The effect of the time to remission on residual symptoms and functioning among depressive patients

•In this real world study, 46.7% depressed patients achieved remission following 8-12 weeks treatment and 83.6% patients remitted after 3 months.•The early remitters are younger and have less impairment in functioning and quality of life (QOL).•The functioning and QOL are associated with the remission of symptoms, but the time to remission does not affect future functioning and QOL.