–benefit analysis, and functional outcome goals. Emphasis will be placed on moving beyond symptom reduction toward durable remission and recovery.

Supported by an educational grant from Johnson & Johnson.