![]() Some patients who took the two-drug combination experienced restlessness. The excellent safety and tolerability profile of aripiprazole, as well as its efficacy, should support its use in primary care, with appropriate medical monitoring.” “By publishing our findings in The Lancet, we hope particularly to reach primary care physicians, who provide most of the treatment for depressed older adults. Reynolds III, MD, a geriatric psychiatrist at the University of Pittsburgh, the coordinating site for the study. “This study is a major advance in support of evidence-based care for older adults with depression,” said Charles F. The two-drug combination led to a remission of depression in 44 percent of the treatment-resistant patients, compared with only 29 percent of those who had received the placebo. Aripiprazole often is prescribed to treat schizophrenia and manic episodes associated with bipolar disorder. So for the second phase of the study, patients who initially did not respond to the venlafaxine continued to receive the drug along with aripiprazole or a placebo. The question we wanted to answer was whether there was anything else we could do for them.” “They may have a minimal response, but they’ll still be depressed. “We know that in older adults with depression, about half will not respond to medication,” Lenze said. About half of these patients still were clinically depressed after 12 weeks of treatment. But this research demonstrates that older adults do respond to depression therapy.”Įach study participant received an extended-release formulation of the antidepressant drug venlafaxine (brand name Effexor XR) for 12 weeks. “It’s important to treat older adults for depression, especially given that adults with late-life depression are at an increased risk of developing dementia. Mulsant, MD, a co-author of the study and a senior scientist at CAMH in Toronto. ![]() “This is a rare study because it looks at depression specifically in older adults,” said Benoit H. Patients also were treated at the University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine and at the Centre for Addiction and Mental Health (CAMH) in Toronto. Lenze, who directs the Healthy Mind Lab at Washington University School of Medicine, was the principal investigator in St. Further, the suicide rate among people over 75 is higher than in any other age group, and depression is a risk factor for dementia. The consequences are costly: Elderly patients with clinical depression use more health-care services, spending nearly twice as much on medical care as those without the disorder. Up to 90 percent did not receive necessary care, and 78 percent received no treatment at all. Even when a strategy works for patients in their 30s, it needs to be tested in patients in their 70s before it can be considered effective in older patients.”Ī 2007 study estimated that about 7 million of the nation’s 39 million older Americans had clinical depression. ![]() “There are age-related changes in the brain and body that suggest certain treatments may work differently, in terms of benefits and side effects, in older adults. Lenze, MD, a Washington University professor of psychiatry. “It’s important to remember that older adults may not respond to medications in the same way as younger adults,” said first author Eric J. The two-drug combination relieved depression in a significant number of patients and also reduced the likelihood that they would have suicidal thoughts. ![]() But the new study is the first to show that the same strategy also works in older adults. Previous research in younger patients with depression showed that adding a low dose of the antipsychotic drug aripiprazole (brand name Abilify) helped relieve symptoms of depression when an antidepressant alone wasn’t effective. The study was sponsored by the National Institute of Mental Health and is the largest of its kind ever undertaken in older people with depression. The findings, from a study of 468 people over age 60 and diagnosed with depression, are published in The Lancet. Louis indicate that adding a second drug - an antipsychotic medication - to the treatment regimen helps many of those patients. AMBIFY NOT WORKING TRIALBut results from a multicenter clinical trial that included Washington University School of Medicine in St. More than half of older adults with clinical depression don’t get better when treated with an antidepressant. ![]() Lenze led a multicenter study that found that adding a second drug can relieve depression in many older adults whose symptoms don’t resolve after treatment with a standard antidepressant drug. Lenze, MD, consults with patient Daniel Viehmann. ![]()
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