Archived Comments for:
Are old-old patients with major depression more likely to relapse than young-oldpatients during continuation treatment with escitalopram?
Gerard Byrne, University of Queensland, School of Medicine
20 January 2011
I think this is a useful study, with practical implications for clinicians, particularly geriatric psychiatrists. There are very few antidepressant trials with significant numbers of participants aged 75 years and over.
Three questions: 1) Did time to relapse vary as a function of the extent of white matter ischaemic changes? 2) What was the incidence of hyponatraemia in the two groups? 3) What efforts were made to assess for participant unblinding in the discontinuation phase?
Competing interests
I have served on advisory boards in relation to donepezil (Pfizer), galantamine (Janssen-Cilag), rivastigmine (Novartis) and memantine (Lundbeck). I have also been an advisor to the National Prescribing Service. I have research contracts with GSK and Medivation in relation to Alzheimer's disease clinical trials. I do not own shares in any pharmaceutical company. I have a research grant from the National Health & Medical Research Council in relation to depression and anxiety during cognitive aging and from the Alzheimer's Association (U.S.) in relation to synaptic function in AD.
Some questions
20 January 2011
I think this is a useful study, with practical implications for clinicians, particularly geriatric psychiatrists. There are very few antidepressant trials with significant numbers of participants aged 75 years and over.
Three questions: 1) Did time to relapse vary as a function of the extent of white matter ischaemic changes? 2) What was the incidence of hyponatraemia in the two groups? 3) What efforts were made to assess for participant unblinding in the discontinuation phase?
Competing interests
I have served on advisory boards in relation to donepezil (Pfizer), galantamine (Janssen-Cilag), rivastigmine (Novartis) and memantine (Lundbeck). I have also been an advisor to the National Prescribing Service. I have research contracts with GSK and Medivation in relation to Alzheimer's disease clinical trials. I do not own shares in any pharmaceutical company. I have a research grant from the National Health & Medical Research Council in relation to depression and anxiety during cognitive aging and from the Alzheimer's Association (U.S.) in relation to synaptic function in AD.