Antidepressants Not Better than Placebo for Alzheimer’s
Posted by Arjun Vellayappan on Wed, Aug 10, 2011 @ 11:29 AM
A new study revealed that two commonly prescribed antidepressants for dementia patients are not better than a sugar pill for reducing depression symptoms in Alzheimer’s patients.
This study published in the Lancet tested Zoloft (sertraline) and Remeron (mirtazapine), which are both generic antidepressants that have generated more severe side effects than placebo. These side effects have led researchers to suggest that these types of medicine should be only used in dementia patients who cannot be treated in a simpler fashion.
The study only tested around 300 patients but was still the largest placebo-controlled trial to date on antidepressants in dementia patients.
More than one-fifth of the 35 million people around the world who have dementia have also been linked with depression symptoms, making this study immensely important. “Alan Manevitz, M.D., a psychiatrist at Lenox Hill Hospital, in New York City, agrees with the authors' conclusion that doctors should consider nondrug treatments before prescribing antidepressants to depressed dementia patients”[1].
This study is a key step forward yet it is surely not a final statement on the subject. It was a bit small and the findings weren’t diverse enough to apply to a large population of patients. Hopefully more progress will be made on this issue in the future.
[1] http://thechart.blogs.cnn.com/2011/07/19/for-alzheimer%E2%80%99s-patients-antidepressants-no-better-than-placebo/